March 7, 2004

BLOOMSBURG, Pa. - Senior Russ Davie won his first Eastern Wrestling League title on Sunday, defeating Edinboro's Joe Hennis in the final round by pin fall at the 4:47 mark of the championship bout. The pin was Davie's third of the championships, and ties him with John Velimesis for the Cleveland State record for pins in a career with 31.

The Vikings finished fourth in the championships, scoring 80.5 points to edge out Bloomsburg's 79. Edinboro and West Virginia tied for the team title, each scoring 99.5, with Pittsburgh in third, two points behind. Clarion was sixth with 70 points, followed by Lock Haven with 57.5 and Virginia Tech with 44.5.

Davie, who had beaten Hennis 3-0 when the two met in the dual at Woodling Gym on Dec. 17, was nearly taken down by Hennis with 10 seconds left in the first period, but managed to escape his grasp, leaving the bout scoreless after the first period. Hennis elected to open the second period on the bottom and got an escape with 48 seconds gone in the period to take a 1-0 lead. The two wrestlers battled for the next minute before Davie caught Hennis off-balance and threw him to the mat on his back, and recorded the pin with 13 seconds remaining in the second period.

Davie becomes Cleveland State's 23rd Eastern Wrestling League champion, and only the second Viking heavyweight to win a league title following Tim Payne's title in 1978, CSU's first season in the Eastern Wrestling League.

Cleveland State will now await the results of the wild-card meeting of league coaches to determine the seven at-large berths the Eastern Wrestling League will send to the NCAA Championships. Seniors Anthony Coleman and Jason Effner, who both finished fourth in their weight classes, look to be the two Vikings with the best shot at moving on. Davie joins DeAngelo Penn, Matt Kallai, Ron Howard and Joe Phillips as Vikings who have clinched berths in the NCAA Championships in St. Louis, Mo., on March 18-20.