Angel Escobedo wins 3rd-straight Big Ten title

The Big Ten Championships did not go the way the Hoosiers envisioned this weekend in Ann Arbor, Mich. An eighth-place finish was an improvement from last year’s ninth-place result, but it was not the strong finish to the season many had predicted.

However, coming home with the 125-pound title and having four guys earn automatic trips to the NCAA Championships is not a bad consolation prize for the cream and crimson.

The brightest moment of the weekend came when senior Angel Escobedo etched his name into the IU record books, becoming the first Hoosier ever to win three Big Ten titles.

“It was definitely a challenge that I haven’t faced all year, but I knew that I needed to battle through adversity and find other ways to win,” Escobedo said.

Waiting for Escobedo at Sunday afternoon’s 125-pound championship was Iowa’s No. 3 Matt McDonough, who came in at a perfect 32-0. In a battle of two undefeated lightweights, something had to give — luckily for Escobedo, it was McDonough’s undefeated season.

After a series of stalemates, Escobedo found himself in an extremely rare position. The former national champion was down in riding time by more than one minute, which also meant he was technically losing the match.

But Escobedo was not about to let a freshman keep him from making more Hoosier history. A couple of takedowns were all Escobedo needed to close out McDonough by a 6-4 final score.

While he got Sunday started off with a bang for the Hoosiers, it would be the only time they would stand atop the podium.

The Bloomington South duo of juniors Kurt Kinser and Paul Young both notched fifth-place finishes in their respective weight classes. The finish propelled Young to an automatic NCAA qualifier.

Sophomore Matt Powless will be making his first trip to the NCAAs thanks to his seventh-place finish at 197 pounds.

Rounding out the weekend for the Hoosiers was senior heavyweight Nate Everhart, who dropped his first match of the year to Iowa’s Daniel Erickson 9-6 in the final round.

While Everhart had hopes of an undefeated senior campaign, he is still in position as one of the favorites to take home the heavyweight crown at the NCAAs.

“Obviously, we could have done a lot better with all of the talent that we have,”
Escobedo said. “But it’s a lot better that this happened in the Big Tens rather than at Nationals, because now we have two weeks to focus on what we did wrong.”