Hoosiers End 2013 at Midlands Championships

Dec. 27, 2013

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. - #22 Indiana puts a bow on 2013 by entering the 51st edition of the Ken Kraft Midlands Championships, widely considered the premier amatuer wrestling tournament during the collegiate regular season, in Evanston, Ill., on Dec. 29-30. Championship finals bouts will be aired live on the Big Ten Network starting at 9 p.m. ET on Monday, Dec. 30.

This year's Midlands feature more than 40 schools, with an assortment of national champions and national powers from Division I, II, III and NAIA programs participating in this historic event. Twenty-six Division-I programs are expected to compete, including seven Big Ten schools and 2014 conference member Maryland. The No. 1 ranked team in D-I, D-II and NAIA are also in the field. Of the 26 D-I institutions, 14 are nationally-ranked by either Intermat or the USA Today Coaches Poll.

Full list of expected Division-I teams (Intermat/Coaches Poll): Brown, Cal Poly, Columbia, CSU-Bakersfield, Eastern Michigan, #6/15 Edinboro, Franklin & Marshall, George Mason, Harvard, #11/11 Illinois, #22/- Indiana, #3/3 Iowa, #19/20 Lehigh, #15/- Maryland, #16/19 Michigan, #25/- North Dakota State, Northern Illinois, #14/10 Northern Iowa, Princeton, -/#21 Purdue, -/#25 Rider, SIUE, Utah Valley, -/#14 Virginia Tech, #24/23 Wisconsin, #9/16 Northwestern.

Individually, up to 117 projected NCAA qualifiers will be in the field and a minimum of nine in each weight class according to this week's national rankings.

Thirteen Hoosiers are making the trip. The IU contingent includes:
125 lbs - Joe Duca, r-Jr. (8-6)
133 lbs - Chris Caton, Fr. (10-7) 
133 lbs - Kyle Springer, Fr. (4-1)
141 lbs - Ethan Raley, r-So. (17-5)
149 lbs - #33 Eric Roach, r-Fr. (12-4)
157 lbs - #5 Taylor Walsh, r-Jr. (21-0)
165 lbs - #22 Ryan LeBlanc, r-Sr. (22-4)
174 lbs - Matt Irick, r-Fr. (6-8)
174 lbs - Nate Jackson, r-Fr. (6-4)
184 lbs - #14 Luke Sheridan, Jr. (20-3)
197 lbs - Garret Goldman, r-So. (10-8)
285 lbs - #8 Adam Chalfant, r-Sr. (15-1)
*unattached 149 lbs - Neal Molloy, Fr. (9-5)

EVENT COVERAGE
• Twitter: @IUWrestling1; @NU_SportsLIVE
• Midlands Website

Complete Match Notes

I'LL SHOW YOU HOW IT'S DONE
Associate head coach Nick Simmons knows a thing or two about Midlands success, thrice winning the championship during his collegiate career at Michigan State.

NATIONALLY-RANKED HOOSIERS
Five Hoosiers are ranked amongst the country's elite this week:
#5 Taylor Walsh (157 lbs)
#8 Adam Chalfant (285 lbs)
#14 Luke Sheridan (184 lbs)
#22 Ryan LeBlanc (165 lbs)
#33 Eric Roach (133 lbs)

FRIENDLY CONFINES OF U-GYM
• IU is 7-1 in home dual matches
• IU's 46-0 blanking of VMI is its first D-I shutout since besting Clarion 49-0 on Jan. 18, 2009
• IU's 52-0 win over Manchester is its largest margin of victory since topping Manchester 58-0 during the 2008-09 season
• Walsh, LeBlanc, Sheridan and Chalfant have yet to lose at home this season

PIN KING
Redshirt junior Taylor Walsh is racking up pins at an all-time rate through the first half of the season. Walsh sits at 21-0 with 18 falls. Cornell's Kyle Dake paced all of D-I wrestling with 18 pins during the entire 2012-13 season.

Walsh's 18 pins already rank second all-time at IU for a single season, chasing the top spot of 19 by Rod Chamberlin in 1981. The slap of the mat from a referee's palm is nothing new for Walsh, accumulating 39 pins in his career thus far (fifth most in school history).

BIG TEN DOING BIG THINGS
As a conference, the Big Ten is a combined 58-10 in 68 non-conference duals during the 2013-14 campaign, good for a 85.3 winning percentage. Ten B1G schools can be found in the USA Today Coaches Poll Top-25 and nine conference teams crack Intermat's Top-25 this week.