Wrestling has all kinds of ratings. One of them ranks teams in championship-style tournaments. Like the Big Ten tournament this weekend inside Williams Arena.

InterMat’s tournament strength rankings have the U fifth. W.I.N. Magazine’s tournament power index ranks the Gophers second.

The defending national champions are the two-time Big Ten champions. And this time they get to wrestle at home. This is the first time the conference tournament has been here since 1997.

The tournament used to be an Iowa funfest. The Hawkeyes won 25 titles in a row until the Gophers won the 1999 conference title in  Ann Arbor, Mich. From that year on, Minnesota has won six conference titles and finished second the other three years.

The Gophers have a Big Ten-best 29 individual champions since 1997.

Three U wrestlers are defending champions” Jayson Ness at 125 pounds and the Schlatter brothers, Dustin at 149 and C.P. at 157.

Ness is 33-0, 8-0 in conference matches. He has 18 pins, two shy of the school record set by current assistant coach Marty Morgan in 1989-90. Ness is 15-1 with five pins in college against the field in this conference meet.

Ness has won 34 matches in a row, counting a victory in his last match last season. His streak is the seventh longest by a Gopher and the second longest currently in the nation. He is one of only five undefeated NCAA Division I wrestlers this season.

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 6th, 2008 at 10:49 pm and is filed under Gophers wrestling. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.