Black Friday

ST. LOUIS, Mo. The fourth-ranked Iowa State wrestling team's NCAA championship hopes all but disappeared here Friday after a dismal third session.
The Cyclones lost five of six quarterfinal matches here Friday, falling from third to 10th place in the team standings. Top-ranked Iowa appears to be running away with the tournament after advancing five of seven quarterfinalists to the semifinals.
No. 1 seeded Jake Varner (184) and seventh-seeded Cyler Sanderson (157) were the only two Cyclones to win matches.
Sanderson, Nick Fanthorpe (133), Nick Gallick (141), Jon Reader (165), David Bertolino (197) and David Zabriskie (HWT) are alive in the consolation bracket - each needing one win to earn All-American honors.
Varner knocked off a familiar rival, Minnesota's Roger Kish, to advance. Varner rode Kish out in the third period to beat the Golden Gopher senior, 2-0.
The Cyclone knocked off Kish in last year's semifinals and twice during the 2007-08 regular season. Varner (28-0) will wrestle Central Michigan's fourth-seeded Christian Sinnott, who twice wrestled Varner to close decisions during the regular season.
Mitch Mueller (149) and Aron Scott (174) lost consolation matches and were eliminated from the tournament.


Championship quarterfinals
No. 4 Joey Slaton, Iowa dec. No. 5 Nick Fanthorpe, 2-1 (SV1, TB2)
No. 1 Chad Mendes, Cal Poly dec. No. 9 Nick Gallick, 5-0
No. 3 Nick Marable, Missouri dec. No. 6 Jon Reader, 6-2
No. 1 Jake Varner dec. No. 8 Roger Kish, Minnesota, 2-1
No. 6 Dallas Herbst, Wisconsin dec. David Bertolino, 5-4
No. 2 J.D. Bergman, Ohio State maj. dec. David Zabriskie, 11-1

Consolation
Josh Wagner, Missouri dec. Mitch Mueller, 2-1
Cyler Sanderson dec. Ryan Hluschak, Drexel, 7-3
Lloyd Rogers, Tennessee-Chatanooga dec. Aron Scott, 8-2