Two Sooners Selected for NWCA All-Star Classic

Oct. 11, 2012

The Sooners will send a pair of wrestlers, Nick Lester and Kendric Maple, to the 2012 NWCA All-Star Classic presented by the United States Marine Corps on Saturday, Nov. 3 at American University in Washington, D.C - a first for each wrestler.

The 141-pound weight class bout will feature Maple and B.J. Futrell of the University of Illinois, while Lester will wrestle against Jason Chamberlain of Boise State in the 149-pound weight class.

Since the NWCA All-Star Classic began 45 years ago in 1967, Oklahoma has sent 39 total wrestlers to date - many more than once. Both Lester and Maple will mark the 40^th and 41^st Sooners invited to the event, respectively. For the third straight year an Oklahoma wrestler has been invited to the event (2010-12), the third longest streak in program history.

For four straight years from 1970-73, a Sooner wrestler had been present at the Classic, while most recently, the Crimson and Cream had sent wrestlers for six straight years from 2002-07.

Maple returns to the Sooner squad after a breakout sophomore campaign which featured a Big 12 Championship, an NCAA Championship fourth-place finish and the first All-America honor of his young career at 141 pounds. Last year, Maple finished with a 32-3 overall record and 17-1 record in dual competition. Heading into the 2012 season, he has accumulated a 65-15 career record while in the Crimson and Cream.

At the conclusion of the 2011-12 season, Maple led Oklahoma in six separate categories: falls (7), major decisions (15), takedowns (72) near falls in duals (23), overall wins (32) and percent of bouts won (91.4%).

Last year, Maple became one of only three wrestlers in Big 12 history to win three conference honors in one season after he was Big 12 Wrestler of the Week twice, in addition to being named Wrestler of the Month for December of 2011.

Futrell, currently a redshirt senior at Illinois, is a two-time All-American who finished third at the 2012 Big Ten Championships and took fourth at the NCAA Championships in the 133-pound weight class. He completed the 2011-12 season with a 30-9 overall record, 16-4 in duals and 7-1 in Big Ten competition. On the year he led the Fighting Illini in pins (13) to tie a 57-year-old program record set by Larry TenPas during the 1954-55 season.

Lester, a returning All-American for Oklahoma, will make his way to Washington D.C., after a 2011-12 season that saw him finish 23-13 on the year with four pins, five tech falls and seven major decisions for the Crimson and Cream.

An automatic qualifier for the 2012 NCAA Championships, Lester opened national action with an upset over Binghamton's fourth-seeded Donald Vinson, 9-4, and eventually took eighth in his 149-pound weight class. Lester also took third at the 2012 Big 12 Championships thanks to a tech fall victory over Iowa State's Joe Cazart.

Chamberlain, a senior at Boise State, is a returning All-American for the Broncos after taking an Olympic redshirt during the 2011-12 season. He enters his senior campaign as the top-ranked 149-pound wrestler by Win-Magazine.com. A 2012 World University Games competitor, Chamberlain is a two-time Pac-12 Champion (2009, 11) at Boise State that owns a 77-21 overall record.

The NWCA All-Star Classic presented by the United States Marine Corps will occur on November 3, 2012 at 7:30 p.m. in Bender Arena on the campus of American University in Washington D.C. The NWCA All-Star classic is hosted by the DC Athletic Club and Greater Washington Business Network and is also sponsored by Balance Bar.

To purchase tickets to the 2012 NWCA All-Star Classic presented by the United States Marine Corps event please visit American University's website, here.

For more information on the event, visit the NWCA website and follow the NWCA Facebook and Twitter pages.

The NWCA Classic serves as a premier event to help grow the sport of wrestling. Proceeds from the event will go towards supporting the sport in the Washington DC area.