Around the mats

Edinboro’s eighth-place finish (56 points) in the team standings is its best since 1997.

“This is huge,” Fighting Scots coach Tim Flynn said. “We haven’t been up there in a while. It’s harder to get there (because) there are more programs and more parity.”

West Virginia redshirt freshman Larry Hall (Jeannette) went 2-2 in the tourney and came up two wins short of All-American status.

“I’m more disappointed than satisfied,” Hall said. “After I lost, I realized where I could have — and should have — been. But it’s a learning experience.”

Brandon Rader sixth-place finish at 141 pounds made him the first true freshman All-American in WVU history. Rader, from Parkersburg, is the third West Virginia native at the school to earn All-American honors. Missouri’s Ben Askren was named the tournament’s most outstanding wrestler. Askren beat Northwestern’s Jake Herbert (North Allegheny) in the title match at 174. Askren is Mizzou’s first-ever individual champ. Tigers coach Brian Smith had sent wrestlers to the finals in each of the previous three years before Askren came up a winner.

“We were due,” Smith said.

Total attendance for the three-day tournament was 95,501. It is the second-largest total in the 76 years of the event, trailing only the 2000 tourney in St. Louis (96,944).

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