Sooners Stand Third after Day One at Midlands

Dec. 29, 2011

No. 9 Oklahoma at Midlands
Date & Time	Dec. 29-30, All Day
Location	Evanston, Ill. \| Welsh-Ryan Arena
Television	Big Ten Network (Finals to air on tape-delay at 9:30 p.m. CT Dec. 30)
Internet	Radio \| Webcast (Thursday's quarterfinals)
Updates	Championship Central
Oklahoma Info	2011-12 Roster \| Staff
Schedule	2011-12 Sooner wrestling schedule

EVANSTON, ILL. – Oklahoma stands third after day one of the Midlands Championships, hosted by Northwestern University, with five Sooners in contention to take home individual crowns and three more remaining in wrestleback action.

After the first day, Oklahoma sits at No. 3 with 69 points and is just shy of Northwestern with 71 points. Iowa leads the pack with 79.5 points. Edinboro (56) and Illinois (47.5) round out the top five.

Jarrod Patterson (125 pounds), Kendric Maple (141), Nick Lester (149), Matt Lester (157) and Bubby Graham (165) remain alive in championship brackets. OU is tied with Iowa for the most championship contenders remaining.

Patterson won three straight bouts by decision on the day and will face the No. 2 seed, Iowa's Matt McDonough, in the semifinals on Friday.

Maple continued his to earn bonus points for the Sooners after he won three matches by major decision and one via a technical fall. Maple takes on Bebeto Yewah in the semifinals on Friday.

At 149 pounds Nick Lester cruised to the semifinals by winning four bouts (one fall, one technical fall and two decisions) on Thursday. Lester faces a stiff challenge on Friday when he takes on Rutgers' top-seeded Mario Mason.

Matt Lester earned three victories on the day after earning bonus points in each of his bouts. Lester earned two major decision wins and a pin in route to the semifinals where he will face Jason Welch, the No. 1 seed from Northwestern.

Graham became OU's final wrestler to advance to semifinal action after he upset Rutgers' second seeded Scott Winston in overtime, 3-1. Prior to that, Graham earned two victories by decision.

Three Sooners – Jordan Keller (133), Erich Schmidtke (184) and Keldrick Hall (197) -- remain alive in wrestleback action and will continue competition on Friday.

Keller dropped his third round match to Iowa's Tyler Clark, the No. 9 seed, by a 7-2 decision. In the wrestlebacks Keller won two straight and will face Stanford's seventh-seeded Ryan Mango on Friday.

Schmidtke earned two victories by decision before falling to PU's Braden Atwood, the No. 5 seed. Schmidtke faces Edinboro's Vic Avery on Friday.

OU's final wrestler in the wrestlebacks, Hall, went 3-1 on the day and posted one major decision victory. Hall faces fourth-seeded Christian Boley of Maryland on Friday.

Action begins Friday at noon with semifinal action, consolation rounds and 7th place matches inside the Welsh-Ryan Arena.

Friday's Semifinal Matchups
125 - (3) Jarrod Patterson (OU) vs. (2) Matt McDonough (Iowa)
141 - (3) Kendric Maple (OU) vs. (11) Bebeto Yewah (UW LaC)
149 - (4) Nick Lester (OU) vs. (1) Mario Mason (Rutgers)
157 - (4) Matt Lester (OU) vs. (1) Jason Welch (Northwester)
165 – (10) Bubby Graham (OU) vs. (6) Pete Yates (VA Tech)

Sooners Stand Third after Day One at Midlands

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Sooners Stand Third after Day One at Midlands

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