The NCAA News - News and Features

February 23, 1998

Division II Wrestling

Championships title up for grabs

Event: 1998 Division II Wrestling Championships.

Overview: It used to be that you penciled in Central Oklahoma's name as team champion and let everyone else battle for second. No more. The Bronchos, who stretched their string of consecutive team championships to four in 1995, have finished no better than second since then .... San Francisco State, whose previous best finish was fifth in 1975, was the upset winner last year. The Gators then held the No. 1 ranking through three polls this year until being knocked off by previously unranked Fort Hays State, 19-16. San Francisco State currently is ranked fourth, led by defending champions Damon Broadbent (118 pounds) and Greg Jackson (158 pounds) .... Central Oklahoma claimed the No. 1 ranking until it lost, 28-11, to South Dakota State in late January's Division II Showdown Duals, which the Bronchos hosted. South Dakota State, which entered that match ranked third, could be the heir apparent to the top ranking. The Jackrabbits have returning heavyweight champion Ryan Ressel and two top-ranked wrestlers in Travis King (150 pounds) and Pat Timm (177 pounds) .... Central Oklahoma has no individual champions returning or anyone ranked first in his weight, but the Bronchos do have three second-ranked wrestlers, Matt Goodson (126 pounds, fifth last year at 134 pounds), Gabe Sullivan (142 pounds) and Matt Surber (runner-up at 158 pounds last year) .... Second-ranked Pittsburgh-Johnstown, which won the championship in 1996 and beat South Dakota State earlier this season by one point, is led by Jody Strittmatter, fifth place at 118 pounds last year; Irwin Brambley, runner-up at 177 pounds last year; and Troy Barbush, fifth place at 158 pounds .... Nate Hendrickson of Moorhead State, who was named last year's most outstanding wrestler after winning the 167-pound class, leads the returning individual champions. Ryan Wolters of North Dakota State won the 190-pound class as freshman.

Field: A total of 140 wrestlers will compete for 10 individual weight-class championships. The team champion is determined by adding the team points scored in individual matches.

Dates and site: March 13-14 at Southern Colorado.

Information/results: The Fax-on-Demand number is 770/399-3060 (passcode 1905). The request number for qualifiers, current brackets and team scores is 5340. Championships results also will be available on the World Wide Web at www.
ncaa.org. Results will be published in the March 23 issue of The NCAA News.