Co-Big XII CHAMPS!!!!

Drowning_in_the_Sea_of_Red · March 9, 2009

In the course of two weeks, the Nebraska wrestling team has felt the physical strain of emotion.

But Saturday night at the NU Coliseum, the Huskers experienced the joy that only the school’s first Big 12 team title could provide.

Trailing by nine points entering the 157-pound final, the Huskers won four of the next five matches to take a three-point lead over two-time defending champion Iowa State and wound up sharing the team crown with the Cyclones.

“It shows a great spirit with our team,” coach Mark Manning said. “We fought and fought and really prepared well. That’s the thing I’m most proud of. There’s just a spirit in each one of our guys.”

Undefeated Jordan Burroughs struggled to overcome a stomach ache and Missouri’s Michael Chandler, but scored late takedowns in both the first and second periods and held on for a 6-4 victory.

The Huskers’ run slowed a bit when Stephen Dwyer lost in overtime at 165, but the team regained its form and found plenty of momentum with a three-match winning streak.

Senior Brandon Browne, still mourning the death of his mother two weeks ago, gutted out a 3-1 decision against Mizzou’s Raymond Jordan at 174, setting off and explosive reaction from the crowd of 2,644 and opening up a floodgate of tears.

The Plattsmouth native circled the mat, sharing his second straight league title with the raucous home crowd and sprinted into the west corridor of the Coliseum and a 20-second bear hug with his father Bradley.

“It’s the hardest on him,” Brandon Browne said. “It was the first wrestling meet we’ve gone to without her since I was tiny. We were both so emotional. It was unbelievable, just unbelievable.”

Fellow senior Vince Jones dominated Iowa State’s Jerome Ward 3-0 in the 184-pound match, tying the team score with two matches to go.

That put the team title on the line at 197, with NU’s second-ranked Craig Brester in the finals for the third straight year, but this time against No. 1 Jake Varner of ISU.

Brester escaped with 53 seconds left in the match to take a 4-3 lead and then fought off three Varner attacks the rest of the way to score the upset, put the Huskers ahead and virtually clinching the title.

Flying off the mat, Brester found himself getting a bear hug from Manning and in the midst of a heart-filled celebration of NU’s first league title since taking the Big Eight crown in 1995.

“He’s never picked me up before. He was pretty pumped,” said Brester, named the meet’s most outstanding wrestler.

Brester said the Huskers expected ISU’s depth to be too much to overcome in a five-team tournament format, but shortly before the finals they realized the title was within reach.

“We sat down as a team and said ‘We’ve got a chance at this.’ You know, we were dressing in the women’s volleyball locker room and they’ve got that Big 12 trophy in there, so that was motivation, too.”

Iowa State needed top-ranked David Zabriskie’s 3-1 win against No. 2 Mark Ellis of Missouri at heavyweight to earn a share of the championship.

Still, it was arguably the biggest moment in the recent resurgence of the Nebraska program

“It’s huge,” Manning said. “This is arguably the toughest wrestling conference in the country. It shows a lot.

“A lot of people didn’t think we had a chance. But I knew if we wrestled well and prepared well that good things could happen.”