Nebraska wrestler Craig Brester couldn’t recall Friday night just how many times he and Iowa State’s Jake Varner have circled around each other on the wrestling mat, with pride, ranking and usually a trophy at stake.

“We’ve butted heads a lot of times,” he said.

They’ll do it once more in the 197-pound final of the NCAA Championships, held in Omaha’s Qwest Center. No. 1 Varner and No. 2 Brester secured spots in the title match with semifinal wins Friday night. As Iowa handily wrapped up the team title - Nebraska was not a factor this year - the drama turns to the ten weight classes. Given the locale and the history, Brester-Varner is arguably the most anticipated match of the Championships.

For two years, each of the matches - six officially, with one exhibition - has been close. Varner’s only loss in that series was 4-3 setback at the 2009 Big 12 Championships, in front of a delirious, raucous Husker crowd inside NU Coliseum. Brester lost 6-4 in overtime and 5-2 at the Big 12 Championships so far this year.

Beyond that, they are a contrast in styles and pedigree.

Varner was considered the nation’s top recruit out of high school, an ISU heir to the Cael Sanderson throne, insomuch as anyone could be. Brester, a native of Howells, Neb., walked on at NU. Varner is a skilled offensive wrestler who often carps at the unwillingness of his opponents to engage him. Brester can, too, be offensive-minded, but is more tactical and choosy in his matches with Varner. Brester searches for openings. Varner, by virtue of being Jake Varner, presses forward.

Varner coasted to a semifinal win over Cornell’s Cam Simaz. Brester, meanwhile, needed an escape with 19 seconds left to beat Maryland’s Hudson Taylor 1-0

Even their answers in how they approach Saturday night’s final is different.

“It’s just a wrestling match,” Varner said of the final. “I guess that’s a challenge in itself - winning or losing. If you’ve got to be one, you might as well be the one winning. It’s not life or death, anything like that, but we’ve faced each other a lot.”

Said Brester: “I’ve got nothing to lose going out there. He’s expected to win. He’s been there. He’s done this. He’s made a name for himself and I’m just me. I’m just going to go out there and take down the giant, and I’m just going to have a fun time trying to do it.”

The finals start at 6:30 p.m. on ESPN. Brester and Varner are the second-to-last match in the event.

At 174 pounds, Stephen Dwyer nearly joined his teammate in the finals, but lost 3-2 to No. 1 Mack Lewnes from Cornell. Lewnes got the deciding takedown with 15 seconds left in the match.

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Nebraska opens No. 7 in the Intermat preaseason poll after its first Big 12 Championship last year. Not surprisingly, defending national champion Jordan Burroughs starts the year No. 1 at 157 pounds, Craig Brester is No. 2 at 197 behind Iowa State rival Jake Varner, Stephen Dwyer is No. 6 at 165 and heavyweight Tucker Lane is ranked ninth in a loaded division.

Nebraska will face at least nine opponents inside the top 25, starting with Wisconsin on Nov. 15.

1. Iowa
2. Iowa State
3. Ohio State
4. Cornell
5. Minnesota
6. Oklahoma State
7. Nebraska
8. Missouri
9. Boise State
10. Maryland
11. Wisconsin
12. Edinboro
13. Central Michigan
14. Penn State
15. Indiana
16. American
17. Arizona State
18. Oklahoma
19. Lehigh
20. Virginia
21. Michigan State
22. Harvard
23. Cal Poly
24. Penn
25. Duke

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(Photo courtesy of Big 12 Sports)

It was the moment for which Jordan Burroughs geared his entire collegiate wrestling career at Nebraska: That final victory in pursuit of an undefeated national championship season.

So when Burroughs finished off his 5-1 victory over Illinois' Mike Poeta in the finals of the NCAA Championships with a takedown, it wouldn't have been surprising to see a jubilant celebration at the middle of the mat. Most wrestlers do that.

Not the 157-pound Burroughs, who stood up, took off his ankle straps, shook Poeta's hand and smiled, just a little, before heading off the mat at the ScottTrade Center in St, Louis and taking a quick congratulations from head coach Mark Manning, who watched NU take fourth overall.

"I was happy to score that last takedown," Burroughs said to Husker Locker in a phone interview. "I knew it wasn't really over until I got that. Then I was overcome with joy. But I try to stay humble and keep that on the inside."

