March 14, 2007

2007 NCAA Championship Brackets
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ATHENS, Ohio - Ohio sophomore Jake Frerichs is going national. The 157-pound Bobcat will be representing Ohio at the NCAA Wrestling Championship in Auburn Hills, Mich. beginning with a Thursday evening match up with Nebraska's Chris Oliver.

"I have been training all year for this," Frerichs said. "I'm going to go out there and try to be an All-American. That's my goal. I am going to go out there and see what I've got."

Frerichs (Uniontown, Ohio) took second place at the 2007 Mid-American Conference Championship at 157 pounds and earned a wildcard birth to the NCAA Championship. He has posted a 19-8 record this season heading into the national tournament. The sophomore Bobcat has won four times by fall and has not been pinned in either of his first two seasons of varsity competition.

Frerichs went 14-9 during the 2005-06 season in his first varsity season with the Bobcats, giving him a career record of 33-17 in two seasons. He was named Ohio's Most Valuable Wrestler as a freshman last season by Ohio Head Coach Joel Greenlee. Frerichs also finished second in the 2006 MAC Championship but did not earn admission to nationals.

"Jake is the kind of guy where the bigger the competition is, the better he does," Greenlee said. "He's smart and he's been in big competitions before. I think he can go (to nationals) and win matches."

The task will not be easy for Frerichs, who begins his quest at nationals with Nebraska's Oliver. Oliver, also a sophomore, is the ninth-seeded wrestler in the bracket and was ranked eighth in the country at 157 pounds in the latest USA Today/NWCA/InterMat Coaches Poll. He posted a 19-7 record for the Cornhuskers this season.

Frerichs is familiar with his opponent, as the two wrestled in freestyle competition during the 2004-05 season. Both were redshirting for their respective schools that season.

"I wrestled him my freshman year in freestyle and he beat me by a point," Frerichs said, "but it's two years later now. It doesn't really matter who I wrestle. Oliver is ranked eighth in the country. If I become a national champion he is going to be my easiest match. I just have to go out there and wrestle my match and not let them wrestle theirs."

Should Frerichs pull the upset over Oliver, he would likely advance to face eighth-seeded Seth Martin of Lock Haven in the Friday morning quarterfinal. Martin faces unseeded Josh Zupancic of Stanford Thursday night. If Frerichs loses to Oliver, he will wrestle against Thursday night and face the loser between West Virginia's Zac Fryling and UT-Chattanooga's Jacob Yost.

Ohio wrestling is no stranger to sending 157-pound wrestlers to national competition. Jake Percival, a 2005 Bobcat senior, made the trip to nationals four consecutive years from 2002-05. He took second place in 2004 and third place in 2005 wrestling at 157 pounds and took fourth in 2002 and fifth in 2003 wrestling at 149 pounds. Ohio's Dwight Gardner was a national champion for the Bobcats in 1998 wrestling at 158 pounds. The weight classes changed the following year.

"It is a sense of pride representing Ohio," Frerichs said. "It kind of stinks that I'm the only one (competing for Ohio) because it's always good rooting for your teammates. It's cool that I get to represent my school but I wish that I had other teammates there with me."

Frerichs kicks off national competition Thursday night at the Palace of Auburn Hills.