Spartans Conclude Action at Big Ten Wrestling Championships

March 8, 2015

Final Brackets

COLUMBUS, Ohio - The Michigan State wrestling team concluded action at the Big Ten Championships Sunday afternoon at St. John Arena on the campus of Ohio State University.

Senior 184-pounder John Rizqallah, who automatically qualified to the NCAA Championships in Saturday's second session after pinning Northwestern's Mitch Sliga in the ninth-place semifinal, took Purdue's Patrick Kissel to overtime in the ninth-place match, but was pinned in the extra session (7:48).

Rizqallah led 2-0 after the first period, but Kissel tied the match at 3 on a takedown with just 10 seconds remaining before getting the fall in sudden victory. Rizqallah was already assured of his third straight trip to the NCAA Championships as the top-10 finishers in the 184-pound division at the Big Ten Championships automatically receive a bid to the national meet. The native of Allegan, Michigan, also qualified for the NCAA Championships in 2013 and 2014.

"John was battling sickness all week and barely practiced, but found a way to get it done in a very challenging weight class," said MSU head coach Tom Minkel. "That was huge for him. When he had to win, he delivered. It's an incredible accomplishment to qualify for the NCAA Championships three years in a row."

Junior Nick Trimble took eighth place at 149 pounds for the Spartans. Trimble fell in the seventh-place match by a 9-3 decision to Purdue's Brandon Nelsen, coming up just one place short of automatically reaching the NCAA Championships. The top-seven finishers at 149 pounds advanced to nationals.

"Nick is one of the hardest working kids on the team, and it was heartbreaking when he came up just short," remarked Minkel. "He was right there. Nick has always been dedicated, but I think he left the venue committed to strive for even further improvement next season to put himself in a position to make the NCAA Championships a year from now."

Senior Nick McDiarmid was also just one match away from qualifying for the NCAA Championships, but he lost by fall (4:32) in the ninth-place match to fifth-seeded and 13th-ranked Aaron Studebaker of Nebraska. McDiarmid ended up taking 10th place in the 197-pound bracket; the top-nine placers in the weight class received automatic berths to the NCAAs.

"Nick wrestled wide open and really went after it this weekend," Minkel said. "I was enormously disappointed for him that he didn't automatically qualify; he's been so close the last two years. He still has a fighting chance to get an at-large bid, so we'll have to wait and see how the brackets play out."

As a team, the Spartans placed 13th with 12.5 points.

"There's no doubt about it, this is the toughest Big Ten Championships I've been to in my 24 years as a head coach," said Minkel. "The Big Ten continues to get better and better every year. Unfortunately, we didn't perform at the level we wanted to and it was a difficult tournament for us. We had some tough draws and we've been battling the flu as a team for a couple of weeks, but that's part of the challenge and adversity of college athletics. No one on the team mentioned that or complained about the health issues we faced. I thought we wrestled and competed hard, but the bottom line is I think it affected our performance, and I know it showed during practice.

"I had a good talk with the team afterwards, and I said there's two ways you can take it: either accept it, or respond to the challenge. And I think they will take the route of responding to the challenge and continue to work hard as we move forward."

The remaining at-large berths for the NCAA Championships, along with the complete brackets for nationals, will be announced on Wednesday, March 11.

The 2015 NCAA Wrestling Championships are set for March 19-21 (Thursday-Saturday) at the Scottrade Center in St. Louis.