March 7, 2004
BLOOMSBURG, Pa. - Four more Cleveland State wrestlers have earned berths in the NCAA Championships in St. Louis, Mo., on March 18-20 by placing third at the Eastern Wrestling League Championships on Sunday morning. The four capped off an outstanding showing by the Vikings, as Cleveland State won all six of its consolation semifinal matches before posting a 4-2 mark in third place matches.
DeAngelo Penn opened the day by scoring an 8-6 win over Bloomsburg's Brian Sellers at 125 pounds to advance to the third place match, where he outlasted Lock Haven's Jim Collins, 6-5, to book his spot in St. Louis.
At 174, Matt Kallai notched a pin with 13 seconds left in his consolation semifinal match against West Virginia's Eric Mullen. Kallai then scored a 2-1 win over Clarion's Aaron Wright to earn third place honors.
Ron Howard appears to have found his stride at just the right time, as he picked up an 8-6 win over Virginia Tech's Shaun Guttridge in the consolation semifinal, then took down Mike Greenberg of Lock Haven to earn an 11-9 sudden victory win in the consolation final. Howard had entered the EWL Championships with a 6-16 mark, but posted three straight wins after losing in the opening round.
Joe Phillips also earned a spot at the NCAA Championships by finishing third, picking up a 5-2 win over Bloomsburg's Chad Hoare in the semifinal before defeating Virginia Tech's Canaan Prater in the final, 9-3.
The five join Russ Davie, who will wrestle later today in the championship bout at heavyweight against Edinboro's Joe Hennis. Davie scored a pair of pins yesterday in advancing to the title match.
Two other Vikings will wait until the wild-card meeting to learn whether or not they will join the five already heading for St. Louis. Anthony Coleman picked up a 9-4 win in the consolation semifinal over Clarion's Frank Edgar, but lost a tough 13-8 decision to Bloomsburg's Scott Heckman in the third place match at 141. Jason Effner also scored a win in his first match of the day, defeating Lock Haven's Charlie Brenneman, 6-5, before dropping his second bout of the tournament to Pittsburgh's Justin Nestor, 2-0, the same score of the opening round matchup between the two.
Seven wild-card berths will be handed out in a meeting of the league's coaches following the championship round on Sunday afternoon. Should both Effner and Coleman get a wild card berth, the seven wrestlers headed to the NCAA Championships would set a school record, breaking the record-tying six sent last year.
