March 22, 2008

Final 2008 NCAA Championships Bracket and Team Scores

2008 NCAA Championships - Mike Poeta Title Match 

ST. LOUIS - Two-time All-American junior No. 2 seed Mike Poeta took second at the NCAA Championships, dropping a tight 5-4 bout to Cornell's No. 8 seed Jordan Leen in the 157-pound title match. Poeta becomes Illinois' highest national placer since Kyle Ott finished second at 125 pounds in 2005. He also is Illinois' first two-time All-American since Ott, Mark Jayne and Brian Glynn accomplished the feat in 2005. As a team, Illinois finished 14th with 40.5 points, its highest team finish since 2005.

"Mike had a great tournament," Illinois head coach Mark Johnson said. "It's disappointing that he wasn't able to come away with a national championship, but he's a junior so he's got another shot at it."

After a scoreless first three minutes, Leen shot and converted a takedown with 50 seconds, but Poeta escaped with 10 seconds left to trail 2-1 after a period. In the second, Leen started down and escaped after 30 seconds. One minute later, Leen shot and Poeta was called for fleeing the mat, giving Leen a 4-1 edge. Poeta nearly countered the shot but the two were ruled out of bounds before any scoring to leave the score 4-1 after two periods. Poeta started down in the third and escaped after 45 seconds, then got a body lock and pass-by for the takedown with 51 seconds left, tying the match at 4. Off the restart, Poeta let Leen up in order to attempt to win the bout in regulation. He took a number of shots in the final 40 seconds but Leen fended all of them off and won the match, 5-4.

Poeta finishes his junior campaign with a 35-3 record, which is the eighth-best season winning percentage (.921) and is tied for the ninth-most wins in school history. He also now has the third-highest career winning percentage in Illinois history (.871, 88-13). He also is head coach Mark Johnson's 10th two-time All-American during his tenure at Illinois.

TEAM STANDINGS
1.	Iowa	117.5
2.	Ohio State	79.0
3.	Penn State	75.0
4.	Nebraska	74.0
5.	Iowa State	72.0
	Oklahoma State	72.0
7.	Central Michigan	69.0
	Michigan	69.0
9.	Cornell	67.0
10.	Minnesota	61.5
14.	ILLINOIS	40.5

WEIGHT-BY-WEIGHT RESULTS
157: No. 2 seed, #2 Mike Poeta 
First Round: Bye
Second Round: dec. #17 Newly McSpadden (Oklahoma State), 3-2
Quarterfinals: dec. No. 10 seed, #12 Michael Chandler (Missouri), 7-3
Semifinals: dec. No. 3 seed, #3 Dan Vallimont (Penn State), 6-5
Championship: dec. by No. 8 seed, #8 Jordan Leen (Cornell), 5-4
Poeta finishes second