ST. LOUIS — On arguably the most
exciting night of the NCAA Championships, Wisconsin wrestlers
Eric Barnett and
Trent Hillger staked a claim in the Badgers' history books and each earned NCAA All-America honors on Friday evening.
This marks Hillger's third All-America award in three years and best career performance at the national tournament, while it's Barnett's first career honor after the sophomore qualified for the national tournament as a wild-card selection following the Big Ten Championships.
Hillger advanced through Thursday's opening rounds victorious. On Friday morning, Hillger dropped his first loss, a 2-1 overtime decision to Iowa State's Gannon Gremel to enter the consolation brackets. In Friday night's blood round, Hillger bounced back with a 6-3 decision victory over Wyatt Hendrickson (Air Force) to earn All-America honors.
Hillger then defeated a familiar foe in a 3-1 decision victory over Tate Orndorff (Ohio State) and will advance to Saturday's consolation semi-finals against Big Ten opponent Tony Cassioppi (Iowa). He finished eighth overall at the 2019 NCAA Championships and will wrestle Cassioppi tomorrow to advance to the third-place match. The loser will wrestle for fifth-place among the heavyweights.
After finishing 1-1 on Thursday in the opening day of the NCAA Championships, sophomore Barnett battled his way victoriously through three consolation matches to achieve his first career All-American nod at 125 pounds. He picked up consolation bracket victories with a 10-2 major decision win against Jake Ferri (Kent State) and then a 7-3 decision over Trevor Mastrogiovanni (Oklahoma State).
Friday's blood-round match saw him take on a familiar foe in ninth-seeded Devin Schroder of Purdue. Scoreless through the first period, Schroder scored a takedown in the second period to take the lead before Barnett tied it up. Both wrestlers scored takedowns late in the third period, but Barnett had accrued more than one minute of riding time to earn the extra point and seal his 5-4 decision win.
Barnett next faced Minnesota's Patrick McKee. The gritty grudge match saw both wrestlers collect six points each in a tied-up third period before McKee pinned Barnett at 6:06. Barnett finishes the NCAA Day 2 with a 4-2 record here in St. Louis. He will wrestle for seventh place on Saturday morning against Killian Cardinale (West Virginia).
Wisconsin teammate Kyle Burwick completed his first NCAA appearance at 133 pounds with a narrow 4-3 decision loss to Devan Turner (Oregon State) in the consolation bracket on Friday morning. Burwick had finished Thursday's opening rounds with a 1-1 record, including collecting a pin in his first match against Mosha Schwartz of Northern Colorado.
Badgers senior Chris Weiler ended his NCAA Championship on Thursday with two losses in the opening round.
See all Badgers results at the NCAA Championships here.
See all NCAA results here https://www.ncaa.com/championships/wrestling/d1
