March Madness wasn’t the only sporting event the Sooners participated in last week.
Three grapplers --— sophomore Joey Fio, junior Kyle Terry, and junior Eric Lapotsky — were competing for All-American honors in the NCAA Championships Friday in St. Louis.
All three stood one win shy of becoming OU’s most recent All-American recipients. However, facing ranked foes and getting behind early in each match was too much to surpass, and the OU grapplers left empty-handed. Eight different Sooners competed in the tournament.
“It‘s heartbreaking,” head coach Jack Spates said. “Those three guys wrestled tough and put themselves in position but just fell short. Coming into tonight, I would never dreamed we would have gone 0-3. They did not lose because of a lack of effort.”
No. 7 Fio looked like the favorite against No. 18 Nicholas Bedelyon from Kent State in the opening 125-pound match. However, a take down and an escape would not be enough for victory as Fio fell 8-3.
The match ended Fio’s sophomore season in which he went 23-5, including 16 straight en route to a Big 12 crown.
No. 5 Terry, also drawing favoring comparisons, battled No. 12 Kyle Borshoff of American University at 149-pounds.
But Borshoff’s three take downs were too much to handle, as Terry posted a 7-2 loss.
Terry, finishing his junior campaign, recorded a team-best 30-3 record. He was undefeated in Big 12 play (7-0), and had 28 straight victories on his path to a Big 12 crown.
No. 12 Lapotsky was the only underdog of the group, facing Boise State’s No. 6 Brent Chriswell at 195-pounds.
Although this match was closer, one take down by Chriswell was enough to give Lapotsky and OU its third loss in St. Louis, with a final score of 3-2.
Lapotsky finished his junior season with a 24-10 record.
“We fell short, and we must go back and evaluate what is going to make us better,” Spates said. “All eight that qualified for the NCAA’s this week are returning next year, but none of them are All-Americans. As a team and as a staff, we must find out what will make the difference for next year.”
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