March 6, 2011

Complete Results From the 2011 EWL Championships

Contact: Dan Carr

BLOOMSBURG, Pa. - Five Viking wrestlers placed at the Eastern Wrestling League Championships on Sunday (March 6) and Cleveland State finished the tournament seventh overall.

"We had some good wrestling today," head coach Ben Stehura said. "Everyone competed hard, and I'm pleased that we had five guys place."

Freshman Ben Willeford had the best finish of the day, taking fourth place in the 125 division. Willeford won his first match of the day, defeating Sean Boylan of Bloomsburg in a 3-1 decision. After dropping an 18-4 major decision to Pittsburgh's Anthony Zanetta, the eventual champion of the bracket, Willeford defeated Clarion's Thomas Gowing, 7-6.

That set up a rematch with Boylan in the third place match. This time it was the Bloomsburg wrestler that had the upper hand, winning, 8-1.

"Ben wrestled well today," Stehura said. "He did a good job shaking off the early loss to set up a chance for third. He consistently improved as the season went on, and I think he's going to be a very good wrestler for us in the next three years."

Matt Donohoe (wrestling at 157), Robbie Michaels (165), Corbin Boone (184) and Nick Anthony (197) also placed at the championships, with each taking sixth in their respective brackets.

Michaels started his day well, defeating Josh Veltre of Bloomsburg in a 16-2 major decision. In his next match, Donnie Jones of West Virginia, Michaels was injured, ending his day early.

Although he lost both his matches, Nick Flannery also wrestled well in the 133 division. He lost both matches by decision, dropping his first bout against Eric Morrill of Edinboro, 8-4, and then losing to Pittsburgh's Shelton Mack, 6-3. Morrill went on to win the 133 weight class while Mack won the consolation bracket, finishing third overall.

As a team, the Vikings scored 26.50 points to take seventh in the tournament.

This marks the end of the 2010-11 season for Cleveland State's wrestling team.