His smile as he won still said everything that needed to be: With his win over Poeta, Burroughs became the tenth NU national champion, and, at 35-0 the first without a blemish. Considering that Burroughs nearly beat every wrestler inside the NWCA top 20 this season - and beat them handily - there isn't much debate about it being the best individual season for any wrestler in Nebraska history.

"The only way I could do was taking one match at a time," Burroughs said. "It feels great. It was something I wanted to do ever since I finished high school."

Fittingly, Burroughs' match with Poeta, the undefeated senior who matched Burroughs' quickness but not his power, unfurled as so many of his matches have in 2009. Poeta stayed back for the entirety of the first period before Burroughs swallowed him with a shot and a takedown just one second before the period ended. Burroughs earned an escape in the second period, and played expert defense for the rest of the match, notching another takedown on a desperate shot by Poeta in the waning seconds of the third period.

"He was pretty good," Burroughs said. "Quick. He wrestled a bit of a defensive match, but I got in on him for that takedown."

Burroughs resisted a couple good shots from Poeta with strong hip movement and superior strength. Poeta never had Burroughs in serious trouble in the third period.

“Jordan did a great job against a great competitor who was in the finals last year," Manning said. "Jordan has really made himself a complete wrestler and has put the work in."

At 197 pounds, junior Craig Brester lost a heartbreaker to Iowa State's Jake Varner, 2-1, in a match decided by a one-point advantage given to Varner for one minute, 19 seconds of riding time in the third period. Neither wrestler came particularly close to taking down the other; Varner simply escaped from Brester faster at the beginning of the second period than Brester did from Varner in the third. Once Varner had the riding time point, he was able to fall into his stellar defense, which kept Brester at bay for the last 45 seconds or so of the match.

Both Brester and Varner are juniors, and likely to stay at their current weights. After wrestling four times in 2008-09 - Varner won three of them - they'll see each several more times in 2010.

NU's 184-pounder, Vince Jones, and 174-pound Brandon Browne also finished with All-American honors. Jones finished sixth after two losses to Iowa Phil Keddy and Wyoming's Joe LeBlanc. Browne finished fourth after pinning Cornell's Steve Anceravage in overtime and losing to Missouri's Raymond Jordan, 4-0, in the third-place match.

As a team, Nebraska finished fourth with 78.5 points. Iowa used morning wrestlebacks to rally for the team title over Ohio State, despite the fact that the Hawkeyes didn't have one individual national champion. That's because IU's Brent Metcalf, a 149-pounder who had won more than 60 straight matches was upset by North Carolina State's Darrion Caldwell, the only wrestler to beat Metcalf in college.

Burroughs had hoped to set up a match with Metcalf in an all-star duel to possibly avenge his last three losses to Metcalf, all of which came at the 149-pound weight.

"We might have to do it with Caldwell now," Burroughs joked.

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Nebraska wrestling's dream of a team national championship will probably have to wait for another season.

But 157-pounder Jordan Burroughs and 197-pounder Craig Brester don't have to postpone one iota of their personal goals, as both will wrestle for national crowns - on national television - Saturday night at the NCAA Championships in St. Louis. They'll try to become the first Huskers to win two national crowns in the same year since brothers Jim and Bill Scherr did it in 1984.

Burroughs, a junior from Sickerville, N.J., hammered his semifinal opponent, Edinboro's Gregor Gillespie, with a 12-4 major decision Friday. From the opening whistle, Burroughs was far quicker and more aggressive than Gillespie, who attempted to mirror the three-point stance of Missouri's Michael Chandler - the only wrestler to give Burroughs trouble in 2009 - in an effort to ward off Burroughs' shots. Gillispie just wasn't strong enough to withstand two literal bear hugs Burroughs put him in, both of which led two of Burroughs' takedowns.

Burroughs will now attempt to become NU's first undefeated national champion when he takes on Illinois' Mike Poeta, also undefeated, and runner-up at 157 pounds last year. Poeta beat Cornell's Jordan Leen, the 2008 national champ, in the other semifinal match.

“Poeta is tough,” Burroughs said. “He’s a senior. He was a runner-up last year. I know he’s looking forward to finishing his senior year out with a bang, but I’m a junior and I really want that national title. It’s going to be a good match out there.”

