Friday Feature: Lapping The Field

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EDMOND – Coming off back-to-back national championships and with a veteran squad returning, Central Oklahoma entered the 1993-94 wrestling season as the heavy favorites to continue its reign as the class of NCAA Division II.

"We have high expectations," 12^th-year head coach David James said in the media guide's preseason outlook. "Obviously we've got to be optimistic and excited about the season, but you try to keep those things in prospective. Hopefully the guys all came back with positive attitudes, attitudes like 'let's work hard like we have in the past and not let down.'"

The Bronchos didn't disappoint.

Top-ranked UCO performed at an elite level all season and capped the campaign with a dominating national tournament performance in staking its claim as one of the best teams in the program's storied history.

Senior veterans Keith Cunningham (167 pounds) and Randy Zellner (118) were the unquestioned leaders among Central's returners, with the Bronchos also benefitting from the addition of two newcomers who ended up as national champions.

UCO went 12-2 in duals, which included a surprise seventh-place finish in the NWCA National Duals. The Bronchos beat defending NCAA Division III champion Wartburg (37-2), No. 4 Michigan (24-13) and No. 10 Fresno State (43-9) while losing to No. 6 Penn State (30-12) and No. 11 Nebraska (25-10) to become the first non-Division I team to place in the 16-team event.

"That was probably the biggest win since I've been involved with UCO," James told the Vista after beating the Wolverines. "The fact that Michigan was ranked fourth and it enabled us to place in the top eight really made it special."

The Bronchos also cruised to the first-ever NCAA Division II Showdown Duals title, beating three teams by a combined 113-22.

Central competed in four open tournaments and two invitationals in addition to the 14 duals, crowning seven champions in rolling to the Southwest Missouri Invitational and taking 16^th in the Division I-dominated Las Vegas Invitational behind Zellner's third-place finish.

All the regular season success set UCO up for overwhelming performances in the regional and national tournaments.

The Bronchos went to Duluth, Minn. for the one-day Midwest Regional and simply crushed the opposition, pushing all 10 wrestlers into the finals to claim their fifth straight title by 63 points over runner-up Nebraska-Kearney. UCO went 24-2 with 15 bonus-point wins in the tournament.

Cunningham and Zellner captured their third regional crowns, while senior 134 Ryan Martin and senior 158 Wes White won for second time. Redshirt freshman Mark Cunningham (150), sophomore Chad Drake (177), junior Chad Humphrey (190) and junior Robert Washington (hvy) also prevailed in the finals. Junior Brian Melchiori (126) and sophomore Jerry Best (142) finished second – which meant nothing when it came time for the national tournament.

"We've put ourselves in good position for the national tournament and that's what we came here to do," James said in the Vista's regional wrap-up. "We're happy with what we've accomplished here, but it's not over yet. We've still got to go to Pueblo and perform there."

And that's exactly what the Bronchos did.

UCO weren't tested at the NCAA Division II Wrestling Championships in Pueblo, Colo. in stampeding to their third straight title and the 11^th in 16 years. James' crew piled up 127.25 points, besting second-place Minnesota State-Mankato by a stunning 61.75 points. It remains the third-largest margin of victory in Division II history.

The Bronchos tied a school record with eight All-Americans, led by champions Melchiori, Martin, Best and White. Keith Cunningham and Zellner both finished runner-up, while Humphrey took fifth and Mark Cunningham sixth.

Melchiori had a tournament for the ages in taking both the Outstanding Wrestler and Most Falls awards. A junior college transfer in his first year at UCO, the sixth-seeded Melchiori opened with a first-period fall, followed with a 12-4 major decision over the No. 3 seed and pinned the No. 7 seed early in the semifinals. He then stunned top-seeded and undefeated (38-0) Kris Nelson of Northern Colorado in the finals, getting Nelson to shoot in deep on a single leg before using his signature move -- called "The Melchiori" -- to score his 13th fall of the season in just 1:46.

"I wanted to attack him and get him to come to me to have a chance to hit the move and that's what happened," Melchiori said in the Oklahoman's tournament recap. "I wasn't really known as a pinner in junior college (Labette), but I used it some and that's what people called it (The Melchiori)."

Martin went 5-0 in taking the gold medal and completing a comeback from a devastating knee injury suffered during a fifth-place national tournament finish two years earlier. The top-seeded senior started with a 15-2 major decision and then had wins of 5-2, 10-5 and 5-3 to make the finals, where he topped Nebraska-Kearney's Martin Segovia 7-5 in overtime.

Martin trailed 5-1 in the second period of the title bout, but rallied to tie it on a stalling point with 17 seconds remaining and then secured the winning takedown with 23 seconds left in OT.

Best, a mid-semester transfer from Oklahoma State, moved into the championship match with 7-4, 10-4 and 7-4 victories. The No. 2 seed then avenged a loss in the regional finals to Minnesota-Duluth's Ron McClure, using an early five-point move to take control en route to an 8-3 win that ruined McClure's undefeated season.

The top-seeded White followed a first-round bye with a 16-5 major decision and tough 8-7 semifinal win before racking up five takedowns in a 13-5 major decision over the No. 3 seed to become a two-time national champion.

Zellner made it to the national finals for the third straight year, but the 1992 champion lost the title match to North Dakota State's Brian Kapusta for the second consecutive season. The second-seeded Zellner easily advanced to the finals with a fall, default win and 11-1 major decision over the No. 3 seed before falling 3-1 in OT to the top-seeded Kapusta.

Keith Cunningham was denied a third straight national championship in controversial fashion. The No. 1 seed, Cunningham had a 20-5 technical fall and two shutouts in cruising into the finals before losing to Mankato's second-seeded Justin Smith 7-6 after getting hit with a disputed illegal hold call that resulted in a third-period penalty point. Cunningham finished the season 36-5 and ended his career as UCO's all-time wins leader with 141, a record that still stands.

Humphrey, an All-American in 1992 at Southern Illinois-Edwardsville before transferring and sitting out the 1993 season, took fifth after entering as the No. 3 seed. He opened with 3-1 and 11-8 wins, but fell to the No. 2 seed in the semifinals and then lost his first consolation match before taking fifth with a 4-3 victory.

Unseeded Mark Cunningham rounded out UCO's parade of All-Americans. He rebounded from a close first-round loss with three straight consolation wins before dropping his last two matches in finishing sixth.

"I'm more overwhelmed and relieved than anything," James said in the Oklahoman. "We've been favored all year long and everybody said we were going to win, but you've still got to go compete and do it. I think it's a tribute to our wrestlers that they performed the way they did."

And it wasn't likely to get any better for those Division II rivals chasing the Bronchos.

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