Black Earns UW's Lone Seed In NCAA Brackets
March 18, 2003 | Wrestling
Wisconsin senior Tony Black, making his first trip to the NCAA Championships, earned the Badgers' lone seed according to brackets released by the NCAA Monday, March 17.
Black will lead a contingent of eight UW wrestlers at this year's NCAA Wrestling Championships, held March 20-22 at Kemper Arena in Kansas City, Mo. Wisconsin's results at the national meet will be available on UWBADGERS.com.
Black (22-8 overall) is seeded 10th overall at 125 pounds and will wrestle Air Force's Heath McKim in his first-ever national tournament match. McKim is positioned at No. 14 in TheWrestlingMall.com's national rankings for the week of March 12.
Challenging Intro To NCAA For Clum And Gutnik
Two of Wisconsin's redshirt freshmen, Tom Clum and Ed Gutnik, will face the No. 1 seeds in their respective weight classes for an 'initiation by fire' to the NCAA mats.
Clum (16-10 overall) is slated to wrestle Oklahoma State's Johnny Thompson in his first match of the 133-pound bracket, while Gutnik (17-13 overall) will face Eric Larkin of Arizona State at 149 pounds. Both Thompson and Larkin are ranked No. 1 nationally by InterMat for March 12.
No Easy Task For Remaining Badgers
While not pitted against top seeds, Wisconsin's five other NCAA qualifers will certainly earn their laurels in Thursday morning's first NCAA session.
Starting at 141 pounds, UW's Tyler Laudon (18-13 overall) will meet No. 5 seed Aaron Holker of Iowa State. Holker is ranked sixth nationally by InterMat.
UW teammate Brady Reinke (10-13 overall) drew No. 2 seed Chris Pendelton of Oklahoma State. Pendelton is ranked second in the nation by both InterMat and TWM.com.
Wisconsin team co-captain Ralph DeNisco, who placed sixth at the Big Ten Championships despite withdrawing with a medical forfeit due to a sore knee, will wrestle Oklahoma's Josh Lambrecht, a No. 6 seed. DeNisco received a No. 10 ranking from TWM.com, while Lambrecht is ranked sixth nationally.
At 197 pounds, UW's redshirt freshman Lee Kraemer (8-15) is scheduled to wrestle No. 3 seed Justin Ruiz of Nebraska. With a winless Big Ten dual record, Kraemer raised eyebrows at Big Tens after pinning Indiana's Pat DeGain (ranked 12th) en route to a sixth-place finish. Ruiz is currently ranked third by InterMat and fourth by TWM.com.
Completing Wisconsin's elite eight at the NCAA Championships, UW heavyweight Justin Staebler (20-10 overall) is slated to wrestle Penn 's Matt Feast, a No. 6 seed. Feast is ranked sixth by InterMat this week.
Badger Mat Recap: 9-7 Overall In Duals
Wisconsin finished the dual meet season at 9-7 overall and 1-7 in the Big Ten.
The Badgers earned an eighth-place team finish at the prestigious Cliff Keen Las Vegas Invitational, in addition to defeating No. 25 Northern Illinois and No. 17 Northern Iowa during the non-conference dual meet season. The Badgers' defeated Northwestern 24-13 on Jan. 26 for their lone conference win.
All-American Kevin Black Out For Season
Wisconsin senior Kevin Black, the wrestling team co-captain and a 2002 All-American at 133 pounds, did not participate in the 2003 Big Ten Conference Wrestling Championships and was therefore unable to qualify for this year's NCAA Championships.
Black sustained a knee injury during a dual meet against Michigan State Jan. 31 and underwent a minor surgical procedure for the injury, but will be unable to return to wrestling until after the 2002-03 season and his eligibility are both complete.
Clum Climbs Into National Rankings
Wisconsin redshirt freshman Tom Clum (Arvada, Colo.) earned the first national ranking of his collegiate career on Feb. 17, after joining the line-up following Kevin Black's injury.
Amateur Wrestling News picked Clum for its No. 11 poll-position at 133 pounds and he is now currently ranked 13th by AWN and 15th by TheWrestlingMall.com. He joins veteran teammates Tony Black, Ralph DeNisco and Justin Staebler in the national rankings for this week.
Success Off The Mat
Five Wisconsin wrestlers were named to the Academic All-Big Ten team after earning at least a 3.0 cumulative grade-point average. Tony Black earned his third straight honor and is joined by teammates Eitan Boral, Casey Jentz, Lee Kraemer and Brady Reinke.
Head Coach Barry Davis
Barry Davis enters his tenth season as Wisconsin's head coach for the 2002-03 season. A three-time NCAA champion and four-time Big Ten champion at Iowa, in addition to being a two-time Olympian, Davis exemplifies the winning attitude present in every aspect of the Wisconsin wrestling program.
During his tenure at Wisconsin, Davis has coached five individuals to eight Big Ten titles, while forty-two UW wrestlers have now qualified for the NCAA championships, including eight in 2003. Ten Badgers have earned All-America honors, including the latest, Kevin Black who placed fourth at 133 pounds in 2002. Davis has a 85-79-6 dual record as coach of the Badgers.
Davis and his wife Nan have two daughters, Amanda and Amy.