Brester was no less impressive in a 7-2 win over Michigan's Tyrel Todd, who ducked Brester when the Wolverines visited Lincoln in January. Todd scored the match's first two points on a takedown. But Brester, skilled as he is in wrestling at the edge of the mat, got an escape a minute later, just as he and Todd were falling out of bounds. Seconds after that, he scored his own takedown, and erased Todd's riding time advantage in the second period. Todd was forced to grant Brester an escape at the beginning of the third period, during which Brester added another takedown for good measure.

In the finals, Brester will face - guess who? - Iowa State Jake Varner for a fourth time this season. Varner holds the 2-1 edge this year over Brester, but Brester won the last match in the Big 12 Championships.

“It should be a battle," Brester said, "and that is why you get into this sport, for battles like this.”

Both will wrestle their title matches on ESPN Saturday night. The broadcast begins at 5:30 p.m.

Two other Nebraska wrestlers advanced to the semifinals - 174-pounder Brandon Browne and 184-pounder Vince Jones - but lost their matches.

Browne dropped a 7-3 decision to Central Michigan's Mike Miller, who scored his first takedown one minute into the match, and rode out Brown for the remainder of the period. That one-point riding time advantage proved to be costly for Browne, who later tied the match 3 with a takedown of his own, but was forced to let Miller escape.

Jones, meanwhile, lost 11-1 to Northwestern's Jake Herbert. The top-ranked Herbert had pinned Jones earlier this year, and got the senior in plenty of trouble early with a variety of moves, including a lethal-looking cradle that Jones somehow wiggled out of after 30 seconds. Herbert, who has not been seriously challenged this season, is expected to easily win his national title on Saturday.

Jones and Browne are both plunged into wrestlebacks, however, with an opportunity to win third place.

Earlier on Friday, Stephen Dwyer and Tucker Lane bowed out of the tournament with their second loss during wrestlebacks.

Dwyer dropped another heartbreaker to Missouri's Nick Marable, 7-5 on a reversal in overtime. Lane lost 4-3 to Chris Birchler of East Stroudsburg.

In the team race, Nebraska is fourth with 69.5 points, just trailing Iowa State, in third with 71. Ohio State is the surprising - albeit slight - leader with 84.5 points, while Iowa is second with 81. The favorites had what Hawkeye fans may come to refer to as "Black Friday," as a number of highly-ranked Iowa wrestlers - with the exception of 149-pounder Brent Metcalf - lost in the quarterfinals or semifinals.

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Nebraska's wrestling team advanced four competitors to the quarterfinals after day one of the NCAA Championships in St. Louis.

No. 1 seed Jordan Burroughs (157 pounds) and Craig Brester (197) comfortably advanced with easy victories. Brandon Browne (174) and a somewhat surprising entrant, Vince Jones (184), remain in the hunt for a national title.

At 149 pounds, senior Robert Sanders lost his first two matches and is done, while heavyweight Tucker Lane lost his first match to eighth-ranked Kyle Massey of Wisconsin in triple overtime, and it currently in "wrestlebacks," or the loser's bracket, a long arduous gulag of matches that could earn Lane a All-American spot, if he keeps winning. Ditto for 165-pounder Stephen Dwyer, who lost 5-2 to Bucknell's Andrew Rendos.

In the team race, Iowa and Iowa State are tied with 33 points; the Hawkeyes are in slightly better position in the lower weights, while the Cyclones have better contenders Jake Varner (197) and David Zabriskie (Hwt) in the upper weights.

The surprise of the tournament thus far is Ohio State, in third with 30 points. The Buckeyes won all five third-round matches and sent five wrestlers to quarters. OSU doesn't enjoy NU, IU or ISU's top-seeded wrestlers, but the Bucks have already pulled off some impressive upsets.

Burroughs had the biggest day for NU, with a pin and a technical fall. Brester won two major decisions while Jones had a pin and a major decision. Browne won by major decision and decision in his first two matches.

Action continues today in St. Louis with the quarterfinals this morning, and the semifinals, to be televised on ESPN2, later tonight.

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It was the final practice before heading to nationals, and Nebraska wrestling coach Mark Manning gathered his team to the middle of NU humid practice room for a final message. It didn't last long, but at the end of it the Cornhuskers reached their hands to a point near the low ceiling and said "Champs!"

This year, for maybe the first time in Nebraska's history, a team NCAA championship is a distinct possibility. Ranked third and fourth in the national rankings, the Huskers will only send seven wrestlers to St. Louis' ScottTrade Center. Favorites Iowa and Iowa State will send 9 and 10, respectively. That's two less competitors to score points.

