North Carolina State wrestler Darrion Caldwell, the 2009 NCAA 149-pound champ, reinjured his shoulder in his second match Thursday at the 2011 NCAA Division I Wrestling Championships in Philadelphia, and is no longer in title contention.
Caldwell, the top seed at 149 this year, was wrestling unseeded Eric Grajales of the University of Michigan Thursday evening. After an edge-of-the-mat scramble in the first period, Grajales got up off the mat... but the NC State matman remained on his back. After a few minutes, Caldwell stood up, walked off the mat, and forfeited the match to Grajales at 2:02.
Months after winning the title at the 2009 NCAAs, Caldwell injured rollerblading that summer. He had shoulder surgery in the fall of 2009, and missed the entire 2009-2010 season. He was unable to defend his national title.
Caldwell won the 149-pound crown at the 2009 NCAAs in thrilling fashion, upsetting defending champ Brent Metcalf of the University of Iowa, 11-6, in the finals. Caldwell's win is one of the greatest upsets in NCAA wrestling finals history. One prominent wrestling historian ranks it second only to the 1970 NCAA 142 lb. title bout where Dan Gable of Iowa State lost to the University of Washington's Larry Owings. It was Gable's only loss in his entire high school and college career.
It was the second injury-related forfeit of the 2011 NCAAs. In Session I, 2010 NCAA 184-pound runner-up Kirk Smith of Boise State was unable to take to the mat for his opening-round bout, forfeiting to Duke's Diego Bencomo.
Caldwell was the only top-seeded wrestler not to advance to the quarterfinals, which will be wrestled Friday morning at the Wells Fargo Center. Of the 80 wrestlers still in title contention, only four are unseeded.
In terms of the team title race, at the end of Day One of the 2011 NCAAs, two Eastern schools are neck-and-neck. Penn State is in first place with 30.5 points; Cornell University is second, with 29 points. Defending team champ Iowa is third.
Top Ten Team Standings (at the end of Session II):
- 1. Penn State (30.5 points)
- 2. Cornell (29)
- 3. Iowa (25)
- 4. Oklahoma State (24)
- 5. Boise State (21.5)
- 6. American (21)
- 6. Arizona State (21)
- 8. Wisconsin (20)
- 9. Minnesota (19)
- 10. Nebraska (18.5)
For a more detailed account of Day One at the NCAAs, check out this article at InterMat.
Want to know more? For the official 2011 NCAA Division I Wrestling website, click here. For updated 2011 D1 brackets, click here. For TheMat.com's D1 page, click here. For InterMat's D1 page -- including live blog, daily recaps and links to photos -- click here.
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