March 21, 2003
Kansas City, Mo. - Although no longer in the championship bracket, four Cleveland State wrestlers stayed alive after the second round of the NCAA 2003 Division I Wrestling Championships Thursday night.
After winning in the opening round, both Rocco Mansueto (Middletown, N.Y./Middletown) at 125 and Gerald Harris (Tulsa, Okla./East Central) lost their second matches. Mansueto fell to ninth-seeded Jason Powell of Nebraska 3-2 while Harris was upended by 10th-seeded Jake Rosholt of Oklahoma State, 12-7.
In their first consolation matches Friday, Mansueto will face Matt Valenti of Penn while Harris will take on Ohio State's Casey Kaputska.
Two Viking grapplers - Phil Mansueto (Middletown, N.Y./Middletown) at 133 and Russ Davie (Perrysburg, Ohio/Perrysburg) at heavyweight - had byes in the consolation bracket Thursday night. Today, Mansueto will meet Cal-Bakersfield's Matt Sanchez while Davie will wrestle Purdue's Israel Blevins. In an earlier meeting with Blevins, Davie posted a 5-1 victory over the Boilermaker at the Wendy's Duals on Jan. 12.
Two Vikings were eliminated from competition in consolation matches. At 149, junior Anthony Coleman (Bellevue, Ohio/Bellevue) lost to Tony Pedrosa from Illinois 8-5 while at 197, junior Stipe Miocic (Willowick, Ohio/Eastlake North) lost 11-4 to Wyoming's Kevin Kessner.
As a team, the Vikings have four points and are tied for 39th with Rider. Oklahoma State leads the team competition with 35 points.