March 18, 2014
NCAA Brackets | Live Results | Watch (ESPN3)
Info Sheets: Scotton (141) | Taffur (157) | Wightman (165)
The destination of the top collegiate wrestlers in the country this week is Oklahoma City and Chesapeake Energy Arena, site of the 2014 NCAA Wrestling Championships. Three grapplers from Boston University have qualified for the national tournament, which gets underway on Thursday (March 20) at noon ET.
2014 EIWA champion Nestor Taffur - a redshirt senior - is making his second consecutive NCAA appearance at 157 pounds while juniors Tyler Scotton (141) and Mitchell Wightman (165) are making their NCAA debuts.
Taffur went 2-2 at last year's tournament and enters the NCAAs on a 16-match win streak. He has a 35-2 record this season, which ties him for third in the nation in victories, and his 117 career wins are the most of any wrestler in BU history.
He earned the No. 6 seed for the tournament and that marks the highest any Terrier has been seeded in the tournament since Earl Walker went in as the No. 2 seed in the 1995 NCAAs. Taffur is trying to become the first BU All-American since Grant Johnson in 1997.
Taffur, who is 9-1 against other NCAA qualifiers this season, will face Clarion's Austin Matthews - a true freshman - in Thursday morning's opening round. A win would likely match him up with third-seeded Alex Dieringer of Oklahoma State.
Scotton (17-11) will take on 14th-seeded Edgar Bright of Pittsburgh in the first round. He has won seven of his last nine bouts and has allowed more than three points in only three of his 11 losses this season.
Possible opponents for Scotton's second bout include third-seeded Zain Retherford (Penn State), Undrakhbayar Khishignyam (The Citadel), Nick Lesler (Oklahoma) and Gabe Moreno (Iowa State).
Scotton's lone win against the tournament field this season helped him earn his first NCAA bid. The junior defeated Rich Durso (Franklin & Marshall), who was the top seed in the EIWA Championships.
Wightman has posted a 23-13 record this season and has won eight of his past 11 bouts. He is one of only three wrestlers in the country to earn a takedown against top-seeded David Taylor of Penn State.
The 165-pounder makes his debut in the opening round of pigtails on Thursday when he faces Ramon Santiago of Rider. Santiago posted an 8-2 win when the two met earlier this season in a dual.
A win over Santiago would pit Wightman against eighth-seeded Michael Moreno of Iowa State while a loss would match him up with the loser of the opening-round bout between sixth-seeded Corey Mock of Chattanooga and Peyton Walsh of Navy.
Every match of the tournament will be broadcast live on either ESPN3, ESPNU or ESPN. Check @BUGameDay on Twitter throughout the tournament for updates and links to live streaming.
Here are interviews with all three BU qualifiers before they left for Oklahoma on Tuesday:
