Panther wrestler Louis Taylor’s bid to become an All-American fell short this weekend as the 157-pound grappler lost his first two matches and was eliminated from the NCAA Championships in Iowa City, Iowa.

“Louis was two and out, but he drew the No. 1 seed in the country in the first round and that didn’t help any,” Eastern head coach Ralph McCausland said.

Taylor lost to the No. 1 ranked wrestler from Edenborough University 12-3 in his opening match.

“Louis was off the mark a little bit and he got caught toward the end of that match,” McCausland said. “The score didn’t indicate how close the bout was.”

In the wrestlebacks, Taylor drew former junior college teammate Steven Schenk from Wyoming. Taylor had wrestled against Schenk twice before this season, once at Lantz Gym and once in the Midwest Regional a week ago. Schenk got the best of the junior in their third and final meeting as he pinned Taylor in the second period.

“That was a situation where we knew what we needed to do and Schenk knew what he needed to do,” McCausland said. “And in that one, he caugtht us and pinned us. He wrestled well and ended up winning his next two and finishing one match away from becoming an All-American.”

McCausland said Taylor wrestled farely well, but said the

157-pounder knew he could have done better.

“Our draw was a real buzzard draw,” McCausland said. “He was not very happy with himself.”

“It’s the national tournament and you hope to present

yourself at your highest level and he was lacking a little with that,” he said.

But McCausland said the valuable experience of competing at college wrestling’s grandest stage will help Taylor in his senior season.

“The great thing about this is that he’s only a junior,” he said. “He’s been there, he’s had the experience and he’s seen all the hoopla and hype and was still able to compete,” he said. “He was able to continue to compete when something two mats over would happen with a guy from Iowa and the place would go deaf. That’s a good experience to carry over next year.”

Taylor’s coach said if there is one thing he needs to improve on next season, it’s his consistency.

“As a coach, I wanted to bring him back to that regional tournament where you could see he was ready to go and was on all cylinders and was focused both physically and mentally,” McCausland said. “He needs to take all those elements and he’s felt that, seen that and knows he can do that.

If he can find that consistency and fall back on his experiences in Iowa City, Taylor has the potential to be an extremely dangerous wrestler in his senior season.

“He can compete with anyone, he truly can and there was nobody at that tournament he couldn’t wrestle with,” McCausland said. “And he knows that in his mind now and has the experience base to carry that over to next season.

“The strides he has made from his first year have been remarkable and this is an individual who didn’t even start the sport until his junior year in high school,” he said. “He made amazing strides this year both mentally and physically and if can carry over his consistency, he’ll make great strides next year.”