With 1 down, 3 grapplers continue at NCAAs

By JONATHAN BOMBULIE
Collegian Sports Writer

The 1995 NCAA Wrestling Championships began solidly for the wrestling team's three veteran championship hopefuls -- Sanshiro Abe, John Hughes and Kerry McCoy -- and not so well for its lone freshman -- Glenn Pritzlaff.

The trio of All-Americans went a combined 7-0, and all advanced to the quarterfinals. Sanshiro Abe mauled Justin Martin of Wyoming, winning a 22-8 major decision in the first round. He then moved on to defeat Oklahoma State's Ray Weis, 8-2.

John Hughes made things a little more interesting. The redshirt junior from Stillwater trailed early on in each of his matches before coming back to win them handily. In a preliminary match, Hughes was taken down by Brendon Buckley of Clemson, but pinned him in just over four minutes.

In his first-round contest, Hughes was also victimized by an early takedown, but went on to win, 8-3. He was awarded a penalty point when Jay Jackson of Stanford was called for fleeing the mat. Hughes then scored a takedown in the waning moments of the match to blow open a close bout.

In his final match of the night, he was tested for the first time. The 142-pounder held Dave Leonardis of North Carolina scoreless in the first period, and Leonardis took a 1-0 lead on an early second period escape. Hughes wrestled well in the third period to take a 4-2 win.

"In the first match, John was taken down twice," Coach John Fritz said. "In the second match, once, and in the last match not at all. Hopefully, this will be a trend."

Kerry McCoy was dominant as usual in two easy wins yesterday. In the first round, he pinned Dion Reed from Boston University in just under five minutes.

In his second bout, he scored a 19-4 match termination victory over Darin Priesendorf of Fresno State. The win was McCoy's 40th of the season and 87th in a row.

The Lions lost one of their four competitors when Pritzlaff was unable to escape from Pittsburgh's John Withrow in an overtime rideout. Pritzlaff defeated Withrow twice in the regular season.

"Sometimes the more times you wrestle a guy, the tougher it is to beat him," Fritz said. "(Withrow) slowed the match down. It was a frustrating match for Glenn."

The freshman from Lincroft, N.J., then played the waiting game. If Withrow won his second-round bout, Pritzlaff would continue in consolation action. But he did not, losing to Mike Collins from Missouri, 6-3, and Pritzlaff's season ended.

"I'm not putting any pressure on myself this time," Pritzlaff said just before he left for Iowa City, Iowa. "I'm just going to go out and wrestle and see how it goes."

After the championship bouts at heavyweight, Penn State was in seventh place overall, with 14 team points. The Lions trail second place Oklahoma State by only six points. But No. 1 Iowa continues its superiority this season leading the competition with 40 points, sending nine of its ten wrestlers to the quarterfinals.