March 10, 2002
The Cleveland State wrestlers finished the Eastern Wrestling League (EWL) tournament today by crowning its first champion since 1995. Phil Mansueto (Middletown, N.Y./Middletown) downed Clarion's Rad Martinez in a thrilling 133-pound match. Mansueto rode out Martinez in the tie-breaker to win, 1-1. Mansueto's twin brother Rocco earned a third-place finish in the tourney. With the wins both grapplers will be headed to the NCAA Tournament for their second time. Nick Boucher (Sunfield, Mich./Lakewood) and Gerald Harris (Tulsa, Okla./East Central), who earned wild card spots, will also join them. Overall CSU finished in fifth place with 67 points. West Virginia took first place with 114.50 points.
Phil Mansueto, whom Head Coach Jack Effner calls "pound for pound the toughest wrestler I've ever coached," became the first Viking wrestler to earn top honors at the conference tournament since Dan Carcelli in 1995. The victory was all the more sweet for Mansueto, as Martinez handed him his only EWL loss of the season. In fact, today's match was nearly a replica of their dual meet bout. On February 21 Martinez hit Mansueto with a takedown with under ten seconds left in the third period to knot the score at three apiece. In the 30-second tiebreaker Mansueto was forced to choose the down position, as he had already been cautioned twice for a false start. Martinez, who is solid on top, rode out CSU's junior for the win. However, this time it was the other way around. Mansueto went on top in the tiebreaker and held Martinez down for the 1-1 win.
At 125 pounds Rocco Mansueto also went into overtime for the third-place crown. Yet Mansueto did not need the tiebreaker, downing Pittsburgh's James Thorton, 7-3. The third-place finish gives Rocco an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament for the second-consecutive season.
The matches continued to be close for the rest of the CSU squad, as Boucher, Harris and Joe Phillips (Maple Heights, Ohio/Maple Heights) lost in the consolation finals by a combined total of two points.
Boucher, the Vikes' lone senior, continued on his upset streak at the tourney. After coming into the contest unseeded, Boucher ripped off two wins, both by falls. He started the tournament by upsetting Blaise Mucci with a pin at 4:05. After falling to top-seeded and third-ranked Sean Gray, Boucher pinned the host school's Mike Maney in 5:38. However, the co-captain fell to Chad Caros in the third-place contest, 3-2.
At 174 pounds Harris also took a tough loss. Fighting Lock Haven's Ed Pawlak, the two locked into a 2-2 tie after three periods. Surprisingly, Pawlak was able to ride out the speedy Harris in the tiebreaker.
Additionally, Phillips wound up on the short side in another one-point match. Lock Haven's Josh Millard beat CSU's sophomore, 4-3. But the EWL had 39 NCAA Tournament bids to give, with 30 of them going to the top three placewinners at each weight class. After the final bouts the coaches from the eight schools voted on the remaining nine spots.
Not too surprisingly, CSU's Boucher and Harris grabbed two of the wild cards. Boucher's strong performance in the tournament made him hard to pass up. He pinned two seeded opponents on his way to a fourth-place finish. Boucher also had success at last year's NCAA Tourney, pinning eighth-seeded Evan Robinson of Purdue.
Harris was also a near lock for a wild card, as he wrestles in perhaps the EWL's strongest weight class. Edinboro's Josh Koscheck is ranked second in the nation while West Virginia's Greg Jones is ranked third. Harris also spent the year ranked among the top 20 174-pounders in the nation.
The Vikings' four NCAA qualifiers are the most they have had since 1988, when legendary coach Dick Bonacci took five wrestlers to the tournament.
