Related Links
See also in City Pages:
Title Fight Read Paul Demko's cover story about the Golden Gophers
Internet Links:
wrestlingmall.com For more information on the National Championship
Also in this Issue
- Power Play Putting Minnesota on the map with a national title was the easy part. For the Gopher women's hockey team, sustaining that reputation is the challenge. (Cover Story)
- More articles from this issue...
More Sports Articles
- D-Days The T-Wolves are scoring more points, but that's not why they've won ten consecutive games (Feb 7, 2001)
- Howling in the Wind Despite the best start in franchise history, the Wolves are staring down a long winter (Jan 3, 2001)
- Wolf Bane Taking David Stern out of the picture wouldn't have brightened the Timberwolves' prospects much (Nov 1, 2000)
- Blazers or Bust If the Wolves get past the first round of the playoffs, they...could...go...most of...the way! (Apr 19, 2000)
- On Point Will the real Bobby Jackson please stand up? (Apr 5, 2000)
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A Narrow Escape
The University of Minnesota wrestling team's dream of winning its first national title was in jeopardy last Friday night, March 16. Competing before a hostile crowd at Carver-Hawkeye Arena in Iowa City, six Gopher wrestlers marched to the mat in the semifinals of the national championships. And, one by one, they walked off defeated. Heading into the final day of competition on Saturday, the squad trailed a hungry University of Iowa--the hometown team and six-time defending national champs--by a narrow margin. Still, thanks to the system by which wrestling meets are scored, the Gopher team remained very much in the hunt. In order to win, they'd have to demolish the competition in the consolation bouts--and hope that other schools managed to keep Iowa's wrestlers down.On Saturday morning ten Gopher wrestlers, each of whom was stiff and sore from having endured at least four matches over the previous 48 hours, rebounded. Leroy Vega commenced the comeback, capturing third place in the 125-pound division. Owen Elzen, a 197-pounder, and heavyweight Garrett Lowney capped the a.m. session by scoring pins in their third-place matches. By noon the Gophers had all but clinched the title. When Iowa's Jody Strittmatter lost in the finals later that day, it was official: Minnesota had captured its first championship. And the team had done so in unprecedented fashion: For the first time in tournament history, ten All-Americans were crowned from a single school, and a squad that failed to send a wrestler to the individual finals in any weight class took home the trophy.
About Paul Demko
From the Archive
- Title Fight University of Minnesota wrestling coach J Robinson's to-do list this season: win big ten championship. Win national title. Put stranglehold on the growth of women's athletics. (Cover Story - Mar 7, 2001)
- The Employer of Choice The St. Paul City Council wants to keep Dayton's downtown. But at what price? (City Beat - Feb 14, 2001)
- Take Me for a Ride Why City Pages won't be using this space to write about racial profiling from the cops' perspective (City Beat - Feb 14, 2001)
- Pupsicles Freeze-drying: It's not just for pets anymore (City Beat - Jan 24, 2001)
- Burned Some hailed firefighters Julie Tossey and Kathleen O'Connor as symbols of a new era in gender equality in St. Paul. But others--including their own union--wanted to see their dreams go up in smoke. (Cover Story - Jan 10, 2001)
- Offensive Line Man Writer Jeff Johnson stretches the truth and covers the spread (City Beat - Dec 27, 2000)
- Name One Two weeks after the election, how many judges can you remember from the ballot? Thought so. (City Beat - Nov 22, 2000)
- Zoned Out Minneapolis bureaucrats put the kibosh on a West Bank homeless shelter (City Beat - Nov 8, 2000)
- More articles from the Paul Demko Archive...
