Princeton soph earns redemption, to meet state champion in all-N.J. quarterfinal
Marc-Anthony McGowan exorcized some demons with a second-round victory on Thursday.
CLEVELAND - It was the same position he was in a year ago. Princeton 125-pounder Marc-Anthony McGowan was clinging to a small lead in the second round of the NCAA Wrestling Championships. Last year, the lead slipped away in a last-second loss to eventual national champion Vincent Robinson of North Carolina State.
This time, the 10th-seeded McGowan held on, locking up seventh-seeded Nico Provo of Stanford in the final seconds for a 4-2 victory. It was redemption for last year’s loss and also avenged a 2-1 tiebreaker loss to Provo earlier this season. McGowan admitted the defeat in Philadelphia a year ago crept into the back of his mind in the final seconds.
“100 percent, I had to sit on that for a whole year,” said McGowan. “Losing in short time, it stinks. Of course, being in the same scenario is going through my head, but I had to push it out.
I’m a much better wrestler than I was last year. “I did better than last year, but at the same time I expected to be here, I’ve been envisioning it the entire year. The theme has been redemption, especially this past week and getting my hand raised on Saturday night (after the NCAA final) and to do that I had to be in the quarterfinal.