HERO: Payam Zarrinpour, Sacred Heart
Heavyweight Payam Zarrinpour became the first All-America in any sport at Sacred Heart University in Fairfield, Conn., when he beat Iowa State’s David Zabriskie, 9-6, in the consolation bracket. Zarrinpour will finish no worse than eighth.
GOAT: Darrion Caldwell, North Carolina State
In the 141 quarterfinals, he blew his chance to pin top-seeded Ryan Lang of Northwestern — twice — then got pinned himself in the first period. Live by the pin, die by the pin.
HIGHLIGHTS
CONTACT SPORT: Penn’s Matt Valenti, the defending champ at 133, had to stop his quarterfinal match twice to reinsert one of his contact lenses. Valenti eventually saw his way to a 4-0 win over Minnesota’s Mack Reiter.
LOUDEST CHEER: The Palace crowd erupted over the insanely intense quarterfinal action between Caldwell and Lang. They came out trading blows like it was the Hagler-Hearns fight. Like that bout, Caldwell-Lang ended too quickly.
LOUDEST BOO: The Palace crowd let the referees have it in the 125-pound semifinals when they called a one-point stalling penalty on Cornell’s Troy Nickerson that led to a 2-1 quadruple-overtime victory for Nebraska’s Paul Donahoe, a Davison native.
QUOTABLE
“That was the goal. I missed that first one, that pigtail. It’s like the NCAA basketball tournament, that’s a play-in match, it doesn’t even count for the tournament. So if I pin these next guys, I pin through the tournament in my mind.”
Missouri’s Ben Askren, the defending 174-pound champ, on his attempt to pin every opponent this week. He has three pins after winning his first match by technical fall.
TWO CENTS
It’s for all the marbles tonight as a lifetime of devotion comes down to seven minutes for 20 wrestlers. The only time you’ll be likely to see more crying at a sporting event is after a Lions game.
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