Gomez, Jones each take third to lead MSU at Big Tens

Four Spartans earn automatic bids to the NCAA Championships

ANN ARBOR, Mich. - Franklin Gomez (133) and Anthony Jones Jr. (157) each went 2-0 on Sunday and each took home third place at the Big Ten Wrestling Championships in Ann Arbor. As a team, the Spartans finished in seventh place with 68.5 points. With their finishes in the tournament, Gomez, David Cheza, Jones, and Ian Hinton all earned berths in the NCAA Championships. Jones and Hinton clinched their spots in the NCAA Championships with their finishes on Sunday.

"We wrestled very, very hard as a team this weekend and it was a very successful tournament for us in a lot of ways," said MSU head coach Tom Minkel. "Anthony Jones was kind of our surprise wrestler of the weekend and he was just stellar."

In the consolation semifinal at 133 pounds, Franklin Gomez handily defeated No. 8 seed Akif Eren of Purdue and earned a spot in the third place match with an 11-1 major decision.

In the third-place bout, Gomez met Wisconsin's Tyler Graff, the fourth-seed, where he got out to an early 4-1 lead after the first period on the Badger. Gomez got another takedown in the second stanza and Graff got two escapes to make the score 6-3. Gomez clinched the dual in the third period with another takedown, an escape and then picked up one point with the riding time advantage to take home third place.
"Franklin gives us his best effort day-in and day-out and worked his way back into third place," Minkel said. "He'll be in contention in two weeks for a national title."

After upsetting No. 3 seed Kurt Kinser of Indiana on Saturday, Jones met Kinser again in the consolation semifinal. On the line was a bid to the NCAA Championships as only the top-four finishers at 157 pounds automatically qualify.

Jones struck early in Sunday's rematch, getting a takedown in the first 30 seconds of the bout, but Kinser fought back to tie the score at two heading into the third period. Jones got an escape to start the third period and was then hit with a stalling call in the closing seconds, tying the score at three and forcing overtime. With less than 15 seconds remaining in overtime, Jones got the winning takedown - and an automatic berth in the NCAA Championships.

In the third-place bout, Jones met Iowa's fourth-seeded Jake Kerr where Jones struck first with a takedown 10 seconds into the dual. Kerr got an escape in the first and then tied the score at two with another escape early in the second period. With Kerr leading 4-3 at the start of the third period, Jones got a quick escape to again tie the match. Jones nearly got the win in the final seconds with a near takedown, but the two went to overtime, tied at four.

In the overtime, Jones again showed his quick-strike ability - ending the match with a takedown just over 10 seconds into the sudden-victory session. The win gave Jones third place and made him 3-0 in sudden-victory bouts in the tournament.

"It feels great," Jones said. "I just have to thank God and I trusted in my abilities. I knew that a lot of the matches I lost during the year were by only one or two points and I used that as motivation."

At 174 pounds, seventh-seeded Ian Hinton fell to Michigan's No. 8 seed Justin Zeerip, 2-0, in the consolation semifinal. Hinton took on No. 2 Luke Manuel in the fifth-place match where Manuel took at 1-0 lead with an escape early in the third period and ended up taking the dual, 4-0.

In the 184 consolation semifinal, Nick Palmieri fell to No. 4 Mike Pucillo of Ohio State - setting up a meeting with fifth-seeded Travis Rutt of Wisconsin for the final automatic berth in the NCAA Championships at 184 pounds. The match was scoreless after the first period but a quick move by Rutt early in the second led to a pin, and victory for Rutt.

Jones and Palmieri were the only unseeded wrestlers to compete in the finals, third-place or fifth-place matches on Sunday.

After falling in the consolation semifinal at 149 pounds to No. 3 Kyle Ruschell of Wisconsin, 8-1, David Cheza battled No. 7 seed Mario Mason of Minnesota fifth-place bout. Mason got the only point of the match, an escape, through the first two periods. Cheza then tied the score with an escape less than 10 seconds into the third period. In the third, the two wrestled evenly until Mason scored a takedown with 10 seconds left to get the win, 3-1, and take home fifth place.

Brenan Lyon (125), Dan Osterman (141), Kyle Bounds (165) and Alan O'Donnell (285) were all in action on Sunday and each took home eighth place for MSU.

The NCAA Championships will take place March 18-20 in Omaha, Neb. Those wrestlers that did not earn automatic bids will have the opportunity to get one of the 46 at-large invites, which will be announced March 10 at 6:00 p.m. EST