Five straight wins help Huskers take down Tigers
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BY KARL VOGEL / Lincoln Journal Star
Tom Osborne was in the sixth row Saturday night at the NU Coliseum, and Bo Pelini and Doc Sadler were watching from press row.
But the biggest cheers from a near-record crowd of 3,252 came for the dramatic and emotional victories that the Nebraska wrestling team posted in a five-match winning streak that carried the No. 2 Huskers to a 22-13 win against No. 11 Missouri.
Heavyweight Jon May, NU’s only senior, brought the crowd to its feet with a thrilling finish that gave him an upset of Mizzou’s 11th-ranked Mark Ellis.
May, ranked 20th, gave up an escape with 35 seconds left that tied the match 1-1. But just 11 seconds later, May got in close to Ellis’ waist and dragged him to the mat for a decisive takedown en route to a 3-2 victory.
That brought the crowd nearly to a fever pitch. Nebraska coach Mark Manning said that win and the energy boost were just what his team needed.
“It (the large crowd) was awesome ... it makes a big difference,” Manning said. “We knew there were a lot of matches where we thought we might be favored and there would be some toss-up matches, which that’s what it looked like.
“Jon May showed a lot of heart. He battled back and he doesn’t always do that.”
After Brandon Brown’s major-decision win at 174 pounds, Missouri’s Raymond Jordan tied the dual at 4-4 with a major decision against NU’s Vince Jones at 184.
Then Missouri’s Max Askren scored a late reversal and near-fall to eke out a hard-fought 13-11 win against Craig Brester at 197 that gave the Tigers their only lead of the night, 7-4, heading into the heavyweight match.
May said he felt no pressure to pull off an upset to help the team.
“We practice scenarios like that where you’re down with a short time left and you’ve gotta keep wrestling,” May said. “I knew that (Paul) Donahoe was coming up after me, and he got a big win, so I think that helped spark the team a little bit.”
Donahoe, the defending national champion at 125 pounds, kept things going with a technical- fall win, and Kenny Jordan, a junior college national champion last year, added a 3-1 sudden-victory decision at 133 that put the Huskers up 15-7.
Mike Rowe heightened the drama with an extra-time win at 141, and eighth-ranked Jordan Burroughs sealed NU’s victory with a 15-7 major decision against Missouri’s 16th-rated Josh Wagner at 149.
The Tigers recorded hard-fought wins in the final two matches, including second-ranked Nicholas Marable’s 3-2 overtime win against No. 9 Steven Dwyer at 165.
Manning said the rough-and-tumble nature of the individual matches revealed some character in the 11-2 Huskers, but also showed there was some important work ahead for the nation’s No. 2 team, with duals against nationally ranked Oklahoma (at home Feb. 10), Hofstra and Iowa State still on the schedule.
Reach Karl Vogel at 473-7432 or kvogel@journalstar.com.
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