Illinois also sneaked in front of Iowa to finish in second with 130.5 points to Iowa's 129.5. It was their best finish since finishing second to Iowa in 1958. But Minnesota won because they had all 10 of its wrestlers qualify for nationals and five in the finals. No Golden Gopher finished lower than fifth and Minnesota had two champions in 149-pounder Jared Lawrence, who was voted outstanding wrestler of the championships and heavyweight Garrett Lowney. We had 10 guys in the hunt and five guys in the finals, and that really won us the meet.
Balance is the whole key.
When you've got 10 guys that can be in the hunt, that takes some stress off of everybody. Illinois also has to credit most of their success at the tournament to balance. The Fighting Illini qualified nine of their 10 wrestlers and got five grapplers in the finals. Seniors Nate Patrick and Pat Quirk both won conference crowns. Quirk, at No. 5, was the lowest seeded champion in the tournament.