OKLAHOMA CITY, Ok. (March 22, 2014) – Edinboro wrapped up wrestling in the NCAA Division I National Championships at the Chesapeake Energy Arena on Saturday morning, with
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Dubbed Edinboro's Murderer's Row by the ESPN announcing crew, their strong showing likely has Edinboro finishing fifth at Nationals, the best showing in school history. The 1997 and 2009 teams finished sixth. Head coach
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Schopp finishes his third season with a 35-3 record, with two losses to Colon and the third to Iowa's Tony Ramos, who will wrestle for the 133 lb. championship tonight after defeating Schopp in the semifinals. He enters his senior campaign with a 107-14 career record and has now finished fourth twice at Nationals. That is good for 20th in career victories.
Habat made an impressive run as the eighth seed. After losing his second match to Michigan's Eric Grajales, he battled back to win five straight matches, including a 5-4 upset of top-seeded Drake Houdashelt of Missouri. The day before he won over the number two seed Nick Dardanes of Minnesota.
Habat opened the scoring against Houdashelt with a takedown at the 2:22 mark, with an escape making it 2-1 after one period. The two traded reversals, with a stalling point against Habat making it 4-4 after two periods. Habat came up with the winning point with an escape with 1:28 left.
He moved on to face Grajales in the third place match. After a wild 15-10 decision in the first meeting, Grajales ended up winning a 4-2 decision over Habat in the third place match. Habat fell behind 2-0 after one period, and the only point in the second period was a Grajales escape. Habat closed it to 3-2 with a reversal 40 seconds into the third period. He was unable to tilt Grajales and finally had to cut him with 38 seconds left. He came close to a takedown in the final ten seconds near the edge of the mat.
Habat ends the year at 32-6 and now has a 98-24 career as a first-time All-American.