March 21, 2008
ST. LOUIS, Mo. - Purdue wrestlers Jake Patacsil and Luke Manuel fell just shy of All-America status at the NCAA Championships, hosted by the University of Missouri and the St. Louis Sports Commission at the Scottrade Center on Friday. Both Boilermaker grapplers fought to reach the fifth-round of the consolation brackets, but were ousted there to conclude the Old Gold and Black's contention at the national tournament.
The Boilermakers wrap up the NCAA Championships with 14.5 points, nearly doubling their total from the 2007 championships. Their final national placing will be determined tomorrow with the conclusion of the championships.
A junior, Patacsil finished the tournament with a 3-2 record and one round short of the top-eight placers at 149 pounds. He concludes his junior season at 30-10 and has solidified his spot on several of Purdue's career record lists. After racking up a school-record 226 back points this season, he sits on top of the career back-point record list with 510 in his first three years as a Boilermaker. He's also tied for fourth all-time with 36 reversals, sits 11th with 20 career falls and is 13th in career winning percentage with a mark of .726 (82-31).
Patacsil started the second day of the championships in similar fashion to the first, rolling up Maryland's Eric Medina in a 17-0 technical fall. The eighth-seeded, 149-pound Boilermaker took Medina down in the first and turned him for 10 back points and a 12-0 lead. Patacsil took the down position in the second and quickly reversed Medina and tilted him up for three more nearfall points and his 14th technical fall of the season.
Patacsil rolled to the evening session with a dominant 15-2 win over Indiana's Kurt Kinser, racking up 10 more back points in the victory. The Boilermaker scored the first takedown and tilted Kinser for the early 5-0 lead before surrendering a reversal and then escaping to end the first period at 6-2. Starting on bottom, Patacsil reversed Kinser and quickly began turning him again, tilting Kinser for a pair of three-point nearfalls as he ran away with the major decision.
Patacsil's trip towards the podium would end there as he met up with 2006 NCAA 149-pound Champion Dustin Schlatter of Minnesota and suffered a 4-1 defeat. Schlatter reversed Patacsil in the second period, and after riding him out, took him down in the third to solidify the win.
Manuel opened Friday with a win in the 165-pound wrestlebacks, stonewalling West Virginia's Donnie Jones in a 4-0 decision. After a scoreless first period, Manuel rode Jones throughout the second and grabbed all four of his points in the third. Manuel escaped, took Jones down and rode him to the riding time point for the win. The Purdue freshman followed with a marathon match against 12th-seeded Jarrod King of Edinboro, where Manuel outlasted his foe in a double-overtime tie-break. Neither grappler scored a takedown in the match, but after both scored a trio of escapes Manuel piled up more riding time than King in the tie-break periods, earning him the win.
The Cinderella story hit midnight for Manuel, as the Boilermaker freshman had his improbable late-season run ended just short of a trip to the championship platform. Manuel worked his way into his second straight overtime match of the tournament, but came out on the wrong end this time suffering a 3-1 sudden-victory loss to 10th-seeded Mike Cannon of American.
Purdue's 165-pound backup for most of the season, Manuel was thrown into the starting lineup the week of the Big Ten Championships and took third place there to earn an automatic trip to nationals. He finishes his season at 29-9, with an outstanding .763 win percentage. He surrendered just 19 takedowns in 38 matches on the year.
Purdue 184-pound rookie A.J. Kissel was the first Boilermaker bounced from the tournament on Friday, dropping a 7-4 decision at the hands of West Virginia's Kurt Brenner in the third-round of consolation matches. Kissel finished his year with a single-season school record 19 falls, which also ranks him 12th on the Boilermakers' career list.
The Boilermakers' 197-pound freshman, Logan Brown, followed Kissel out of the championship, suffering a 10-0 major decision to 12th-seeded Joe Rovelli of Hofstra. Rovelli took control of the match early and Brown was never able to get the upperhand.
Final results and team scores will be posted upon the tournament's conclusion on Saturday. For further coverage of the NCAA Championships, visit www.ncaasports.com.