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Varner Wins 100th, ISU Wrestlers Are In Second
12.29.2009 | Men's Wrestling
EVANSTON, Ill. ? Iowa State's Jake Varner reached a milestone Monday afternoon that only the best in Cyclone history have ever reached. Varner notched his 100th win as an Iowa Stater to advance to the Midlands Championships quarterfinal round. Varner and the Cyclone squad's efforts place it in second place with 42.5 points heading into the second session of the Midlands, which begins at 7 p.m. Iowa leads with 46.5 and Missouri is in third place (41.5).
“Winning 100 matches is a strong statement of consistency throughout your career,” Iowa State head coach Kevin Jackson said. “We'll congratulate (Jake) as a team prior to this upcoming session. Hopefully that will motivate everyone to wrestle with the same type of intensity that Jake (Varner) does.”
The three-time NCAA finalist Varner took down Illinois' Patrick Bond and then it was over. With the score tied at zero, Varner put the Illini wrestler on his back and stuck him in 2:37. To begin the tournament, Varner scored a similar pin over American's Kenny Clessas in 1:24. Varner became the 33rd member of ISU's “100-Win Club”.
Out of the 10 ISU wrestlers designated as "scorers" for the Midlands tournament format, eight are in the championship bracket and two have dropped to consolation action.
“We've got guys in positions to advance out there in the championship rounds,” Jackson said. “These are the money rounds. We have some guys that are wrestling really well. We'll see what happens this evening.”
Nipping at Varner's heels is his teammate, heavyweight David Zabriskie. The Cyclone two-time All-American notched his 99th career victory with his decision of Illinois' Marty Smith, 12-5. Zabriskie scored his first win of the day with decision of Iowa's Blake Rasing, 3-2.
Junior two-time All-American Jon Reader wrestled his way into the quarterfinals with two bonus-point victories. The Davison, Mich., native major decisioned Josh Terrell of Dubuque, 16-4, and then proceeded to notch a technical fall over Pitt's Karl DeCiantis, 18-2 (5:21).
Senior Nick Fanthorpe cruised into the second session of the Midlands off two strong performances in the opening stanza. The 133-pounder followed a 14-3 major decision of Stanford's Justin Paulsen with a stick of Joey Lazor of UNI. Fanthorpe pinned the Panther in 6:05. The All-American will face eighth-seeded Billy Ashnault of Rutgers in the quarterfinals.
Fellow seniors Mitch Mueller and Duke Burk also advanced to the quarterfinals. Mueller scored victories over Maryland's Jon Kohler (13-5) and Andrew Nadhir of Northwestern (7-2). Burk won against Missouri's Todd Porter (6-1) and Ben Jordan (Wisconsin-Unatt.), by a score of 7-6.
Redshirt freshman Andrew Long also got involved in the pinning business for Iowa State. After winning by forfeit to start the tournament, the ISU 125-pounder scored a fall over Seth Wright of New Mexico-Hilands in 3:27.
Making his debut of the season while wrestling unattached, ISU freshman Boaz Beard knocked off returning NCAA All-American Josh Patterson of Binghamton. Beard controlled the match en route to a 7-4 decision. Beard followed his performance with another upset victory against No. 10 seed, David Craig of Lehigh. The Cyclone freshman controlled the match for a 10-3 decision.
Midlands action continues this evening with the second session of wrestling beginning at 7 p.m. in Welsh-Ryan Arena.
Click the video slideout tab to access the full results (.PDF) of the first session. Follow along with the Cyclone action on the Live States page here.
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