"But it's not the quantity of wrestlers," Manning said Monday. "It's the quality of the seven."

NU was the only one of two teams to have two wrestlers receive No. 1 seeds in their weight class with 157-pounder Jordan Burroughs and 197-pounder Craig Brester. Three other Huskers - 174-pounder Brandon Browne, 165-pounder Stephen Dwyer and 184-pounder Vince Jones - also received seeds. Heavyweight Tucker Lane did not, but has beaten the nation's No. 1 and No. 3 wrestlers.

"He could be a real wild card for us," Manning said.

Senior Robert Sanders, at 149, is also capable of pulling an upset.

While Manning tabbed Iowa as "definitely the big favorite" for the title, he did the same in anointing Iowa State as the favorite for the Big 12 title. And Nebraska pulled off a magical comeback - filled with some of NU's best wrestling of the season - to forge a tie for that crown.

While the top-ranked Hawkeyes are strong - and 149-pounder Brent Metcalf seems ready to coast to his second straight national title - so-so results in the Big Ten Tournament left the usually certain Iowa faithful asking tough questions about some of the upper weight wrestlers. Iowa State, in both the Big 12 Championships and earlier tournaments, struggled to close out big matches, drawing ire from coach Cael Sanderson midway through the season and prompting one ISU assistant to say Nebraska could "keep the trophy" in Lincoln after Big 12s.

If one had to concoct a perfect recipe for a Nebraska national championship, far-flung as it might seem with seven qualifiers, it'd look something like this:

Brester and Burroughs Winning National Titles: Far within their capabilities, given their seeds.

Burroughs carries a 30-0 record into St. Louis, hoping to become the first undefeated national champion in Nebraska history.

"He's had a great year," Manning said. "He hasn't always wrestled his best, but he's found a way to win."

To do it, Burroughs will have to beat 2007 national champ Gregor Gillispie of Edinboro (Pa.)

"You have to respect that," Burroughs said. "He's a good wrestler."

But the pressure of going undefeated, he said, is gone now, replaced by the typical anxiety that goes along with nationals.

Brester, meanwhile, enters nationals coming off his biggest win to date over previously top-ranked Jake Varner of Iowa State. He said NU spent a grueling week in preparation "completely breaking down our bodies" before tapering down on Tuesday.

"I'm definitely excited," he said. "I just want to get that first match under my belt."

Score bonus points early and often: Those points are most likely to come from Burroughs, Brester, Browne and Jones, who can come up with pins at unlikely times. Manning said NU can ntoch enough major decisions, technical falls and pins to make up for an extra wrestler the Huskers don't have in St. Louis.

"Instead of seven guys, you end up with eight," he said.

Burroughs agreed.

"It's going to take toughness to wrestle hard every match to get those extra points," he said. "We have to help each other out with less."

Get Some Help: If Iowa pulls some upsets, or if Iowa State's talent finally gels at the right time, Nebraska can wrestle as well as it wants - it probably can't make up for two or three qualifiers.

But, aside from Iowa's Metcalf, the Hawkeyes and Cyclones haven't been dominant at any weight class in 2009. Clear, undefeated favorites at 125, 165, 174 and 184 mean that Iowa and ISU aren't running away with a handful of titles. And while the Cyclones have the nation's No. 1 heavyweight in David Zabriskie, he's vulnerable to a whole slew of wrestlers - including Lane.

"The more teams that are in the mix, the more it helps us," Manning said.

Recapture the magic of Saturday night at Big 12s: It was an electric evening for NU, one of the best in recent memory. Just recalling it, Manning had to smile a little.

Now, he said, Nebraska has to duplicate it.

"We need to wrestle perfect as a team to be in there," he said. "No upsets."

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Nebraska 149-pounder Robert Sanders received a wild-card bid to the NCAA Championships Wednesday to join the six other Cornhuskers who had already automatically qualified. NU had been hoping 133-pounder Matt Vacanti would get a wild-card bid - he could have sown up a bid in the Big 12 Championships, but lost the third-place match - but he didn't receive one.

