Back from the brink

After early loss, wrestler John Lange rebounds to take take third place at NCAAs

CLEVELAND -- As Chumbawumba sings: "I get knocked down, but I get up again. You're never going to keep me down."

It could have been the theme of the performance Penn State 158-pound wrestler John Lange turned on this past weekend at the NCAA Wrestling Championship at the Cleveland State University Convocation Center.

After the match, Penn State coach John Fritz was thrilled with his wrestler's effort.

"I know he didn't win the nationals," an emotional Fritz said, "but he won as far as I'm concerned. He's the champ."

Lange entered the championship as the No. 7 seed and faced unseeded David Wells from Cal-Poly. Going into the match, Lange had a better overall record and was favored to win the match.

By the time the whistle blew to signal the end of the match, though, the scoreboard showed 15-5 in favor of Wells. He seemed just as surprised as everyone else. When he realized the match was over, he looked at his coach and asked "I won?"

"I was really happy that I beat Lange," Wells said. "He was the higher seed and he was clearly the better wrestler, so I was really surprised to win."

Lange said he was in it until the handshake before the match. With the loss, Lange was placed into the consolation bracket, but there was one catch -- if he lost once more, he would be eliminated.

After one more victory against Hofstra's James Hieronymus, the stage was set for Lange's rematch against Wells. Following the first meeting, Wells said he didn't have a good feeling about facing Lange again.

"When I had to wrestle Lange again," Wells said, "I had a feeling I wouldn't win. I thought I could, but I had a feeling I wouldn't."

Wells was right -- Lange got revenge with a pin in six minutes and 58 seconds. After defeating Wells, Lange won a hard-fought 8-6 decision against No. 5-seeded Tivon Abel from Brown to advance to the consolation finals.

The stage was set for Lange to become the only wrestler to lose in the first round and win the consolation bracket. His opponent, Cunningham, pinned Lange earlier in the season at the Penn State Open, so Lange got the opportunity to redeem another one of his losses.

It wasn't easy, but Lange fought through the match to get his hand raised after a 6-5 decision.

"The revenge factor was there," Lange said. "My big thing was I didn't want to lose my last college match."

After the victory, he looked up at the Nittany Lion faithful to receive a standing ovation.

"It was nice, they're a great bunch of fans," Lange said. "They are cheering for you even if you lose and it's a lot nicer when they cheer for you when you win."

Lange's teammates and coaches had the utmost confidence in Lange throughout his trek through seven matches. Assistant coach Kerry McCoy said he showed a lot of heart.

"He was one of the toughest competitors in this tournament," McCoy said. "Regardless of where he goes, everyone is going to remember John Lange and what he did this tournament."