Two wrestlers who’ve earned Big Ten titles – Andrew Howe and Matt Brown – will wrestle each other in the 174-pound match at the 2013 NWCA All-Star Classic Nov. 2, event sponsors revealed Thursday.
The two mat champs also share the fact they both started at one college, and now wrestle for a second school. Howe had been at University of Wisconsin for most of his collegiate career but will now be competing this season at the University of Oklahoma. Brown started at Iowa State wrestling for then-head coach Cael Sanderson; after taking time away from college for a Mormon mission, Brown followed Sanderson to Penn State.
Howe was a three-time Big Ten champ for the Wisconsin Badgers (2009-11) and three-time NCAA All-American, winning the 165-pound crown at the 2010 NCAAs. The wrestler from Cedar Lake, Ind. took an Olympic redshirt during the 2011-12 season, then in May 2012 announced he would transfer to Oklahoma to wrestle for the Sooners. The 2013 NWCA All-Star Classic will be Howe’s first appearance in a Sooner singlet.
Brown launched his college wrestling career for the Cyclones during the 2008-09 season… then took two years for his church mission. Sanderson left Iowa State in April 2009 to take the head coaching job at Penn State; once Brown completed his mission, he transferred to Penn State, and became the 174-pound starter this past season. The native of West Valley City, Utah capped off the 2012-13 season by winning the 174-pound title at the 2013 Big Tens. Two weeks later, Brown made it to the 174 finals at the 2013 NCAAs, where he was runner-up.
Brown vs. Howe is the sixth match-up to be announced by the National Wrestling Coaches Association for the 2013 All-Stars. Two of the matches are unique out-of-weight-class bouts: Iowa's Tony Ramos vs. Devin Carter of Virginia Tech at 141, and, at 149, Ohio State’s Logan Stieber, and Howe's Oklahoma teammate Kendric Maple. Other bouts revealed earlier this week include Minnesota’s Tony Nelson vs. Northwestern’s Mike McMullan at heavyweight… Oregon State’s Taylor Meeks vs. Nelson’s teammate Scott Schiller at 197 pounds… and Cornell’s Nahshon Garrett vs. Oklahoma’s Jarrod Patterson at 125. All these matches – and others to be announced in the coming days -- will take place Nov. 2 at George Mason University in Fairfax, Va. just outside Washington, D.C.
An annual fixture on college wrestling schedule since 1967, the NWCA All-Star Classic traditionally features match-ups of the two top wrestlers in each weight class. For the past decade, the event has served as the kickoff for the national college wrestling season.
The 2013 All-Star Classic takes place Saturday, Nov. 2 at 7:15 p.m. Eastern at Patriot Center on the GMU campus in suburban Washington, D.C. To purchase tickets to the event, visit the Ticketmaster website. For more information on the All-Star Classic, visit the NWCA website.
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