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Illini Send 3 to NCAA Championships
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Senior John Dergo earned the No. 2 seed at 184 pounds when the NCAA released the brackets for the 2010 NCAA Championships Wednesday.
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March 10, 2010
2010 NCAA Championships Brackets 
INDIANAPOLIS - Second-ranked John Dergo earned the No. 2 seed for the NCAA Championships March 18-20 at the Qwest Center in Omaha, Neb. Dergo recently took home the Big Ten championship at 184 pounds and is one of three Fighting Illini to earn spots in the NCAA field. Sophomore Jordan Blanton will be the No. 10 seed at 174 pounds following his third-place finish at the Big Ten Championships, and senior Patrick Bond earned the No. 11 seed at 197 pounds after taking fifth place at the Big Ten Championships.
Dergo, who takes a 31-2 record into the tournament, will face Pittsburgh's Zac Thomusseit in the first round, with the winner taking on the victor of the match between Liberty's Nick Knowles and UNC Greensboro's Andrew Saunders in the second round. Dergo defeated Thomusseit 9-4 earlier this year in a dual, the only time the pair have met previously. Thomusseit wrestled Blanton twice last year with Blanton earning a pair of wins.
Blanton (26-7), the No. 10 seed at 174, will square off with Iowa State's Duke Burk, who defeated Blanton 9-8 at Midlands earlier this year. The winner of the Blanton/Burk match will face the winner of a match between No. 7 seed Ben Bennett (Central Michigan) and Robert Hamlin (Lehigh) in the second round.
Bond (22-12), who earned the No. 11 seed at 197, will take on Pittsburgh's Matt Wilps. Bond defated Wilps by a 5-1 score in the teams' dual in 2008. The Bond/Wilps winner will square off with the winner of No. 6 Eric Lapotsky (Oklahoma) vs. Matt Powless (Indiana) in the second round.
The NCAA Championships begin on Thursday, March 18, at 11 a.m. at the Qwest Center in Omaha, Neb. Both sessions on Friday and Saturday's medal round will be broadcast on ESPNU, with Saturday night's championship session being aired on ESPN.