So, the maginificent 7, if you will, and three of them - 197-pounder Craig Brester, 157-pounder Jordan Burroughs and 174-pounder Brandon Browne - have as good a chance of winning the national title as any wrestler in their weight class. At 165 pounds, Stephen Dwyer will have to survive a gulag of studs, but could, while at heavyweight Tucker Lane can feel comfortable knowing he's beaten the No. 3 and No. 1 wrestlers in the nation.

Should be a wild one in St Louis! Iowa State, by the way, placed all ten wrestlers in the NCAA Championships. Iowa placed nine. Those are the two teams Nebraska has to most contend with down there. ISU was the only team to place all ten wrestlers. The Cyclones have also shown a proclivity for choking in big matches, too.

So you'll enjoy all the sour grapes ISU's coaches displayed in this recent article after the Big 12 Championships.

Now, for a moment, we must appreciate that Cys coach, Cael Sanderson, is generally considered the greatest collegiate wrestler in history, and one of greatest collegiate athletes, period. He's up there in Lew Alcindor/Oscar Robertson/Tiger Woods/Dave Winfield/Robin Ventura/Cheryl Miller territory, understand. He never lost in more than 100 matches.Nobody before Sanderson achieved that feat - legendary Iowa coach Dan Gable lost just once - and it could be a century before anybody does it again. So, admittedly, the guy's standards are high.

But we anticipate ISU's general arrogance - and the fact that lot of their wrestlers score very little on the mat - will keep Nebraska fans a little peeved for years to come.

Note: Brester is the new No. 1, according to the NWCA, after beating Iowa State No. 1 Jake Varner at the Big 12 Championships.

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Before the finals round of the Big 12 Championships, Nebraska’s wrestling team sat in the locker room normally used by NU’s volleyball squad.

The Cornhuskers trailed No. 3 Iowa State by 64-58, and the Cyclones had seven wrestlers in the finals. NU only had five. Those odds are nearly impossible, and don’t typically equal a conference title.

But Nebraska looked at the glass Big 12 trophy, one of many won by the volleyball team, that was sitting in that locker room, staring right back at them.

“We got this,” undefeated 157-pounder Jordan Burroughs told his teammates.

And so Nebraska did, catching the Cyclones by the 184-pound finals and surpassing them on Craig Brester’s upset of No. 1 Jake Varner at 197. ISU managed to forge a tie with top-ranked David Zabriskie’s 3-1 win the heavyweight match, but it was the kind of tie, frankly, that felt like a Husker win.

Yes, NU beat ISU, 70-70, for its first Big 12 Championship and the first male Big 12 title of any kind since 2007.

“Nebraska wrestling is all heart, and all hard work,” NU coach Mark Manning said. “A lot of people didn’t think we had a chance…I love this team, and I love these guys.”

Said Brester: “Everybody though ISU was too deep for us. But we knew if we do what we can, we’d hope to get the job done.”

NU won four individual titles – needing every one of them – out of their upper weight wrestlers: Burroughs won at 157; Brandon Browne, just two weeks after the death of his mother, Thayes, won an emotional title at 174; Vince Jones won at 184 and Brester, the meet’s outstanding wrestler, beat Varner – a defensive stalwart whom many had seen as untouchable – 4-3 in his third try this season.

That match clinched the tie for the Huskers. Brester notched a takedown with nine seconds left in the second period to get a 3-0 lead, then held on the third period, resisting a final-minute flurry of moves and shots by Varner, to win the match. It felt like a national title match, and it’s likely that Brester and Varner will meet for a fourth time at the NCAA Championships in St. Louis.

“The No. 1 guy and we were tied with ISU,” Brester said. “There’s not gonna be a bigger match.

The Husker fans inside the Coliseum roared as Brester was presented to all four sides of the arena as the winner. Manning picked Brester off the ground as he left the mat, then Brester and Varner, in one of those great moments, crossed path in the cool down area as Varner made his way to an indoor racquetball court, slamming the glass screen behind him.

How’d Brester get the takedown on Varner? He slipped a throw attempt by Varner, who lost his balance. Brester then wheeled his way around for the two points, and didn’t let Varner escape before time expired.

“It was a kind of a scramble, and I got the takedown,” Brester said.

Browne’s victory was no less dramatic. He got a takedown of Mizzou’s Raymond Jordan with four seconds left in the match, which touched a giant celebration from the Plattsmouth senior. Browne hadn’t wrestled since the death of his mother right before the ISU dual, and took five days off before preparing for the Big 12 meet.

