 "Photo: Erin Starkebaum")
The situation Saturday wasn’t new to NU wrestler Stephen Dwyer.
Twice before he had taken the mat in the finals of the Big 12 Conference Championships. And twice before he had forced a sudden-victory period only to walk off empty-handed as the ref raised his opponent’s hand.
But while the setting Saturday in Norman, Okla., wasn’t different, the result was.
Rather than suffer his third straight finals defeat, the senior from Rockton, Ill., claimed a conference title by beating Oklahoma State’s Mike Benefiel, 9-5. The match came after Dwyer defeated Iowa State’s Duke Burk, 2-1, in the semifinal.
“It felt really good to finally win,” Dwyer said. “As time goes on, I felt like I really needed to win this year, this being my last year and everything.”
Dwyer added that the success against so many top opponents gives him more confidence heading into the NCAA Championships March 18-20 in Omaha. Dwyer, currently ranked fourth nationally, has posted a 5-3 record this season against seven wrestlers currently in the Top 10. That familiarity and success should bode well for him, he said.
“I think it just makes me realize that I really can push for a national title,” Dwyer said. “I’ve gotten a good chance to see a lot of the top competition in the country.”
Unfortunately for coach Mark Manning and the rest of the Huskers, Dwyer’s conference championship at 174 pounds was the only individual title won by a Nebraska wrestler.
After being conference co-champions last year, the team’s last-place finish in Norman wasn’t what Manning was looking for.
“It’s obviously not what we want, not where we want,” Manning said. “We were right there. We didn’t knock the door down.”
Craig Brester, who was fighting an illness, was runner-up at 197 pounds. He lost a tight match against Iowa State’s Jake Varner, whom he beat in the conference finals last year. The two met in the NCAA finals last year and will be favored to have another rematch in Omaha.
Nebraska also grabbed two third-place finishes, adding a fourth automatic NCAA qualifier to their ranks. Heavyweight Tucker Lane, who had already received an NCAA bid, defeated Oklahoma’s Nathan Fernandez twice to place third in his weight class.
But perhaps most impressive for the Huskers was the performance of freshman 184-pounder Josh Ihnen. Ihnen lost in the semifinals by one point, but rebounded to beat Oklahoma’s Erich Schmidtke in the consolation round to place third and guarantee a spot at the NCAA Championships with teammates Brester, Dwyer and Lane. It was a clutch performance, Manning said.
“I’m really proud of Josh,” Manning said. “Josh is really getting a lot better, and he punched his ticket to Omaha, obviously. He can get All-American as a freshman.”
However, Ihnen was the only Husker on the NCAA bubble who clinched a spot Saturday. David Klingsheim, Tyler Koehn and Mike Koehnlein all failed to wrap up an invitation and will have to wait until at-large bids are handed out on Tuesday to know their fates.
Koehnlein, who upset Iowa State’s Dalton Jensen in his final regular season match and moved into the nation’s Top 20, lost both his matches by at least eight points to finish last at 141 pounds and put his NCAA hopes in jeopardy. Klingsheim, 125 pounds, and Koehn, 157 pounds, both placed fourth out of five competitors in each weight class.
James Nakashima, 165 pounds; C.J. Napier, 133 pounds; and Dustin Payne, 149 pounds, all went winless and placed last.
But even with that disappointment, the day belonged to Dwyer. He said his conference championship ranks second only to the All-American honors he garnered last year.
For Manning, Dwyer’s win shows that he is ready to make a statement and compete for a national title.
“He was a really dominant wrestler (Saturday),” Manning said. “He’s one of the top guys in his weight class, and in two weeks he’s got an opportunity to show that.”
Dwyer is hoping to knock both his conference title and All-American honors down on his list of accomplishments with a national championship.
“I know that crazy things happen every year at nationals,” Dwyer said. “I just want to make sure that I come away with accomplishing something I can feel good about for the rest of my life.”
mitchsmith@dailynebraskan.com
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