48 --The Michigan Daily - SPORTSMonday - Monday, March 25, 1996
WRESTLING
Homecoming productive
for Mic ' sophomore
I
By Jennifer Hodulik
Daily Sports Writer
MINNEAPOLIS-Everybody's not
All-American.
To achieve that honor, Michigan's
Brandon Howe had to finish in the top
eight in a field of 37 of the best 126-
pound wrestlers in the nation.
The sophomore got by with a little
help from his friends and family, as he
returned to his home town of Minne-
apolis and got enough of a boost to
propel himself into an eighth-place fin-
ish.
In fact, as the downtown area around
the Target Center and First Avenue was
crammed with knowlegeable wrestling
personnel and enthusiasts, a mention of
the Michigan wrestling team will elicit
a reference to Brandon Howe surpris-
ingly often.
Howe actually hails from the city of
Dayton, Minn., which is about 15 min-
utes north of Minneapolis. He attended
Totino-Grace High School and was
named Minnesota wrestler of the year
in 1993.
"I have been looking forward to this
all year - coming home," Howe said
of his return to the city. "My goal was to
be an All-American, and I hit that, and
it was nice to do it in Minnesota."
Howe came into the tournament
unseeded, but made quick work of the
No. 8 seed, pinning Chris Marshall of
Clarion in 1:59. This performance set
the tone for the rest of the tournament,
as Howe had to postpone any plans that
included celebrating out on the town
until the tournament was completed
Saturday.
Because of the way the tournament
was formatted, many of the competi-
tors had been eliminated from competi-
tion by Thursday. Anticipating this pos-
sible outcome for himself, Howe was
prepared to spend his evenings revisit-
ing his old hangouts in the bustling city.
But as he continued to be successful,
Howe's nights were filled with rest for
upcoming rounds of matches.
Howe's performance was somewhat
surprising, although he was underrated
coming into the tournament. After be-
ing sidelined following knee surgery
his freshman year and being hampered
by a shoulder injury earlier in the sea-
son, things started to come together for
Howe as the tournament approached.
Howe attributed much of his success
to the friendly surroundings at the Tar-
get Center, although the crowd decid-
edly favored Iowa as chants of"I-O-W-
A, Iowa" were the most prominent
cheers at the meet. But wrestling does
not really generate the same type of
attention as other sports (unless you
live in Iowa) because much of the fan
support comes from a close-knit wres-
tling community and family.
"It's nice coming home," Howe said
of his return to the city. "Back in high
school I had a good support group wh
followed me. It was nice to have the
family come down and to have some
buddies come down which really
pumped me up."
In the second round of competition,
Howe fell to Scott Schatzman of North-
western, 8-0. But following that match,
Howe got rolling, winning three straight
matches, including an emotional come-
from-behind victory over the No. 1i
seed, Michigan State's Brian Bolton.
After trailing 5-0 to Bolton, Howe w
able to turn things around and chalk up
an 8-7 victory.
"I think that my emotion from that
match carried over to my teammates,"
Howe said. "I had some extra incentive
to perform for my supporters and the
whole team stepped it up a level."
Howe squared off against Schatzman
again in the seventh-place bout, but
came up short 5-0 for the third time in
many meetings with Schatzman th.
season.
Of his many followers, Brandon's
brother was able to view his matches
after travelling via skywalk from his
office. And while Brandon was submit-
ting a resume to intern at his brother's
stock brokerage firm, he savored chang-
ing his status as 1996 NCAA qualifier
to All-American.
KRISTIN SCHAEFER/Daily
Michigan sophomore Brandon Howe went home to Minneapolis this weekend and won All-American honors.
G RAP PLERS
Continued from Page 1B
Penn State.
Lacure started out strong and had a
3-1 lead through two rounds. But the
Nittany Lion senior showed why he
was the favorite, coming out aggres-
sively in the third stanza. After regu-
lation time, the score stood at 4-4,
bringing on a sudden-death overtime
period. The extra stanza solved noth-
ing, and the match went into what the
-Target Center announcer termed the
"30-second surprise," where the wres-
tler starting in the down position must
escape the hold in 30 seconds to win
the match. Lacure won the coin toss,
and chose to start in the down spot.
Halfaminute later, Lacure had spun
free of Hughes' death-grip and into
the semifinals.
Lacure's emotional win wasn't
quite enough to overcome the handi-
cap of a broken finger, a fate that
befell third-seeded Catrabone in the
next match.
Facing defending champion Ernest
Benion of Illinois, Catrabone caught
his right ring finger in Benion's
kneepad, fracturing the fourth metac-
arpal bone.
"I ended up finishing the match
with a broken hand and didn't realize
it until afterwards," Catrabone said.
"It took me out of my game. I couldn't
control, couldn't move the way I
wanted to."
He went on to win two of his next
three matches, including a pin of No.
8 seed Matt Hughes of Eastern Illi-
nois in the seventh-place contest.
Sixth-seeded Rawls, competing in
his last tournament, soundly routed
Lock Haven's Mike Geurin, 8-1, to
relegate the fifth seed to the seventh-
place match.
