- By Connor O'Gara
For the second time in the month of December, Hoosier seniors Angel Escobedo and Nate Everhart are coming home with some hardware. The lightweight and heavyweight combo took home their respective titles on Saturday at the Southern Scuffle in Greensboro, North Carolina.
For the first time this year, Escobedo was not the favorite to be the last one standing at a tournament. No. 1 ranked Troy Nickerson from Cornell, was favored to capture the title at 125 lbs.
Escobedo was able to roll through all three opponents on Day 1, recording a pin in the first match. Day 2 pitted the formal National Champion up against No. 3 Zachary Sanders of Minnesota. A defeat over Sanders would solidify Escobedo's top ranking in the Big Ten.
"Angel is very well prepared and is consistently wrestling with a lot of confidence," coach Duane Goldman said.
The senior was not about to let a Big Ten foe defeat him and ruin his chance to knock off Nickerson. Escobedo captured a tough 3-1 win against Sanders to advance to the finals.
With the highly anticipated top two 125 lbs wrestlers scheduled to face off, the match could have been a preview of Nationals come March. Instead of Escobedo getting the chance to upend Nickerson, Nickerson went down with an injury a couple minutes in with no score.
While unconventional, the title for Escobedo once again proves that he is the best of the best in the country at full strength.
Another reason for the Hoosiers third place finish this weekend was Everhart's dominant performance. Everhart took a more conventional route to get to the top of the podium this weekend.
Coming into the tournament undefeated and as the No. 1 seed, Everhart was the man to beat. But Everhart continued to wrestle the way he has all year, refusing to have any let downs. The heavyweight senior squeaked out back to back 3-2 victories on Day 2 to win the title.
The Hoosiers have been consistently carried by the duo of Escobedo and Everhart this season. It sounds like a broken record but the veteran leadership of these seniors has been vital to their early success.
Junior Kurt Kinser was also successful this weekend, recording a second place finish in the 157 lbs. bracket. Kinser was no match for any of his Day 1 opponents, winning all three matches by a combined score of 29-2.
The junior had dropped down to No. 12 nationally after missing close to a month worth of action. But a 3-1 defeat over No. 3 ranked Matt Moley from Bloomsburg will likely get Kinser back into the top ten at 157 lbs.
While the Hoosiers did have seven wrestlers place this weekend, Goldman stresses the issue of getting more production from the younger guys.
"The reality of it is that we relied on half of our team this weekend," Goldman said. "We've shown that were a pretty good tournament team but we need full team contributions if we are going to win dual meets."
The Hoosiers will continue their Eastern road trip Saturday when they travel to West Virginia for a dual meet.
