January
4, 2003
COLLEGIATE WRESTLING-
Northern Illinois University at # 5 Ohio State University / Buckeye Duals
/ at Columbus, OH / OSU's St. John Arena / Non-conference match / Saturday
/ January 4, 2003.
FINAL SCORE: NORTHERN ILLINOIS 20, #5 OHIO STATE 20 NIU
125: Marlon Felton (NIU) pinned Nathan Costello (OSU), 4:25
133: Sam Hiatt (NIU) decisioned Jesse Leng (OSU), 3-2
141: #18 Jeff Ratliff (OSU) major decisioned Josh Wooton (NIU), 14-3
149: Josh Daugherty (OSU) decisioned Oliver Vazquez (NIU), 8-3
157: #2 Scott Owen (NIU) won by tech. fall over Jason Barnett (OSU), 18-1
165: #6 John Clark (OSU) major decisioned Jeremy Benesh (NIU), 18-6
174: Bill Lowney (NIU) decisioned Anthony Magistrelli (OSU), 3-2
184: Nick Stepanovich (OSU) decisioned Andy Hamelet (NIU), 5-3
197: James Oliva (NIU) decisioned #6 Anton Talamantes (OSU), 9-7
HWT: #3 Tommy Rowlands (OSU) pinned Seth Livingston (NIU), 6:21
RECORDS TO DATE: NIU
now 5-3 overall, Ohio State now 0-1 overall
NEXT HUSKIE
MEET: Saturday, January 4 --- NIU vs. UT-Chattanooga, Columbus, OH, 2:10
p.m.
Complete
Buckeye Duals Results
HUSKIE WRESTLING UPSETS FIFTH-RANKED OHIO STATE AT BUCKEYE DUALS
COLUMBUS, OH - Not
everyone is Columbus is celebrating. On Friday night the Ohio State University
football team won its first national championship in 34 years, but on
Saturday (January 4), the wrestling squad could not carry the momentum.
By virtue of Scott Owen's technical fall at 157 pounds, the Northern Illinois
University wrestling team defeated fifth-ranked Ohio State in the first
match of the Buckeye Duals.
Both teams finished
with 20 points, forcing the decision to go to a tiebreaker. After the
schools deadlocked on number of wins (five) and pins (one), the outcome
was determined by technical falls. Owen (Carlsbad, NM), ranked second
in the country, defeated Jason Barnett 18-1 to give the Huskies the edge.
"This is probably
the biggest win of my coaching career at Northern Illinois," NIU
mat boss Dave Grant said. "I've very proud of the guys. The whole
year our goals has been to come together as a team and with this win we're
starting to take shape."
While Owen's match
determined the winner of the dual meet, Northern Illinois would not have
had a chance to win had it not been for the James Oliva's (Bartlett /
Streamwood) victory at 197 pounds. The 5-foot-10 senior defeated sixth-ranked
Anton Talamantes, 9-7, giving the Huskies a 20-14 advantage. Third-ranked
Tommy Rowlands pinned heavyweight Seth Livingston (Bloomington) 6:51 into
the match, forcing the tiebreaker.
Equaling Livingston's
fall on the Northern Illinois side was senior Marlon Felton (Kankakee)
in the first bout of the day. The 125 pounder pinned Nathan Costello at
the 4:25 mark of the match to give the Huskies a 6-0 lead. Sam Hiatt (DeKalb)
defeated Jesse Leng at 133 pounds to push the NIU advantage to 9-0.
From there two teams
traded victories, starting with Owen's technical fall. John Clark posted
an 18-16 major decision over Jeremy Benesh (Oregon) at 165 before Bill
Lowney (Appleton, WI / Freedom) prevailed 3-2 against Anthony Magistrelli
in the 174 pound match. Nick Stepanovich closed the gap to 17-14 with
a 5-3 decision over Andreas Hamelet (Lake Villa / Grayslake) before Oliva
came through with the upset at 197 pounds.
"The guys did
a great job," Grant added. "It's a huge win, to beat the fifth-ranked
team at home. The key was JD (Oliva) winning the match at 197, he basically
out-gutted the guy."
The Huskies are off
for the second round of the Buckeye Duals, returning for a 2:10 p.m. (EST)
match with the University of Tennessee-Chattanooga before taking on Indiana
University at 5:20 p.m.
-Copy by Michael Smoose
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