Jan. 26, 2009
Contact: Ryan Mulford
Complete Release in PDF Format 
SETTING THE SCENE: Cleveland State (4-8) continues EWL competition on Wednesday, January 28th, when the Vikings travel to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to take on the Panthers. Action is slated to begin at 7:00 p.m. at the Fitzgerald Fieldhouse.
PREVIEWING THE VIKINGS: Rashard Goff continues to carry the Vikings on his back. With his win Saturday (1/24), Goff now has a team high 25 wins this season and 97 career wins. Jordan Keller remains a consistent wrestler for head coach Ben Stehura and the Vikings. The freshman has won 22 matches this season and has a team high 10 major decisions. Antonio Nicholson and Lawrence Cavello both have double digit win totals and are coming off last second wins against Lock Haven.
RECAPPING LOCK HAVEN: With three overtime matches, the final score was no resemblance to the action that took place Saturday (1/24) night at Woodling Gymnasium. The first match was a solid indicator of the action that would follow. Jordan Keller had a nail-biting five-overtime match-up, but came out on the short end of a 5-3 score. Lawrence Cavello and Antonio Nicholson both scored takedowns in the final 12 seconds of their matches to secure wins, while heavyweight Rashard Goff controlled every aspect of his match on his way to his 97th career victory.
VS. PITTSBURGH: CSU is 14-15-1 overall against the Panthers, with their last win coming two years ago at Pittsburgh when the Vikings won 21-15. The first meeting between the two programs dates back to 1978 and after losing the inaugural meeting, the Vikings took eight in a row from the Panthers.
ACADEMIC SUCCESS: Viking wrestling has a strong tradition of academic success and the Fall 2008 semester was no different. Nine wrestlers had a grade point average of 3.0 or higher and five wrestlers were honored on the Dean's List. Nate Kmetz, Matt Waxman, Dustin Doty, Tyler Young and Jordan Keller were named to the prestigious Dean's List, while Marcus Effner, Derek Cummins, Corey Carlo and Dan Michaels all had at least a 3.0 GPA.
VIKINGS IN EWL: CSU has an impressive five wrestlers ranked in the top five of the EWL individual rankings. Rashard Goff is the highest-ranking Viking coming in with a second place ranking behind Pittsburgh's Zach Scheaffer at heavyweight. Corey Carlo stands alone in fourth place at 157 pounds, while Josh Palivoda (133) and Rob Michaels (165) are tied for fourth in their respective weight classes and Jordan Keller (125) and JT Miller (184) are fifth.
STARTERS IN DOUBLE DIGITS: Seven of the nine Viking starters have at least 10 wins. Rashard Goff has a team high 25 victories, while Jordan Keller is closing in with 22 wins this season. Antonio Nicholson has 16 wins, Rob Michaels has 14 wins, Lawrence Cavello and Corey Carlo both have 11 victories while JT Miller has 10 wins of his own.
GOFF THREE WINS AWAY FROM 100: After a dominating 13-1 win over Lock Haven's Gabriel Murtoff on Saturday (1/24) night, Rashard Goff is now only three wins away from 100. Goff has a team high 25 wins this season and is 11-1 in dual meet competition.
CAVELLO DOMINATING DUAL MEETS: With a thrilling last second victory on Saturday (1/24) night, Lawrence Cavello clinched his seventh dual meet victory. Cavello has quietly put together a solid season totaling 11 wins with one major decision. The sophomore seems to be performing his best with little margin for error, with six of his seven dual meet wins coming by six points or less and five wins following a Viking loss.
NICHOLSON COMING FULL CIRCLE: Antonio Nicholson finally got the chips to fall in his favor with a 5-3 last second win over Matt Fittery of Lock Haven on Saturday (1/24) night. Nicholson has recorded six dual meet wins and 16 wins overall. Nicholson holds the team's fastest pin of the season, coming at just 30 seconds over Jacob Cann at the Michigan State Open.
GOFF NAMED EWL WRESTLER OF WEEK: After hammering out a perfect 2-0 record at the Eastern Michigan Duals, Rashard Goff was rewarded with EWL Wrestler of the Week honors for the week of January 11, 2009. Goff becomes the first Viking wrestler to earn the honor since Ryan Hurley won the award in January 2007.
PARTNERSHIP WITH BECKY'S: Viking wrestling has teamed up with Becky's to provide fans an opportunity to meet the staff and talk Viking wrestling after each home dual meet. For just $10, each fan will receive a ticket to the home dual meet, as well as a wristband to be handed out at the conclusion of the meet, which is good for light appetizers and three beverage tickets immediately following the wrestling match. Becky's is located at 1762 E. 18th Street (across from Krenzler Field on the CSU Campus), for more information call 216-687-2094.
THE HEAD COACH: Ben Stehura (Lock Haven, 2000) Overall: 30-58-1
Former Viking graduate assistant coach Ben Stehura is in his first season as head coach. Stehura is only the third head coach for the Viking wrestling program after serving the last five years as the head coach at Division II Limestone College in Gaffney, S.C. The only head coach in Limestone history, Stehura quickly built the program and has already coached one NCAA National Champion, three NCAA All-Americans, five NCAA National qualifiers and eight NCAA All-Academic team members. A 2000 graduate of Lock Haven University with a Bachelor's of Science in Secondary Education, Stehura was a three-year starter, earning fourth and fifth place finishes in the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference Tournament.
STEHURA ON THE VIKINGS: "The team has been performing hard. Even though the scores have not been in our favor, these young men have never quit during a match. The next four meets are very critical, they are the same opponents we need to beat to qualify for nationals."
UP NEXT: The Vikings return home on Saturday, January 31 as they host EWL foe Bloomsburg. The dual meet is scheduled to begin at 2:00 p.m. in Woodling Gymnasium.