As Browne left the mat, he hugged his brother, 197-pounder Cameron Browne, and his father in the hallway. Browne took a half-minute to collect himself after reporters asked him the first question.

“It’s the first meet my dad gone to without (his mother) since I was kid,” Browne said. “It’s unbelievable. Unbelievable. To have this be my last match here, you can’t ask for anything more.”

Said Manning: “To go through what he went through, he comes out and beats two great competitors…I told the team, ‘no team in the country has gone through adversity like you have.’”

Burroughs won a closer-than-expected match over Mizzou’s Michael Chandler, beating him 6-4. Burroughs gave up only his second takedown of the year. And Jones, at 184, beat ISU’s Jerome Ward for the third time this season, 3-0. Stephen Dwyer was the only NU wrestler not to win his title match, losing in overtime to Nick Marable, 3-1.

He didn’t win a title, but redshirt freshman heavyweight Tucker Lane won crucial points in his division with an upset of third-ranked Jared Rosholt in the consolation match, 3-2. Lane scored an early takedown and successfully fended off Rosholt in the closing minute of the match for the win. In the semifinals, Lane nearly beat No. 1 David Zabriskie, controlling the match for the full seven minutes before falling in triple overtime, 3-1.

Every Husker wrestler except 141-pounder Curtis Salazar won a match Saturday. At 125, redshirt freshman Andy Pokorny pinned Missouri’s Troy Dolan in an opening match before losing two straight. Sophomore Matt Vacanti beat Todd Schavrien 7-2, then narrowly lost to No. 1 seed Nick Fanthorpe, then lost to Schavrien 4-3 in a match that had Husker fans booing the referees for not calling a stalling penalty. Vacanti recovered, though, to win a challenge match over Oklahoma’s Brian Shelton – one of Vacanti’s best wins of the year. Ironically, Shelton didn’t have to challenge Vacanti, and if he hadn’t, Nebraska could not have forged the tie for the title.

For the night, NU automatically qualified six wrestlers for the NCAA Championships, and planned to get two more wild card bids with Vacanti and Sanders. Eight bids would put the Huskers right in the hunt in St. Louis. Iowa will be the prohibitive favorite, but Nebraska’s upper weight wrestlers could again pull a coup.

After all, they just did.

“It’s a very mature group,” Manning said. “They just keep on getting better and keep on fighting. They epitomize what this state’s all about.”

Undefeated Burroughs worth the price of admission

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Since the Big Eight became the Big 12 in 1996, Nebraska’s wrestling team has won as many league championships as the number of ghost orchids in a pine forest. Oklahoma State has ruled the roost for most of those tournaments, with Iowa State and Oklahoma picking up the table scraps.

NU’s best chance was last year, when it rolled into the tourney with the nation’s No. 2 team, but finished second to ISU at what coach Mark Manning calls a “mini-BCS bowl.”

Manning recalled the frustration of that missed opportunity in 2008 by pausing and shaking his head a little. His team dropped some key consolation matches that provided the Cyclones with their final margin of victory.

But now, ranked fourth and bunched closely with No. 3 Iowa State and No. 5 Missouri, Nebraska could get an even better shot in 2009. The Huskers host the event in the NU Coliseum Saturday. No bags. No travel. No hassle. Plenty of rest. And enough sterling wrestlers in the upper weights to make a run at the crown.

The mini-BCS has come to Lincoln. With just five teams in the Big 12, the meet is a one-day event Saturday, with fourth and fifth seed matches starting at 11 a.m., semifinals at noon, consolation matches at 4 p.m., and finals, which will be televised live on Fox Sports Network, at 7.

“Fans are in for a great treat,” Manning said. “A lot of close matches and a lot of great matchups. It’s gonna be a great day for wrestling fans… you can’t really hide. You don’t really have an easy match. Every match will be highly contested.”

Leaning in the entryway of the NU wrestling room Tuesday, Manning said it would be a “great accomplishment,” if the Huskers, who finished 17-3-1 in their dual season and took first at the Las Vegas Invitational back in December, were able to nip ISU and Mizzou for its first league crown.

But, he said, it’ll take energy, aggression, and maybe a little surprise at one of the lower weights, where Nebraska has struggled at times during the season. Generally, though, NU hopes to rely on their cache of strong upper weight wrestlers, beginning with undefeated and third-ranked 157-pounder Jordan Burroughs and continuing through No. 15 heavyweight Tucker Lane.

