Albany, N.Y.-For the second consecutive season, senior Bryan Snyder had the 157-pound national title in his grasp, but couldn't hold on, this time dropping a 5-4 tiebreaker decision to Minnesota's Luke Becker Saturday Afternoon at the 2002 NCAA Wrestling Championships in Albany, N.Y. His bid to become the first wrestler in Nebraska history to finish a season undefeated falls short with a season mark of 33-1.
Snyder opened the finals match with a double-leg takedown just 10 seconds into bout on the edge of the mat, but was ruled out of bounds. Later on in the period, Becker started the scoring with a takedown at the 48-second mark, but Snyder quickly escaped to cut the lead to 2-1. The Easton, Pa., native answered with a takedown of his own with 24 seconds left in the opening frame to take a 3-2 lead, but Becker also escaped to tie the match at three.
At the start of both the second and third periods, Snyder and Becker each tallied escapes to lock the match up at four. With 40 seconds remaining, Snyder again got in deep with a double-leg takedown, but just as before, was ruled out of bounds.
After wrestling to a 4-4 tie through regulation, the match went to a one-minute sudden victory overtime period in which neither wrestler scored. Since Becker scored the match's first offensive point, he had the choice of starting position in the 30-second tiebreaker period, choosing down. Snyder, who needed to maintain control of Becker for the entire 30 seconds to win the match, was unable to hang on to Becker, who escaped just four seconds in, winning the national title, 5-4.
"That was basically their game plan and it played out for them," Head Coach Mark Manning said. "They wanted to get a takedown, hang out, hold Bryan off, be real defensive and back up. Bryan took some real good quality shots, but the kid wrestled on the edge of the mat."
In last season's 157-pound final, Snyder failed to hold down Iowa's T.J. Williams in the tiebreaker, dropping that match, 3-2.
"It's real tough to sum your whole career up by holding a guy down for 30 seconds on the bottom," Assistant Coach Shawn Charles said. "You train hard and do all of these things. It just doesn't seem like the right way to decide the best guy in the country."
Only Nebraska's second two-time NCAA finalist, Snyder finishes his career with a record of 136-11, which is still the best winning percentage in school history (.925). The first Husker to become a four-time All-American and four-time conference champion, his 136 wins ranks second on the NU all-time win chart.
"I'm hoping that we are going to have another guy like him, but they are very rare," Manning said. "He's got great qualities. You would want him as a son. He's a great kid and we're all proud of him. This doesn't blemish his career. He's a champion."
In the team race, Nebraska took eighth place with 54 points for the third consecutive season, despite finishing the regular season 8-9 and outside of the dual top-25 rankings for the first time since 1987-88. Minnesota captured its second-consecutive team title with 126.5 points. Iowa State took second with 104 points behind three individual titles, including Cael Sanderson's record-setting fourth national title, which upped his career record to 159-0.
Earlier in the day, sophomore Jason Powell and redshirt freshman Justin Ruiz of NU took fifth place at 125 and 197 pounds, respectively.
Powell, a native of Midwest City, Okla., knocked off third-seeded and Big 12 Champion Skyler Holman in the fifth-place match, 5-4. Powell opened up a 4-0 lead in the first period with a takedown and two-point near-fall to take control of the match. Holman scored a reversal in the second period and a takedown in the final 10 seconds of the match, but Powell's escape at the start of the final frame was the match's deciding point.
The ninth-seeded Powell finishes the season 29-8, despite wrestling for much of the second half of the season with a torn muscle in his right shoulder.
Unseeded entering the national championships, Ruiz posted a 5-2 record en route to becoming the fourth Husker freshman to earn All-America honors. In his fifth-place match, the Murray, Utah, native avenged a pair of losses to Missouri's fifth-seeded Scott Barker with a 7-6 decision. Ruiz threw Barker to his back for four points in the first period and never looked back.
"We feel good about the tournament," Manning said. "But like I said before, the difference between a good team and a great team is being up in the top-four where you challenge for a title. That's where we have to get. We'll have to have more Bryan Snyder's. We'll have to have four or five of those types of guys. That's what we're building for."
Although NU loses Snyder next season, the Huskers will return eight starters, four NCAA qualifiers and two All-Americans in 2002-03.
Championship Final Results
157 pounds #3 Luke Becker (Minnesota) dec. #1 Bryan Snyder (NU), 5-4, tb
Consolation Semifinal Results
125 pounds #4 Chris Fleeger (Purdue) dec. #9 Jason Powell (NU), 5-0
197 pounds #4 Nick Preston (Ohio State) dec. Justin Ruiz (NU), 1-1, tb
Fifth-Place Match Results
125 pounds #9 Jason Powell (NU) dec. #3 Skyler Holman (Oklahoma State), 5-4
197 pounds Justin Ruiz (NU) dec. #5 Scott Barker (Missouri), 7-6