In what has seemingly become a weekly occurrence, another UW athletic squad has performed very well in their respective national tournament. This time, the UW wrestling team finished 13th overall in the NCAA championships and one Badger, junior Craig Henning, finished second after nearly upsetting No. 1 ranked Trent Paulson of Iowa State.
Henning improved upon his eighth place finish from a year ago, but the road to the championship was difficult. Henning had to defeat three seeded wrestlers in No. 10 Moza Fay, No. 2 Brian Smith and No. 3 James Strouse to get to the 157-lb. national championship match. In the final 14 seconds, Paulson was able to notch the takedown and take the lead at 6-4, a lead he would never relinquish. Henning recorded an escape with five seconds remaining but fell short, losing the match 6-5. Henning earned All-American honors for the second season in a row as he found himself in a back and forth match against No. 1 Paulson.
UW senior Tyler Turner finished his Badger career on a solid note finishing sixth in the nation and earning All-American honors. Turner did battle against Harvard's No. 6 J.P. O'Connor in the fifth place match after falling short to freshman Lance Palmer of Ohio State in the consolation semifinal. In the fifth place match, O'Connor defeated Turner 6-4 for the second time this season; O'Connor beat Turner earlier in the season by a score of 6-1 in the Lonestar Duals.
UW freshman Kyle Ruschell advanced out of the quarterfinals and then faced C.J. Ettelson of Northern Iowa. Ruschell took the riding time he had accumulated over the match and used that to help him win 5-4 and move on in the tournament.
UW sophomore Dallas Herbst notched his 17th pin of the season against Cornelius Murray of the Virginia Military Institute. Herbst then matched up against Jason Trulson of Arizona State and dominated him with a final score of 13-0.
Another Badger freshman fared well in his debut championships as Trevor Brandvold beat Ryan Burk of Northern Illinois to move on in the consolation bracket. He then battled No. 3 Mike Pucillo of Ohio State. He wrestled Pucillo tough but in the end Pucillo was able to put Brandvold away, winning 7-3.
UW junior Collin Cudd lost in the consolation bracket as he fell 5-1 to Javier Maldonado of UT-Chatanooga. Zach Tanelli fell short losing 9-7 to Dan Mitcheff of Kent State in the 133-lb. division. Rounding out the UW grapplers was junior Matt Maciag, and sophomore Kyle Massey. Maciag lost 6-3 in the 174-lb. division and Massey also fell 8-6 in the Heavyweight division.
—uwbadgers.com
conributed to this report.
