Donahoe Clinches Spot in Finals

Nebraska wrestler Paul Donahoe advanced to the finals at 125 pounds Friday night at the 2007 NCAA Championships at the Palace of Auburn Hills. Donahoe is the first Husker to wrestle for a national championship since Jason Powell and Matt Murray were national finalists in 2004.  Nebraska is currently in 16th with 30.5 team points. 

The lone remaining NU wrestler heading into the final day of the tournament, Donahoe clinched his bid in the finals with a 2-1 overtime win over Troy Nickerson of Cornell. Nickerson took a 1-0 lead with an escape early in the second period, but Donahoe tied the match at one with an escape of his own early in the third period. After a scoreless first sudden victory period, neither Donahoe nor Nickerson was able to escape in the first round of tiebreakers, though Nickerson was called for stalling for the first time while riding Donahoe. After a scoreless second sudden-victory, Donahoe rode Nickerson for the duration of the first half of the second tiebreaker, then was awarded a point after Nickerson was called for stalling for the second time in the match in the second half of the tiebreaker. Donahoe faces Oklahoma’s Sam Hazewinkel in the finals.

Craig Brester saw his season end with a loss by fall to J.D. Bergman of Ohio State at 197 pounds. Brester started the second period of the match on top, but Bergman scored a reversal early in the second period and pinned Brester 15 seconds into the second period. Brester finished the NCAA Championships 2-2 and just one win shy of All-America status as a redshirt freshman.

Donahoe will wrestle in the first match of the final session of the 2007 NCAA Championships, which start at 7 p.m. at the Palace of Auburn Hills. ESPN (channel 34 in Lincoln) will provide television coverage of the finals.