McKnight hammers his way into top 12 in U.S.

For the second straight year, 125-pound sophomore Mark "The Hammer" McKnight finished in the top 12 at the NCAA tournament.

Posting a tournament record of 4-2, McKnight's sixth and final match of the weekend resulted in a heartbreaking loss to Cal. State-Bakersfield's Efren Ceballos. The 8-5 losing decision to Ceballos left McKnight one win shy of both a top eight finish and All-American honors.

Although McKnight did not reach his goal of becoming UB wrestling's second All-American, he did represent the Blue and White well in front of a national audience.

After losing his first match to the number two-seeded Nick Simmons of Michigan State by a score of 3-0, "The Hammer" propelled himself into the top 12 with four straight wins.

"As far as wrestling goes I think I was a little timid on my feet where I should have been more aggressive, that's where I excel," said McKnight of his match against Simmons. "I didn't come out guns-a-blazing and I think that's part of the reason I lost."

McKnight's long road through the consolation bracket started with a 7-5 win over Lock Haven's Obe Blanc, which was followed by a 19-4 major decision over Duquesne's Jonathon Bittinger, an 8-5 victory against Big 10 qualifier Grant Nakamura of Iowa State and finally a 5-3 win against UNC-Greensboro's Joe Kemmerer.

"I tried to take it one at a time. It's hard to bounce back after a loss, no one likes to lose. Your morale is down and everything. I started out slow but I picked it up at the end," said McKnight. "The best thing I learned from that was don't start out slow anymore and I carried that through my next three matches and it worked out pretty well."

McKnight's win over Kemmerer put him into the All-American round against Ceballos. McKnight knew going in he had a tough match ahead of him, as he and Ceballos had faced off twice during the 2004-2005 regular season and both times Ceballos was victorious.

"It doesn't help that I already lost twice to that guy during the year. One time I should have beat him. I was beating him 5-0 and I gave up a six point run so I was thinking I could get him here," said McKnight.

Ceballos wrestled well on his feet earning two takedowns in the first period and then tallying another late in the second, leading to his victory over McKnight.

"He just wrestled a good match. I did some things that I thought were really good and he did a lot of things better. Everything in this season came down to that match. I don't know if he was just that much better than me or what," McKnight said. "But, he was victorious and I'm not an All-American."

The critical McKnight may not be entirely happy with the outcome of his 2004-05 season despite wrestling one of the most difficult schedules of any UB wrestler in recent history. While consistently facing nationally ranked wrestlers, McKnight has posted a season record of 31-15.

McKnight said the difficulty of the team's schedule may have tired the team down the stretch.

"It gets you ready for the end of the year, but it kind of burns you out a little bit during the season," said McKnight. "We wrestled about 45 matches, that's a lot. Some guys in the final of the (NCAA) tournament had wrestled only 22 matches."

Although "The Hammer" is looking forward to a much-deserved break, he knows that both he and the rest of the team have a lot of work ahead of them. With All-American Kyle Cerminara returning from his red-shirt season, McKnight is looking forward to what should be an exciting 2005-06 year.

"We all have to take one more step. I'm sure Cerm (Cerminara) is not going to be satisfied with eighth place. I'm not going to be satisfied with making it to the All-American round and not winning," said McKnight. "So we all have to take one step forward."