The term “Cinderella” has become synonymous with NCAA tournaments, especially with March Madness in full gear. With the NCAA Wrestling Championships taking place from Thursday to Saturday this past weekend, three tournament-bound Boston University wrestlers were trying on their slippers on the first day of the tournament.
Unfortunately for seniors Leighton Brady and Jose Leon and junior Joey Rivera, the shoe just didn’t fit. All three BU grapplers competed in close opening round matches in St. Louis, Mo., but all wound up in the consolation bracket before bowing out to some stiff competition.
Brady (165 pounds), in his second-straight year competing in the NCAA Tournament, began the day with a loss, dropping a 7-4 decision to Cornell University’s Joe Mazzurco. Brady had defeated Mazzurco, 7-6, in the title match of the Cortland Open earlier this season.
Rivera, wrestling at 141 pounds, competed in an extremely close match, but fell 4-2 to second-seeded Nate Gallick of Iowa State University. With the victory, Gallick successfully sought revenge against Rivera, who had defeated Gallick 8-5 in Iowa State’s 22-14 victory over BU in November.
In the 125-pound bracket, Leon continued the Terriers’ history of bad luck in drawing first round opponents, falling to second-seeded Luke Euctice of the University of Iowa.
With the losses, the three Terriers then competed in a consolation bracket in each weight class. In the 141-pound consolation bracket, Rivera won his first match 2-1, defeating the University of Wyoming’s Black Gunter, but then fell to Tommy Owen of the University of Minnesota, 15-0. Rivera went 24-6 during the year, good for the second-most victories on the team.
Leon lost his first elimination match to the University of Northern Iowa’s Chris Helgeson 19-12 before Brady, in the final match of his brilliant college career, lost 4-2 to the Naval Academy’s Michael Barikian. The senior finished the season with a 26-7 record and proved himself as one of BU’s most reliable wrestlers after transferring from Seton Hall University prior to the 2001-02 season.
Junior Rayes Gonzales (149 pounds) was chosen for the tournament as an alternate for the wild-card selection, but did not compete.
BU coach Carl Adams, in his 23rd season on Babcock Street, has taken Terrier wrestlers to the NCAA Tournament in every year he has been the head coach.
Oklahoma State University won the competition for the second-straight year by 41.5 points over Iowa. Lehigh University and The Ohio State University tied for third place, while the University of Nebraska placed fifth. Ten other schools had wrestlers take home individual weight-class titles.