Daunting Lesnar, top-ranked Neal lead heavyweights
Editor's note: This is the 10th in a 10-part series previewing the 10 weight classes for the NCAA Div. I Wrestling Championships beginning today in The Bryce Jordan Center. This story previews the heavyweight class.

By RYAN HOCKENSMITH
Collegian Staff Writer

Daunting is one adjective used to describe Minnesota heavyweight Brock Lesnar.

With a 56-inch chest, 36-inch waist and No. 2 ranking, the word seems fitting to convey the physique of the Golden Gophers' big man.

Minnesota coach J. Robinson said Lesnar, in his first season of Div. I wrestling, has had an effect both on the mat and in the stands, in large part because of his giant frame.

"(Brock) has brought a lot of people out to see what he looks like and who he is," Robinson said. "He's pretty much a specimen, I guess."

Robinson said he first encountered the junior college transfer, talk-of-the-town junior last season at an open tournament in North Dakota. There, Robinson did something he hadn't before.

"We knew if we didn't sign him before anyone else saw him, everybody would be on him," Robinson said. "We saw him on a Monday and signed him on a Tuesday. That's the only one I've ever done like that in my life."

Daunting also describes Lesnar's task this week at the NCAA Championships.

Lesnar appears to be the main competition for three-time All-American Stephen Neal of Cal-State Bakersfield. Neal won last season's NCAA heavyweight championship to go with previous finishes of fourth and second.

Thirty-two heavyweights, including Robinson's entrant, go to work today as they attempt to snatch the NCAA title from last season's winner.

Despite Lesnar's ranking, accolades and size, Neal's the man to beat.

Neal finished last season 39-0 and currently holds the same tally heading into today's opening rounds. His last loss, a 3-2 defeat at the hands of Penn State's two-time NCAA champion Kerry McCoy, came in the 1997 NCAA heavyweight championship bout. That's 78 straight wins.

Mark Janus, Penn State's participant in the weight class, hopes to build on his best postseason as a Nittany Lion. Janus defeated three ranked wrestlers, all of whom had notched victories over him in the past, at last week's Big Tens en route to a third-place finish.

Seedings, past success and chest sizes don't seem to affect the Lions junior.

"As far as rankings and stuff go, I don't think you can put much stock in them," Janus said. "I'm sure if I wrestle well I could beat any of them."

Both Janus and his coach, first-year Lion leader Troy Sunderland, pointed out Janus' need to display more consistency in the postseason. Both agreed Janus, who enters the tournament with a 17-9 mark, did that at Big Tens.

"We've been battling inconsistency with Mark all season," Sunderland said. "If he can be consistent again this weekend, you'll see results like you saw at Big Tens."

Besides Neal, two other returning All-Americans are sprinkled throughout the weight class.

Illinois' Karl Roesler, a seventh-place finisher at last season's NCAA Championships, dropped the Big Ten championship bout March 7 to Lesnar to finish second. Roesler pinned Janus in the Big Ten semifinals to knock the Lion heavyweight to the consolation round.

Ranked No. 3 in the nation heading into the conference tournament, Iowa's Wes Hand was nipped by Janus in the quarterfinals at Big Tens and fell all the way to an eighth-place showing. Hand, who finished eighth at last season's NCAAs, was awarded one of the Big Ten's two wild-card allotments to sneak into this weekend's NCAA Championships.