ISU Second; All Four to Semis

AUBURN HILLS, Mich. -- Iowa State is in second place, 3.5 points behind favored Minnesota after all four Cyclone quarterfinalists advanced to tonight's semifinals at The Palace at Auburn Hills. Trent (157) and Travis (165) Paulson, Jake Varner (184) and Kurt Backes (197) will wrestle in tonight's semifinal session, which starts at 6 p.m. CDT. ISU's Nick Fanthorpe (125), Cyler Sanderson (149) and David Zabriskie (HWT) are one victory away from attaining All-America status in the consolation bracket. Overall, Iowa State was 10-2 in the afternoon round. Tonight's action will be telecast on ESPNU and online at ESPN360.com and cyclones.com.

Minnesota, which has four wrestlers in tonight's semifinals and three in the consolation bracket, leads the team race with 66 points. Iowa State has 62.5 points. Three of Minnesota's semifinalsts are seeded higher than their upcoming opponent. Iowa State is favored in just one semifinal match this evening.

Oklahoma State charged through the quarterfinal matches to take third place with 48.5 points. Four Cowboys are alive in the championship bracket, with one in the consolations. Missouri and Hofstra round out the top five with 44.5 and 41 points, respectively. The Tigers have one wrestler, Ben Askren, in the semifinals, while three are in the consolations. Hofstra has three on the championship side and two working through the wrestlebacks.

“We've done so far what we have to do,” ISU head wrestling coach Cael Sanderson said. “At this point it obviously comes down to winning those semifinal matches tonight. Our guys wrestling back, Fanthorpe, Sanderson and Zarbriskie, are in a groove now. I think they have adjusted to being here and feel good about how they are wrestling.”

Top-seeded Trent Paulson advanced to the semi-finals at 157 pounds with a 2-1 decision over unseeded Josh Zupancic of Stanford. The victory secures Paulson All-American status for the third time in his career. The match remained scoreless until the start of the second period when the two-time Cyclone All-American scored an escape and was awarded a point for Zupancic's stalling. The two second-period points were enough for Paulson to make his second NCAA semifinal appearance. The senior is now 27-4 this season and holds a career mark of 113-20.

“He (Zupancic) was not wrestling to win, he was wrestling to make it close,” Paulson said. “Coach told me to keep up the offense and (Zupancic) got a stalling call against him that he deserved. We would start in the center of the mat and two seconds later he would be out on the edge. It was very frustrating, but you have to stay totally focused and keep after it and that is what I did.”

In tonight's semifinal match up, Trent Paulson will square off against Mike Poeta, the fifth seed from Illinois. The two collided for the Midlands Championships in late December with Poeta winning the match by a 9-8 decision.

Travis Paulson also punched his ticket to the semifinals with a 5-1 decision over intra-state foe, No. 5 Nick Baima of Northern Iowa. Paulson, seeded fourth, scored early with a takedown and shut the door on the Panther with an escape and a takedown. The victory was Paulson's fourth over Baima this season. With the win, Paulson secures All-America status for the third time. Going into the semifinals, the senior has a 27-5 record and is 105-30 in his ISU career.

Travis Paulson's semifinal opponent is no stranger as he will wage battle once again against two-time defending NCAA champion, Johny Hendricks of Oklahoma State. It will be the fourth meeting between these two decorated wrestlers and Hendricks has won each meeting by a single point.

“I don't know how many times I have wrestled him, but every time it has been close,” Paulson said. “My best defense is my offense and I will work to keep the pressure on him.”

Varner, the sixth-seed at 184 pounds, attained All-American status with his 12th pin of the season, a stick of Cornell's Joshua Arnone in 1:54. In his rookie season, Varner has posted a record of 28-6 and is the first freshman to advance to the NCAA semifinals since head coach Cael Sanderson in 1999.

“If you aren't here to win, you don't belong here,” Varner said. “I really appreciated the support of our fans here and their enthusiasm gets me excited.”

Varner will have his third meeting with Minnesota's second-seeded Roger Kish in tonight's semifinal bout. Kish defeated Varner both times.

“Kish is a smart wrestler,” Varner said. “I know it will be a tough match.”

Backes, seeded ninth at 197 pounds, became ISU's fourth semifinalist, registering a 5-3 win over unseeded Nick Roy of Michigan. Backes scored a takedown just eight seconds into the match. Backes held a 2-1 advantage over the Wolverine until Roy evened the score, 3-3 with a takedown. An escape and 2:09 worth of riding time made the Neshanic Station, N.J., native an All-American for the second time and earned the senior his first trip to a semis. The win gives Backes a 27-6 record this season. His career marks stands at 108-30.

“I knew coming out that I was going to make an offensive move right away,” Backes said. “If you get a takedown in that situation it can change the whole tempo of the match. I was able to ride him (Roy) out in the second period and that gave me an advantage. The road to get here is tough, but I knew I would win.”

Backes' semifinal opponent will be the fourth-seed Phil Davis of Penn State. Davis was last year's runner-up at the NCAA Championships at 197 pounds.

A trio of Cyclone redshirt freshmen--Fanthorpe, Sanderson and Zabriskie--continue to work their way though the consolation brackets and are only one win shy of All-American status. Fanthorpe dealt No. 8 Gabriel Flores of Illinois a 5-3 overtime decision. The match was tied 3-3 at the conclusion of regulation and Fanthrope scored a takedown 25 seconds into overtime for the victory. In his second match of the session, Fanthorpe dominated Penn State's Mark McKnight with a 16-3 major decision. Fanthorpe blew open the match by scoring a takedown and a three-point nearfall to take an 8-3 lead midway through the bout. Sanderson rolled with a 5-2 decision over North Dakota State's Ryan Adams and came unleashed in his second match of the day, registering a 17-3 major decision against Purdue's Jake Patcsil. Zabriskie did not surrender a single offensive point throughout his two consolation bouts. He opened with an 8-1 victory over Rashard Goff of Cleveland State and then tallied a 7-3 decision of Colton Nichols of Cal-State Bakersfield.

Nick Gallick and Mitch Mueller were eliminated from the tournament with losses at 133 and 141 pounds, respectively. Gallick bowed out after falling 8-2 to Old Dominion's Christian Staylor after beginning the tournament with back-to-back pins. The Tucson, Ariz., native ends his rookie season with a record of 29-9. Mueller, who bounced back from a dislocated elbow injury Feb. 9 to qualify for the NCAA championships, fell at the hands of Northern Iowa's C.J. Ettelson, 5-0. The Iowa City native concludes initial season with an 18-16 record.

Team Scoring
Place	Team	Points	Wrestlers in Championships (Consolations)
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10	Minnesota Iowa State Oklahoma State Missouri Hofstra Penn State Iowa Northwestern Wisconsin Michigan	66 62.5 48.5 44.5 41.0 39.5 37.0 34.5 31.5 29	4(3) 4(3) 4(1) 1(3) 3(2) 2(2) 2(1) 2(2) 1(3) 2(3)

Scoring for tonight (excluding bonus points):
Semifinal winners - 7
Consolation winners - 3.5

Players Mentioned

Kurt Backes

Nick Fanthorpe

Nick Gallick

Mitch Mueller

Travis Paulson

Trent Paulson

Cyler Sanderson

Jake Varner

David Zabriskie

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