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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Rosholt wrestles for second title

From staff and wire reports

ST. LOUIS – Sandpoint’s Jake Rosholt is one win away from his second title at the NCAA Wrestling Championships.

Rosholt, competing for Oklahoma State and seeded No. 2 at 197 pounds, defeated 11th-seeded B.J. Padden of Nebraska 10-9 during Friday night’s semifinals at the Savvis Center.

The Cowboys junior, a national champion in 2003, will meet fifth-seeded Sean Stender of Northern Iowa in today’s championship match. Stender upset top-seeded Jon Trenge of Lehigh 5-2 in the other semifinal.

Rosholt (31-3) opened the day with an 8-4 quarterfinal win over Penn State’s Philip Davis. Rosholt trailed the semifinal match until he recorded a takedown with 25 seconds left. Rosholt held on to win on riding time.

Another area product, senior Travis Pascoe of Nebraska, came up shy of today’s finals after losing to seventh-seeded Tyler Baier of Cornell 10-8 in the semifinals at 184.

The third-seeded Pascoe (28-4), who attended Gonzaga Prep while living in Rathdrum, led 8-7 when Baier scored an escape with 1:09 left. Baier won with a late takedown.

Pascoe opened the day with a 17-10 win over 11th-seeded Justin Dyer of Oklahoma. Pascoe can still place third today.

Sandpoint’s Tony Hook, a junior at Oregon State, lost to Chris Horning of Clarion 18-2 in the consolations. Hook finished the year 13-10.

Rosholt’s Cowboys had a clean sweep of five semifinal matches and wrapped up their third consecutive team title.

Oklahoma State has won 33 national titles.

“This is huge for us,” said Cowboys coach John Smith. “We knew this was going to be a challenging year and this is a tribute to hard work of everyone on the team and our entire staff.”

Also in today’s finals for Oklahoma State are: defending champion Chris Pendleton, 174; unbeaten heavyweight Steve Mocco; top-seeded 149-pounder Zack Esposito; and Johny Hendricks, 165.

The Cowboys, with 127 1/2 points, own a 56-point lead over Cornell. Michigan (67) was third, followed by Minnesota (66), Iowa (64) and Oklahoma (61) in the race for second.

The Cowboys have won three straight titles for the first time since 1954-56, a season-long goal, and have 33 national titles overall. Now, they’ll try to win five individual titles for the first time in school history.

“Now that we’ve wrapped up the title, we need a new goal,” Smith said.

Cornell University sent two wrestlers to the finals and is the only other school with more than one representative.