Kent State University
NCAA Championships
Rooney and McNally Ready for NCAA Championships
3/20/2019 11:20:00 AM | Wrestling
Andrew McNally and Tim Rooney will represent Kent State University at the 89th NCAA Division I Wrestling Championships March 21-23, at PPG Paints Arena in Pittsburgh. The Ohio natives are both making first-time appearances in the season-ending tournament.
All 10 weight classes will have 33-men brackets battling for All-America (Top 8) honors. The 2019 tournament marks the first time all wrestlers are seeded 1-33. Thursday's opening session begins at noon Eastern.
Projected Opening Matchups with Seeds
133: No. 28 Tim Rooney (24-13) vs. No. 5 Luke Pletcher (23-5) Ohio State
184: No. 17 Andrew McNally (32-7) vs. No. 16 Corey Hazel (15-3) Lock Haven
Every Session Televised, Every Match Covered
All three prime-time sessions will be televised on ESPN, while all three day sessions can be seen on ESPNU. Mike Couzens, Shawn Kenney and Quint Kessenich anchor the telecast and Billy Baldwin will be the guest analyst.
All 640 matches will be carried on ESPN3 with individual feeds of all eight mats throughout the entire three-day competition. Announcers will be at each mat. ESPN3 will also offer additional coverage along with pregame and postgame shows.
Live scoring of all matches will be available on TrackWrestling.com throughout the tournament. Look for live updates on Twitter by following @KentStWrestling.
Tournament History
Since 2009, seven Flashes have combined for 12 All-American finishes, including two national final appearances by Dustin Kilgore, who became Kent State's first national champion in 2011. From 2009-16, Kent State carried an eight-year trend of having at least one All-American. It stood as the 10th longest streak in the nation.
Last year, Kyle Conel became the cinderalla story of the tournament, beginning his journey in the pigtail match of the 197-pound backet. Conel went 6-1 in his thrd place finish, while becoming the adopted fan favorite. He defeated No. 1 seed Kollin Moore (Ohio State) in both the quarterfinals and the consolation finals and had wins over the No 8 and 9 seeds. As a team, the Golden Flashes finished tied for 22nd place.
Twenty two different Golden Flashes have combined for 28 All-American finishes at the NCAA Championships dating back to Cameron Falcone's third place finish in 1939. That season under Head Coach Joe Begala, the Golden Flashes finished 12th as a team. Begala's teams earned fifth place in both 1941 and 1942, the highest finishes in program history. Until Kilgore's championship in 2011, 1941 & 1942 were the only two seasons in which Kent State wrestlers (Mike Slepecky, Walter Porowski) earned spots in the championship finals. The list of All-Americans includes current assistant coach Danny Mitcheff, who placed sixth in a loaded 133-pound bracket in 2010.
With the efforts of Begala, the M.A.C. Center in Kent served as the host of the NCAA Championships in 1963 and 1967.
Last year in Cleveland, Penn State won its seventh NCAA title in eight years.
Quick Shots
- The NWCA honored Kent State for having the second highest grade point average in the nation last season at 3.497, trailing only Harvard.
- The Golden Flashes earned their 800th dual win in program history this season.
- Isaac Bast (165) the team's lone senior finished with 95 career wins. Bast joined Andrew McNally with a title at the Clarion Open.
- At the South Beach Duals, the Flashes topped a Big Ten opponent (Michigan State) for the first time since 2013.
- Four of the Flashes' losses came against Top 8 opponents (Penn State, Iowa, Missouri, Minnesota)
- Junior Tim Rooney won a 133-pound title at the Cougar Clash on Dec. 2.
- In November, Rooney was named MAC Male Scholar Athlete of the Week, after going 5-1 in a third place finish at the Navy Classic. The fourth-year junior carries a 3.833 GPA.
- Spencer Berthold (285) and Cory Simpson (141) each placed sixth at the Cleveland State Open after winning four consecutive consolation bracket matches.
- Berthold now has nine pins on the season, including one at Cleveland State, completing a Kent State comeback in the final three bouts of the dual to overcome a 20-9 deficit.
- McNally, Bast and Kody Komara (149) all placed fourth at the Navy Classic.
- Since 2005-06 (Jim Andrassy's third season), Kent State is 165-105-1 in dual meets.
Players Mentioned
