March 5, 2007
Senior Phil Kruzel earned the University of Chicago Wrestling program its latest All-American this weekend at the NCAA Division III Wrestling Championships held at the Five Flags Center in Dubuque, IA. It was not an easy task.
Phil placed eighth in the nation in a 165 pound bracket that featured four returning NCAA placers – including Marcus Levesseur who was shooting for his 4th NCAA title. Besides those returning All-Americans there were four other 165 pounders in the field who had competed in the NCAA tournament the previous year – and two of those were competing in the NCAA Division III Tournament for the third time.
Finally the 165 pound bracket had two additional athletes who had placed in this year’s Midlands – a very prestigious tournament featuring some of the best NCAA Division I athletes in the nation. One of the wrestlers in Kruzel’s bracket had taken 5th place in the Midlands at 165 for U of Wisconsin LaCrosse and another had taken a Midlands’ 5th in the 157 pound weight class for Division I power Iowa State before he transferred to Wartburg College this past January.
This was Phil’s first time at the NCAA Tournament and even with a 29-3 record he could not get seeded in his loaded weight class. In the first round he drew the #2 seed, LaCrosse’s Midlands placer Tim Palmer. Kruzel performed well – he was down 5-3 with 15 seconds to go when he made a nothing-to-lose shot and lost 7-3. The loss put Phil in the consolation round where he needed two wins in a row to earn a spot in the top eight and gain NCAA All-American status.
Phil’s next match was against Luther College’s Nate Van Dyke, a returning national qualifier who was ranked as high as seventh in the nation this season in the Division III Coaches Poll. Phil picked up a solid 6-4 win by scoring two takedowns, an escape, and a riding time point to Van Dyke’s three escapes and a stalling point with five seconds left.
York College’s Gerald Bowne was what now stood between Kruzel and being an NCAA placer. Bowne and Kruzel were meeting in the emotionally charged and pressure packed part of the nationals known as the All-American round. The fourth-seeded Bowne placed 5th in the 2006 NCAA tournament and gave the 2006 NCAA Champion his closest match in last year’s nationals – an overtime 5-7 loss in the semifinals.
Phil was catching Bowne coming off of a quarterfinal loss to the Iowa State transfer now wrestling for Wartburg College. Our coaches had scouted Bowne in the preliminary round and knew he was a superior wrestler from the top and bottom position. We had decided Kruzel should wrestle him on his feet as much as possible and when given his choice Phil would pick the neutral - not bottom - position.
In the biggest match of his career Kruzel was ready to wrestle – he put together three takedowns, a reversal and a riding time point to score nine points in seven minutes. But in those same seven minutes Bowne had five escapes and two takedowns for nine points as well. Overtime. Forty seconds into the first minute of overtime Kruzel stopped a shot of Bowne’s and in the flurry scored with an explosive shot of his own giving the University of Chicago its 21st All-American wrestler.
The next day Phil wrestled two matches to determine where he would place in the top eight. He wrestled well but lost his first match in a wild scramble with less than a minute left – the scramble could have gone either way and it just did not go Phil’s. In the match for seventh place Phil was wrestling the 2006 fourth place finisher and this year’s tournament third seed. Down by one point with 20 seconds left Phil tried a risky maneuver knowing it made no real difference if he lost by one point or five – he lost by five.
The 2007 NCAA Division III 165 pound bracket proved to be every bit as strong as it looked on paper. The champion was the first individual in Division III history to win four NCAA Titles and he could only manage a 3-0 win against the 6th seed in the championship match.
Phil’s performance this year exceeded a lot of knowledgeable people’s expectations – but not the expectations of his teammates, his coaches, and himself. He finished the season at 31-6. In the All-American round he eliminated a 2006 NCAA place-winner from the tournament and even in his losses he was able to keep himself in a position to win every single match late in the third period against outstanding NCAA All-Americans. In his first and only national tournament Phil Kruzel definitely rose to the occasion.
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