NEBRASKA 89 ALL-AMERICANS
WRESTLING
18 TOP 10 NCAA FINISHES
1 Hodge Trophy Winner
capturing the 165-pound title by winning his first four matches of the tournament in bonus-point fashion. In the finals, Burroughs beat the defending national champion and No. 1 ranked Andrew Howe of Wisconsin, 10-7, in the finals. For his efforts, Burroughs was awarded the Dan Gable Most Outstanding wrestler award for the tournament. Ihnen joined Burroughs in the finals at Midlands by upsetting No. 4 Grant Gambrall of Iowa in dramatic fashion in the semifinals. Tied at 2-2 after three periods, Ihnen was able to record a takedown and a win in the sudden-victory period to advance to the finals. In the title match, Ihnen dropped a hard-fought match to No. 6 Travis Rutt of Wisconsin, 4-3. Kiley and James Nakashima finished in eighth place at the tournament. Nebraska embarked on a seven-dual road swing next, which saw them go 5-2 including a victory over No. 7 Missouri. The Huskers opened the trip by traveling to Grand Prairie, Texas for a trio of duals against Utah Valley, Stanford and Brown at the Lone Star Duals. NU swept through the triple-header, with its closest match being a 19-17 victory over Stanford. The Huskers took down Utah Valley 22-12, and Brown, 37-3, in the final match. The third and final Big Ten opponent was on tap for Nebraska, as the Huskers traveled to Madison, Wis., to take on the No. 4 Badgers on Jan. 21. NU claimed victories from Burroughs, Koehnlein, Klingsheim and Johnson, but could not pull off the upset falling by the score of 22-15. The Huskers responded two days later with an 18-15 victory over Northern Iowa in Cedar Falls, Iowa. Nebraska again entered the final match of the dual trailing by one team point, but Johnson carried the Huskers to victory after his major decision over Jarion Beets at 197 pounds. The win was NU’s 10th dual victory of the season and marked the ninth time since 2000 the Huskers had recorded 10 dual wins. The Huskers finished their seven-dual road swing by opening Big 12 Conference dual action against the Oklahoma Sooners and Missouri Tigers. Both matches were decided by one point, with the Huskers coming out on the winning end against the Tigers. After falling behind the Sooners 17-9, Burroughs broke a streak of five straight OU victories with his 7-3 decision over No. 2 Tyler Caldwell. The victory sparked NU, which won the last two matches at 174 and 184 pounds, but fell one point short of the victory, 17-16. Caleb Kolb defeated Jeff James of Oklahoma, 5-3, while Ihnen took down Erich Schmidtke by major decision, 8-0. Nebraska responded with its own one-point victory over the No. 7 Tigers, which marked the highest ranked opponent NU has defeated since 2008. Ihnen and Johnson both recorded victories over nationally ranked opponents in the 184- and 197-pound matches, respectively, to put away the Tigers, 17-16. The win was NU’s first Big 12 victory of the season. A welcomed return trip home for a pair of matches against Arizona State and Oklahoma State were up next for NU. The Huskers dominated the Sun Devils, 35-8, while not allowing a takedown in the duals first four contests. NU couldn’t find as much luck against the No. 5 Cowboys, falling by 22-10 score.
Season Review
40 NWCA ALL-ACADEMIC TEAM
Andy Johnson finished the season with a 28-13 record at 197 pounds and was one of seven NCAA qualifiers for the Huskers.
In its final road dual of the season, NU took down ACC foe North Carolina in dominating fashion. The Huskers won the first six matches of the dual to gain a 21-0 lead, and won by a final count of 31-6. The most impressive win of the day came at 157 pounds where Tyler Koehn pinned No. 20 Coery Mock of North Carolina with only eight seconds remaining in the third period. Nebraska returned home to the Coliseum for senior night against the Iowa State Cyclones for the Huskers’ last Big 12 dual in school history. Three seniors, Mike Koehnlein, Jordan Burroughs and Andy Johnson, were honored before the match as part of Senior Night ceremonies. The Huskers took down the No. 17 Cyclones, 21-14, by winning five of the first six matches to gain a 17-4 lead. Johnson didn’t disappoint in his last match at home by beating No. 14 Jerome Ward, 5-3, to finish the regular season with a 25-9 record. Burroughs finished his home career with a major decision victory over Chris Spangler, 22-8. Burroughs and Klingsheim both claimed titles at the Big 12 Championships for the Huskers before NCAA’s, while Burroughs became only the second Husker alltime to win three Big 12 crowns. Burroughs squeezed by Caldwell from Oklahoma in the finals, 2-1, while Klingsheim made an unprecedented run through his bracket, upsetting two top-10 wrestlers in Oklahoma State’s Jon Morrison and Oklahoma’s Jarrod Patterson in the finals. As a team, the Huskers finished in fourth place with a total of 46.5 points. The Huskers remained outstanding in the classroom as the Nebraska wrestling program ranked eighth in team grade-point average (3.1343) in the NWCA academic rankings, while Lane and Ihnen were both named to the NWCA All-Academic squad. Lane was named a second-team CoSIDA Academic All-American, becoming only the fifth Husker in school history to earn the honor. As a team, Nebraska placed six members on the academic All-Big 12 squad, including first-team members Grande, Ihnen, Koehn, Lane and Nakashima, while Johnson was named to the second team.
Josh Ihnen finished his sophomore season one win short of becoming an All-American. The Sheldon, Iowa native finished the year with a 28-10 overall record.
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2011-12 Nebraska Wrestling Media Guide