Dec. 10, 1999
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - The 23rd-ranked Purdue wrestling team escaped Columbia, Mo., on Friday night with a hard-fought 19-15 victory over Missouri. With the win the Boilers improve to 2-2 on the season, while the Tigers fall to 1-3.
"I thought we came out pretty flat," coach Jessie Reyes said. "With finals next week, I thought the kids were looking towards exams and not at the task at hand. We traveled today to make sure the kids could stay in class. Except for a few guys, we seemed to just go through the motions. I thought Evan Robinson pretty much controlled the match, Kirk Moore did a really nice job scoring a major and Jake Vercelli for hanging in there in overtime and picking up the win."
The outcome of the meet was not decided until the final match of the evening. Three regulation periods could not decide the heavyweight match between Purdue sophomore Jake Vercelli and Missouri's Chad Hertzog. The wrestlers were tied at one after seven minutes of competition. Neither Vercelli or Hertzog scored in the first overtime, sending the match deeper into sudden-death. Hertzog won the coin flip and chose down, intending to escape from Vercelli for one point and the win, but Purdue's big man held on for the thirty second overtime period and Purdue was awarded a win via tiebreaker and took the dual 19-15. The match started off with Purdue's All-American sophomore Jason Silverstein receiving a forfeit at 125-pounds. At 133-pounds, 19th-ranked Purdue junior Evan Robinson remained unbeaten in eight matches with a 12-5 victory over Mark Bader to run the Purdue lead to 9-0. Then the Tiger trio of Jeremy Spates, Jeff Urban, and Jessie Jordan came through with three wins to knot the dual at nine. At 165-pounds, Purdue's redshirt freshman Kirk Moore helped the Boilers' reclaim the lead with a convincing 10-2 major decision over Mark Vollmar, but the lead was short lived as Missouri's John Kopnisky was there to pick his team up with an 11-7 win over Jon Fitch. With Purdue leading 13-12, Old Gold and Black sophomore Jared Williams won a tough bout over Josh Maze 10-5 to push the lead to 16-12 with two matches remaining. Missouri's Kevin Herron scored a takedown in overtime to defeat Purdue senior Mark Colegrove 3-1 to cut the lead to one with only the heavyweights remaining.
The Boilers are off next week because of final exams, but they return to the mat on Dec. 19 for the Reno Tournament of Champions.
Final: Purdue 19, Missouri 15125 Jason Silverstein (PU) win by forfeit133 Evan Robinson (PU) dec. Mark Bader (UM) 12-5141 Jeremy Spates (UM) dec. Luis Blanco (PU) 4-2149 Jeff Urban (UM) dec. Jimmy Hawthorne (PU) 7-1 157 Jesse Jordan (UM) dec. James Leavell (PU) 6-3165 Kirk Moore (PU) major dec. Mark Vollmar (UM) 10-2174 John Kopnisky (UM) dec. Jon Fitch (PU) 7-4184 Jared Williams (PU) dec. Josh Maze (UM) 10-5 197 Kevin Herron (UM) dec. Mark Colegrove (PU) 3-1 (OT)Hwt. Jake Vercelli (PU) dec. Chad Hertzog (UM) 2-1 (Sudden-Death Overtime)