2010 Big Ten Championships
Crisler Arena, Ann Arbor, MI
March 6-7
Metcalf upended, unseeded Jones placing 3rd headline Big Ten Tournament
3/7 - Brent Metcalf's homecoming didn't go
how he probably would have liked it to as the
Davison native, currently ranked #1 in the
country at 149lbs, was knocked off by Lance
Palmer of Ohio State, who he had beaten 4
times in the past three years.
Palmer came out on top of a scramble in the
3rd period and actually held Metcalf on his
back for the final 10 seconds of the match.
The crowd erupted as the final seconds
ticked away and Palmer exploded to his feet
in celebration creating a moment that
resembled the Caldwell NCAA upset over
Metcalf.
Despite the Metcalf debacle, Iowa still pulled away with their 34th Big Ten Championship. Michigan State finished 7th in the team standings, their highest finish since 2003 when they ended up 4th.
The Spartans were paced by two 3rd place finishes. Returning NCAA Champ Franklin Gomez failed to defend his Big Ten title as he fell yesterday in the 133lb semifinals to Daniel Dennis of Iowa. However, the Spartan senior came back with a dominant 10-3 win over Tyler Graff of Wisconsing today to finish 3rd.
Anthony Jones capped off a great tournament with an overtime win over Jake Kerr of Iowa. Jones won earlier today in overtime as well against #8 ranked Kurt Kinser of Indiana, marking the 2nd time is as many days that Jones beat Kinser in an overtime match. Jones entered the tournament unseeded, but won 4 matches over seeded opponents en route to his 3rd place finish.
Gomez and Jones each locked up NCAA Tournament berths with their top 4 finishes, David Cheza and Ian Hinton did the same finishing 6th at 149 and 174lbs respectively, as each weight awarded the top 6 with automatic bids.
The University of Michigan finished 9th overall with two automatic NCAA Qualifiers in Justin Zeerip and Anthony Biondo. Zeerip avenged a loss from Ian Hinton of MSU in the consolation semifinals to advance to the 3rd place match at 174lbs but lost to Jordan Blanton of Illinosi to finish 4th. Biondo won XXX over Logan Brown of Purdue to finish 3rd at 197lbs.
Click here for full brackets from the 2010 Big Ten Championships.
Click here to read Big Ten Day #2 Live Blog Notes
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MSU junior Anthony Jones earned his second straight NCAA Tournament berth with a 3rd place finish at 157lbs