Burroughs, No. 3 174-pounder Brandon Browne and No. 11 184-pounder Vince Jones should all be favorites at their weights. At 165, 197 and heavyweight, NU’s Stephen Dwyer, Craig Brester and Lane have already technically qualified for the NCAA Championships, as the Big 12 was allotted five bids for each weight class. That’s how strong they are.

Brester, ranked second, will likely have to beat No. 4 Max Askren of Missouri – Brester’s won two straight – and Iowa State’s top-ranked Jake Varner – Brester’s lost two straight – to claim the league crown. No. 8 Dwyer will need to avenge losses to Mizzou’s Nick Marable and ISU’s Jon Reader to win his first award.

“It’s definitely a pretty stacked weight class,” Dwyer said, adding that, aside from nationals, the Big 12 meet is as “big time” as NU’s season gets.

“I haven’t won a Big 12 championship,” he said. “And I really want to.”

Lane, just a redshirt freshman, has the toughest draw. If he can survive a 4/5 piggyback match against Oklahoma’s Nathan Fernandez, he’ll be staring at the nation’s top three wrestlers: Iowa State’s David Zabriskie, Missouri’s Mark Ellis and Oklahoma State’s Jared Rosholt. Lane split with Zabriskie, lost narrowly to Rosholt and didn’t face Ellis.

“It was a big week of preparation for me,” Lane said. “They’re all tough guys with a lot of experience wrestling in big matches.”

Nebraska’s biggest team competition should be ISU, who stunned the Huskers 30-10 in a dual two weeks ago at the NU Coliseum. The Huskers wrestled, however, without Browne, who lost his mother, and 125-pounder Andy Pokorny, who missed weight.

In a teleconference Wednesday, Manning called the Cyclones the team to beat, since they have balance throughout the weight classes, and could beat NU at those three key upper weights.

Iowa State coach Cael Sanderson played down the “favorite” tag.

“Maybe that’s just a strategy or something,” Sanderson said. “Just like any other team, we’ve got to wrestle, get in there and get the job done. With only a few rounds of wrestling, just one match can have a significant impact and make a big difference in the outcome.”

Watch out for Missouri, too. The Tigers beat ISU in a dual, almost did the same to Nebraska, and have the one wrestler, Michael Chandler, who has given Burroughs any sort of trouble this year at 157 pounds. Like the Huskers, though, Mizzou is not particularly strong in the lower weights.

MU coach Brian Smith said a Big 12 title would be “another step” that many deemed unthinkable just a decade ago.

“When I first got here I was laughed when I said we would do that, but I know we’re right in the hunt,” Smith said. “We’ve been in the hunt for the last couple years…it would also be meaningful to the entire state and the athletic department at Missouri because they’ve never won an overall Big 12 male championship.”

Both programs should bring vocal fans to Lincoln, Brester said. Dwyer, meanwhile, said he remembers the Oklahoma State contingent quite well. The Cowboys have few top-end wrestlers, but might gobble up a couple titles in the lower weights. Oklahoma probably brings up the rear with a young team, but could act as spoiler to NU, ISU or Mizzou.

Put the fans of all five programs into NU Coliseum, and the joint might jump like it does for Husker volleyball.

Dwyer said he’ll take that over a road trip any day.

“It’s so much less strenuous on your body,” he said. “I love wrestling at home.”

Want to know which Huskers have the best chance at a title! Check out our primer!

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Nebraska wrestler Craig Brester may have been denied his chance at third-ranked Tyrel Todd over the weekend.

But that didn't stop him from grabbing the nation's No. 1 ranking at 197 pounds.

Brester, 15-0 and largely unchallenged during the season, grabbed the top spot after Iowa State's Jake Varner lost 3-2 to Wisconsin's Dallas Herbst over the weekend. Varner dropped to No. 3. Herbst moved to Brester's old spot. And Brester assumed the top rung.

There is a chance, albeit an outside one, that Brester may face Varner and/or Herbst this weekend at the NWCA National Duals. Both ISU and UW are in the meet, but occupy the opposite side of the bracket. The highest-ranked wrestler on NU's side is No. 5 Max Askren of Missouri. Brester was 1-2 vs. Askren last year, but had the last laugh with a 9-2 win in the NCAA Championships.

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