Rawls then helped provide partici-
pants in the fifth-place match as he
rendered No.4 Erich Harvey of Michi
gan State a loser, gaining a 5-3 deci-
sion.
That victory set up a rematch of
Rawls' quarterfinal loss to an old foe,
Rohan Gardener of Northwestern.
Gardener had beaten Rawls in Friday's
quarterfinal to knock him into the
consolation bracket.
Unfortunately for Rawls, history
repeated itself, and his last outing as a
Wolverine ended with the acquisition
of a fourth-place plaque.
Although Richardson won the fifth-
place match because of an injury to
Minnesota's Billy Pierce,.he had early
proven himself well worthy of the
honor.
The Ohio native reached the final
match having satisfactorily taken care
of some old debts.
He defeated Purdue's Tony Vaughn,
who had handed Richardson his only
Big Ten regular season loss and then
pinned him in the conference tourna-
ment.
In the next round, Richardson dis-
posed of Ohio State's Nick Nutter,
who had relegated the Wolverine grap-
pler to sixth place at the Big Tens.
From wrestler to coach, the Wol-
verines expressed satisfaction with
the outcome of this year's campaign,
and looked ahead hopefully to next
season.
Hawkeyes roll to title;
Big Ten finishes strong
By Will McCahiII
Daily Sports Writer
MINNEAPOLIS - And the winner
is ... Surprising no one, Iowa won its
second consecutive national team title,
its fifth in six years. The Hawkeyes
clinched the championship-their 16th
- even before Saturday night's final
round.
Iowa took three of the 10 individual
titles - at 142, 158 and 167 pounds -
in addition to one
each placing third,
fifth and eighth.
The Hawkeyes
finished all of 44
points ahead of sec-
ond-place Iowa
State, scoring 122.5
points. Michigan
tallied 47 points, fin-
ishing ninth.
BIG TEN STRONG:
Notebxg
Notebook
Unlike in the NCAA basketball tourna-
ment-the Midwest regional finals of
which were being held at Minneapolis'
Metrodome this weekend - the Big
Ten represented itself well in the wres-
tling tournament. Ten of the i1 teams
finished in the top 20, with four in the
top 10. Purdue was the only straggler,
placing 31st.
The otherteamof local interest, East-
ern Michigan of the Mid-American
Conference, finished 27th.
REFUSE TO LOSE: Two wrestlers
capped offundefeated seasons with wins
in Saturday night's final matches.
The more impressive of the two win-
ning streaks belongs to Les Gutches of
Oregon State. By defeating Wyoming's
Reese Andy in the title bout, Gutches
completed a second straight season with-
out a loss. The Beaver senior has won
69 matches in a row since the 1994
NCAA tournament. For his accom-
plishments, Gutches was named the
tournament's most outstanding wres-
tler.
Penn State senior Sanshiro Abe won
his 29th match in as many outings this
season, beating Iowa State's Dwight
Hinson in the ultimate match at 1I
pounds.
Abe's last loss came at the hands of
Iowa's Jeff McGinness in last year's
tourney final. The Tokyo native was
deprived of a rematch, however, when
Arizona State walk-on Shawn Ford de-
feated McGinness in the second round
of the championship bracket.
The next step for Abe is the Asian
Games, where he will compete with the
Japanese national team in hopes ofwi
ning a spot on the Olympic team.
leaves for Tokyo tomorrow.
NOT JUST ACADEMICS: Willie Car-.
penter of Brown became that
institution's first All-American athlete
in any sport, placing sixth at 126 pounds.
The New Jersey native, who defeated,
Michigan's Brandon Howe on his way
to the honor, was competing in his third
tournament in as many years wrestling
for the Ivy League school.
OH, THE HUMANITY: They were real
packing in the crowds at the Target
Center this weekend, as this year's tour-
nament drew 77,489 spectators for six
sessions over three days.
The figure was more than double
what host school Minnesota had ex
pected, but nevertheless fell just short
of the all-time tournament attendance
record. That honor belongs to last year's'
event, held at Iowa's Carver-Hawkeye
Arena. The tournament filled 81,5
seats and was won by theHwy
Hawkeyes.
MARK YOUR CALENDARS: Next year's
NCAA tournament will be hosted by-
the University of Northern Iowa in Ce-
dar Falls. The championships, to be
held March 20-22,1997, will take place
in the UNI-Dome, which normally-
houses the school's football and bas-
ketball teams. The arena, which seat
16,324 for football games and 10,03
for basketball, can be expanded to hold
up to 25,000 for other events.
KRISTIN SCHAEFER/Daily
Michigan's Bill Lacure placed fourth at this weekend's NCAA tournament. He was one of five Wolverines to win All-American
honors. As a team, Michigan finished ninth overall.
The top 25 at the 1996 NCAA wrestling
championships
Team
1. Iowa
2. Iowa State
3. Cal State Bakersfield
4. Penn State
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10
11
12
Nebraska
Oklahoma State
Michigan State
Oregon State
Michigan
. Arizona State
Lock Haven
. Clarion
Illinois
Points
122,50
78.50
66.00
65.00
61.00
54.50
53.50
48.50
47.00
45.00
43.00
42.50
42.50
I