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Contact: Kevin Zeise
March 15, 2004
CLEVELAND - Six wrestlers from the Cleveland State wrestling team will travel to St. Louis, Mo., this week to compete in the NCAA Division I Wrestling Championships. The championships run Thursday, March 18, through Saturday, March 20, and will award All-American honors to the top eight wrestlers in each weight class.
About the Vikings: Cleveland State (9-9, 3-4 EWL) finished fourth as a team at the Eastern Wrestling League championships on March 6-7 in Bloomsburg, Pa. Following a rough first day that saw the Vikings post an 8-10 mark, Cleveland State won 11 out of 13 matches on Sunday, including a perfect 6-0 record in the consolation semifinals. Senior Russ Davie (Perrysburg, Ohio) swept through the heavyweight bracket, recording three pins on his way to winning his first EWL title, while four other Vikings recorded third-place finishes to earn a ticket to the national championships. Senior Anthony Coleman (Bellevue, Ohio), junior Joe Phillips (Maple Heights, Ohio), sophomore Ron Howard (Cincinnati, Ohio/Finneytown) and freshmen DeAngelo Penn (Solon, Ohio) and Matt Kallai (Wadsworth, Ohio) will join Davie in representing Cleveland State at the national championships.
Head Coach Jack Effner: In his sixth season as head coach at Cleveland State, Jack Effner is well on his way to bringing the Viking wrestling program back to the being among the nation's elite. He has a 47-52-3 record while at Cleveland State, and an overall mark of 134-94-8 including the nine seasons he spent at Army (1989-98). Effner guided the Vikings to a 13-6 mark in 2002-03, the most wins since the 1978-79 season, and has now taken a school-record-tying six wrestlers to the NCAA Championships during two of his six years at CSU.
Lucky Six: Five of the Viking qualifiers earned their way to St. Louis by finishing in the top three of their weight class at the Eastern Wrestling League championships, while one, senior Anthony Coleman (Bellevue, Ohio) was awarded one of the league's seven wild card selections. Prior to the season, the EWL was awarded 37 berths to the NCAA Championships, and the league agreed the top three wrestlers in each class and seven wild-cards would advance to the national championships.
Last Year At The NCAAs: Cleveland State sent six wrestlers to the NCAA Championships a year ago in Kansas City, Mo., with one, Phil Mansueto, coming just one win short of earning All-American honors. Russ Davie and Anthony Coleman advanced to the national meet, with both wrestlers posting an 0-2 mark. Of the six wrestlers to advance a year ago, just Davie and Coleman returned to the squad in 2004, with three graduating (Phil Mansueto, Rocco Mansueto and current CSU assistant coach Gerald Harris) and one (Stipe Miocic) leaving Cleveland State to pursue baseball interests.
Vikings And The Number Six: The six national qualifiers that Cleveland State is sending to the NCAA Championships this week are tied for the most in school history. Cleveland State has sent six wrestlers to nationals three other times, most recently last season. Prior to last year, the Vikings hadn't sent six since the 1987 season. Cleveland State also sent six wrestlers to nationals in the 1978 season.
All-American Hunt: The Cleveland State wrestling program has had eight wrestlers earn All-America honors since the 1970 season, but there hasn't been a Viking finish in the top eight since 1995 when Dan Carcelli finished fourth in the 142 pound bracket. Dave Zahoransky, recently inducted into the Cleveland State Hall of Fame, earned All-America honors twice, in 1986 and 1988, the only Viking to earn multiple All-America honors.
Long Time Coming: Russ Davie became just the second Viking heavyweight to win the EWL crown. Tim Payne was the first to do it back in 1978, three years before Davie was even born. Davie is the 23rd Eastern Wrestling League champion in Cleveland State's 26 years in the league.
Fall Record Falling?: Senior Russ Davie recorded three pins on his way to the Eastern Wrestling League heavyweight title, giving him 11 on the season and 31 for his career. He is currently tied with John Velimesis for the Cleveland State career pins mark, which Velimesis, a 118-pounder, set from 1982-85. Davie, who entered the year with 20 pins, is just three pins short of tying Olympic silver medalist Matt Ghaffari's school record for pins in a season with 14.
It's A Family Affair: Freshman DeAngelo Penn (Solon, Ohio) will be joined at the NCAA Championships by more than just his five Viking teammates. His brother, Deonte, is a sophomore at Edinboro, and won the Eastern Wrestling League title at 149 pounds.
Peaking At The Right Time: Sophomore Ron Howard (Cincinnati, Ohio/Finneytown) has had his share of ups and downs this season, with the biggest ups coming at the EWL Championships. Howard, who entered the league championships with a 6-16 record, lost in the opening round to eventual champion Greg Jones of West Virginia, then rattled off three straight wins. He scored an 11-9 sudden victory win over Lock Haven's Mike Greenberg in the third-place match to claim his spot in St. Louis. Howard had been pinned seven times on the year entering the EWL Championships but also owns three major decision victories, managed to save his best wrestling for the end of the year.
His Time To Shine: Junior Joe Phillips (Maple Heights, Ohio) knew he just needed a chance to show he belonged in the starting lineup. Phillips was blocked in two weight classes a year ago, stuck behind NCAA qualifiers Gerald Harris at 184 and Stipe Miocic at 197. Harris graduated last year after becoming CSU's career wins leader with 118, while Miocic transferred from Cleveland State to pursue his baseball interests, leaving a pair of spots open. Phillips moved from 184 to 197 this season, and posted 21 wins, third-most on the Cleveland State roster. Phillips redshirted the 2003 season after finishing fourth in the Eastern Wrestling League in 2002.
Coleman's Roller Coaster: Senior Anthony Coleman, an NCAA qualifier as a junior in 2003 at 149, moved down one class to 141 this season and has had several peaks and valleys along the way. After opening the year 12-1 through the first two rounds of the Midlands Invitational, Coleman went on to lose eight of his next 10 matches, including a tough 3-2 loss to Virginia's Scott Moore, the top-ranked wrestler in the nation at 141 by nearly every wrestling publication. Coleman then went 6-3 over his next nine matches, including a 2-2 mark in the Eastern Wrestling League championships. He enters the NCAA Championships with a 17-9 record.
A Good Switch: Matt Kallai (Wadsworth, Ohio) spent his redshirt season at Ohio State, transferring before the 2003-04 season to Cleveland State to join his brother, Chris, a sophomore on the CSU wrestling team. Kallai, a former state champion at Wadsworth High School, has battled several injuries on the year, but got healthy at the right time to come through during the Eastern Wrestling League Championships, scoring a 3-1 record, including a pin of West Virginia's Eric Mullen in the consolation semifinals.
A Fresh Look: DeAngelo Penn and Matt Kallai are Cleveland State's first freshmen to qualify for the NCAA Championships since Russ Davie did in 2000. The last time the Vikings had a pair of freshmen qualifiers was in 1999, when Gerald Harris and Phil Manseuto advanced to the NCAAs. Harris and Mansueto would both go on to qualify for the NCAA Championships three times in their Viking careers.
Up Next: The 2003-04 wrestling season concludes with this week's NCAA Championships.
