Hopkin One of Top Division I Wrestlers Not Eligible For NCAA Championships

March 8, 2006

GREELEY, Colo. - University of Northern Colorado wrestler Reece Hopkin was recognized in an article on IntermatWrestle.com on Tuesday as a top wrestler that was not able to qualify for the NCAA Championships this season.

Northern Colorado recently completed the third year of a four year transition to Division I and will be eligible for postseason competition in 2006-07.

Hopkin finished with a No. 20 ranking in the final NWCA/USA Today/Intermat Top 20 poll at 197 pounds. He tallied a 27-6 overall record and a 14-2 dual mark. Hopkin also recorded nine pins this season. The sophomore from Kersey, Colo., defeated six opponents that qualified for the NCAA Championships.

Excerpt from IntermatWrestle.com:
Life's not fair, and apparently, neither is the qualifying process for the NCAA Championships from the smaller conferences. With the Big 12 clammoring for more bids, smaller conferences are also wanting the NCAA to remove the cap to give them more bids to the nationals. Each year, quality wrestlers are sitting in the stands or back in their dorms and apartments wondering what else they had to do over the course of a season to get that wild card. Was it because of a bad weekend they're sitting home? Is their school in a transitional year? Here's some of the top wrestlers in 2005-06 that won't be heading to the Division I championships ... for one reason or another.

197 lbs.
Reece Hopkin, So.
Northern Colorado
Feb. 21 National Rank: #20
No Conference Tournament
Season Record: 27-6

Qualifiers defeated:
Casey Phelps (Boise State) Fall 2:25
David Dashiell (North Carolina) 12-8
Nathan Moore (Purdue) 8-4
Brendan McLean (Air Force) 13-0
Dan Pitsch (Oregon State) Fall 1:13
Malcolm Havens (Wyoming) Fall 2:00

Northern Colorado is inelgible for Division I championships until 2006-07.