Tadzhimetov Finishes Fourth at Midlands
by Clint Burgi

December 30, 2005

EVANSTON, Ill.  — Utah Valley State wrestler Erkin Tadzhimetov finished fourth at 133 lbs. at the Midlands Tournament after falling in the third place match to Central Michigan's Jason Borelli in a 7-4 overtime decision.

Earlier in the day, Tadzhimetov lost to Iowa State's Jesse Sundell in the semifinals before beating Iowa's Dan Dennis 7-4 to advance to the third place match.

"He's wrestled better the last two days than I've ever seen him wrestle," said Utah Valley State coach Cody Sanderson. "He's made a lot of progress, I'm really happy for him."

The senior from Uzbekistan finished the tournament with a 4-2 record to move to 16-6 individually on the year.

The Midlands is an invitation only tournament that is comprised of some of the top competition in the nation and Tadzhimetov's success there is a big boost for himself and for the Utah Valley State program.

"There were a lot of people talking about him," said Sanderson. "It was great for us as a program to have him there and to wrestle as well as he did."

Tadzhimetov advanced to Friday's semifinals after winning three times on Thursday. He opened the tournament with a quick fall over Joe Gomez (2:43), a 6-3 decision over Brent Skorup of Wheaton and a 5-2 decision over 3rd seeded Andy Hiatt of Northern Illinois.

Utah Valley State wrestling will continue its action next week in the Lonestar Duals in Arlington Texas next Thursday, January 7th. They will wrestle three dual matches against Harvard, Navy, Oklahoma and Central Oklahoma. The next home dual will be Monday, January 16th against Northern Colorado.