Gopher recruit Ness wins Greco-Roman championship

Gophers wrestling recruit Dylan Ness - younger brother of former Gopher great Jayson Ness - won the Greco-Roman competition by technical fall at the USA Wrestling Junior and Cadet National Championships. The championships were held July 18-24 in Fargo, N.D. In addition to first place Greco-Roman honors, Ness was named the tournaments outstanding wrestler, earned all-American honors and placed second in the freestyle portion of the championships.

Ness wrestles at a slightly heavier weight than his older brother, winning the state title in March at 145 lbs. The all-America honor was the seventh of his pre-collegiate career. The incoming freshman out of Kennedy High School in Bloomington has already committed to the Gophers and will likely red-shirt his freshman year. Early projections at the Gophers starting ten are as follows:

125:  Zach Sanders

133:  Will likely be a competition between David Thorn, Tom Giamo and Thane Antczak. Giamo and Antczak have starting experience. Thorn is the younger brother of Big Ten champ at 141, Mike Thorn.

141: Mike Thorn

149: Mario Mason

UPDATE: correction. Mason has transferred to Rutgers and will not compete for the Gophers in 2010.

157: Jake Dietchler spent the entire year last year away from the team, but is expected to be back and an integral part of the Gophers 2010-11 lineup. UPDATE: He is required to sit out the first half of the season, per his NCAA suspension, so patching up a half season at 157 should be an interesting story this year.

 165: The most wide-open weight for the Gophers this year. One option would be to slide Scott Glasser down to 165 and pencil in Kaleb Young, who has starting experience, at 174.

174: Scott Glasser/ Kaleb Young

184: Sonny Yohn. He wrestled very well at 197 last year, but has a smaller build and might do better in higher scoring matches against smaller opponents.

197: Two red-shirt seniors, Brent Eidenschink and Joe Nord, lead a weight class otherwise dominated by freshman. 

Heavyweight: Ben Berhow. Minnesota also has depth support from Tony Nelson and Jake Kettler at heavyweight.