Lemoore's Isaiah Martinez earns third straight trip to NCAA wrestling finals; match broadcast live on ESPN Saturday

Isaac’s father is U.S. Representative Jim Jordan, who nervously watched as the Lemoore two-time NCAA champ beat his son 2-1, placing the Lemoore national champ into the NCAA finals for the third straight year.

Lemoore High School Varsity Wrestling Coach Marcio Botelho, a regular visitor to the NCAA Championships, was on hand once again to cheer on his former pupil, and for the first time this week, said Martinez wrestled a near-perfect match. “Isaiah wrestled well,” said Botelho. “I felt his opponent didn’t open up and wrestle. All he did was block and keep the match close. Isaiah wrestled a very smart match.”

The semifinal victory put Martinez in tonight’s (March 18) 165-pound final against Penn State’s No. 3 wrestler Vincenzo Joseph, who defeated No. 2 Logan Massa of Michigan 5-4 in the other semifinal.

The match will be televised live during ESPN’s coverage, which begins at 5 p.m. tonight (March 18), and Martinez will be gunning for his third consecutive NCAA championship. The former Lemoore High School three-time state champ is unbeaten this year and is 98-1 at the University of Illinois.

In earlier matches, Martinez defeated Oklahoma’s Chandler Rogers 10-5 in the quarterfinals, and in Thursday's opener, beat Shaun’Que McMurtry of Northern Illinois, 14-4. He also defeated Minnesota’s Nicholas Wanzek 8-5 in the second round.