March 8, 2009
STATE COLLEGE, Pa. - The Purdue wrestling team took 10th place at the 2009 Big Ten Championships, hosted by Penn State University on Saturday and Sunday. The Boilermakers surpassed the 50-point mark for the second straight year, amassing 52 for the tournament and pushing past their 2008 total of 51.5.
Purdue's 52 team points were its most since 2004 as they finished 10th in the conference for the third straight season. It also marks just the fifth time in the last 15 seasons the Boilermakers have eclipsed the 50-point standard, including their second straight.
Fifth-seeded senior Jake Patacsil punched his ticket to the NCAA Championships to start Day 2, sticking Northwestern's No. 6 seed Andrew Nadhir in 4:25. Patacsil dominated the match from the get-go, rolling up a 9-0 lead with two takedowns and five back points before locking in a cradle and flattening his opponent. He closed out his final career Big Ten Championship, finishing fourth for the second consecutive year after a 12-3 loss to third-seeded Lance Palmer of Ohio State. Patacsil heads to the NCAA Championships for the third straight season, looking to earn All-America honors for the first time. His 3-2 tournament record pushes his season record to 32-8 and his career mark to 115-39, as he's now tied for third at Purdue in career victories, sharing the mark with former Boilermaker All-Americans Tony Vaughn and Ben Wissel.
Boilermaker sophomore Colton Salazar continued his Cinderella story in the early session, advancing to the third-place match with a 4-1 win over Indiana's third-seeded Kurt Kinser. Salazar snagged a takedown midway through the first period and rode out his opponent to build over 1:30 of riding time. A quick escape in the second period pushed his lead to 3-0 to start the second period, and neither wrestler would pick up a takedown in the final four minutes to leave the score close. Kinser's only point came on a stalling call late in the third, while Salazar grabbed one more point for riding time. Salazar's only two losses of the tournament came at the hands of Minnesota's fourth-seeded Tyler Safratowich as he fell to the Golden Gopher to take fourth place on the heels of a 7-2 defeat.
Sophomore Luke Manuel, the No. 5 seed at 165 pounds, opened the day with a 5-2 loss to sixth-seeded Dan Vallimont of Penn State. Vallimont scored two takedowns in the first period and rode those to victory and a spot in the third-place match. Manuel returned in the fifth-place bout for a rematch with Illinois' fourth-seeded Roger Smith-Bergsrud, defeating his Illini opponent for the second time in the championships, 3-1, to take fifth place. Manuel fended off a heavy series of shot for the first two periods, and after escaping to start the third, slipped a shot to Smith-Bergsrud's left leg and finished through a long scramble for the takedown.
Fellow sophomore Logan Brown started Sunday in similar fashion, dropping a 3-0 decision to fifth-seeded Patrick Bond of Illinois on an escape and two penalty points, and closed out the tournament in fifth place with a 10-4 winover Minnesota's fourth-seeded Gordon Bierschenk. Brown got on top early, taking Bierschenk down twice in the first two minutes and taking a 4-2 advantage. He added another takedown in the second frame to push his lead to 6-3, and snagged a fourth takedown in the final period en route to the victory. This marks his second straight fifth-place finish at the conference tournament, but he will need an at-large bid from the NCAA Division I Wrestling Committee to head to his second straight national championship.
Eighth-seeded junior heavyweight finished eighth to close out his season, suffering a 2-1 loss to Michigan's seventh-seeded Eddie Phillips in the seventh-place match. After a scoreless first period, Kasten built up more than a minute of riding time before surrendering a reversal to Phillips. Phillips rode Kasten throughout the second, and Kasten needed just under a minute to escape in the third frame to cap the scoring. Kasten tried to rally late with a series of takedown attempts, but couldn't finish as Phillips earned the win.
The University of Iowa won the Big Ten team title for the second straight year, completing the championships with 140. The University of Illinois was second with 113.5 points, and the University of Michigan was third with 92.5 points.
The Boilermakers await final NCAA Tournament rosters, which will be announced on Wednesday, March 11, after the NCAA Division I Wrestling Committee selects the final 52 at-large bids.