2014 NCAA Championships • Heavyweight

The following is a breakdown of the heavyweight class at the 2014 NCAA Division I 2014 ncaa logoChampionships, March 20-22, in Oklahoma City. WIN Magazine will preview this weight class as well as update brackets and provide notes and quotes during the tournament.

Hwt bracket before finals

All-American Placement Highlights

3rd Place — Michael McMullan (Northwestern) dec. Bobby Telford (Iowa), 3-1— The defending national runner-up scored the match’s only takedown with 20 seconds left in the second period.
5th Place — Mike McClure (Michigan St.) dec. Adam Chalfant (Indiana), 3-2 — The Spartan ended his career by countering a shot by the Hoosier and scoring a takedown with 14 seconds left.
7th Place — Jeremy Johnson (Ohio) dec.  Austin Marsden (Oklahoma St.), 4-2 — The Bobcat clinched the victory by cutting the corner with 25 seconds left for the only takedown of the match.

Semifinal Highlights

No. 1 Anthony Nelson (Minnesota) vs. No. 5 Bobby Telford (Iowa), 4-2 — The Gopher scored the bout’s only takedown with 20 seconds left in the second period and added a 1:39 riding time advantage.

 No. 2 Nick Gwiazdowski (NC State) dec. No. 3 Adam Chalfant (Indiana), 5-3 — The Wolfpack clinched his first NCAA final by first tripping and scoring a takedown on an off-balanced Hoosier with 50 seconds left. Gwiazdowski also scored a first-period takedown, but was reversed.

Quarterfinal Highlights

No. 1 Anthony Nelson (Minnesota) pinned No. 9 Connor Medbery (Wisconsin), 1:26 — The Gopher was leading 5-0 — by first countering a Badger takedown and putting Medberry on his back — before he returned his foe to his back and the fall.

No. 5 Bobby Telford (Iowa) dec. No. 4 Adam Coon (Michigan), 3-2 tb2 — The Hawkeye advanced by riding out the Wolverine freshman the entire 30 seconds of the final overtime phase.

No. 3 Adam Chalfant (Indiana) dec. No. 11 Austin Marsden (Oklahoma State), 3-2 — The Hoosier scored the match’s only takedown with 1:15 left in the second period to lead before Marsden added a pair of escapes.

No. 2 Nick Gwiazdowski (NC State) dec. No. 7 Mike McClure (Michigan State), 4-1 — The Wolfpack sophomore earned his second All-American honor — the first coming two years ago with Binghamton — when he clinched this victory on a takedown with eight seconds left.

Second-round Notes

• Oklahoma State’s No. 11 Austin Marsden upset the defending national runner-up Michael McMullan (Northwestern), 3-2, despite the fact that the No. 6-seeded Wildcat had a 1:04 riding time advantage.

First round Notes

• The only seeded wrestler to fall was No. 15 Adam Fager (Utah Valley), who lost 6-2 to Billy Smith of Rutgers.

• Two-time defending national champion Anthony Nelson (Minnesota) defeated Northern Iowa’s Blaize Cabell, 1-0, as his only point came on a second period escape.

Returning All-Americans

  • Anthony Nelson, Minnesota — 7th (2011); Champion (2012); Champion (2013)
  • Michael McMullan, Northwestern — 3rd (2012); 2nd (2013)
  • Bobby Telford, Iowa — 5th (2012)
  • Nick Gwiazdowski, NC State — 8th (2012)
  • Jeremy Johnson, Ohio U. — 7th (2012)

Heavyweight Preview

Minnesota's Anthony Nelson (right) avenged an earlier-season loss to Indiana Adam Chalfant in the Big Tens.

Minnesota’s Anthony Nelson (right) avenged an earlier-season loss to Indiana Adam Chalfant in the Big Tens.

Minnesota’s Anthony Nelson is not the first heavyweight to claim a national championship for the Gophers. But the big man could become Minnesota’s first three-time NCAA champ in Oklahoma City.

That appeared a bit unlikely to happen at the end of the season which saw the Gopher lose more matches (four) than he did in 2012 and ’13 combined. Nelson defeated Lehigh’s Zach Rey and Northwestern’s Michael McMullan in the two previous NCAA title bouts.

But the Gopher righted the ship at the recent Big Ten Championships by defeating Indiana’s Adam Chalfant for the title.

The Big Ten, without a doubt, has featured the best heavyweights, including Chalfant, who defeated both Nelson and McMullan during the regular season. Another returning All-American from this conference in addition to McMullan, who was limited to 17 matches this winter, is Iowa’s Bobby Telford, who placed fifth in 2012 but was forced to injury default last March.

The Big Ten also features a true freshman in Michigan’s Adam Coon who was ranked No. 1 much of the season after winning both the Las Vegas Invitational and Midlands, but then suffered two straight losses as the No. 1 seed at the Big Ten tournament.

Other ranked wrestlers eager to earn their first All-American honors are Michigan State’s Mike McClure, seeded seventh, and Wisconsin’s Connor Medbery, seeded No. 9.

There are also two other heavyweights who placed in the 2012 NCAAs. One is Nick Gwiazdowski, who placed eighth for Binghamton that year, then transferred to NC State, where the Wolfpack sophomore is 38-2. The other is Jeremy Johnson of Ohio University. The Bobcat defeated Gwiazdowski in the 2012 NCAAs, but failed to place last March. This year Johnson recently won the MAC championship.

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