March 20, 2003

Kansas City, Mo. - Seniors Rocco Mansueto (Middletown, N.Y./Middletown) and Gerald Harris (Tulsa, Okla./East Central) won at 125 and 184 pounds, respectively, in the opening round of the NCAA 2003 Division I Wrestling Championships Thursday.

The other four Viking grapplers - Phil Mansueto (Middletown, N.Y./Middletown), Anthony Coleman (Bellevue, Ohio/Bellevue), Stipe Miocic (Willowick, Ohio/Eastlake North) and Russ Davie (Perrysburg, Ohio/Perrysburg) - all fell in their opening round matches and dropped into the tournament's consolation bracket.

As a team, the Vikings have four points and are tied for 29th with Eastern Wrestling League foe Clarion as well as North Carolina, Army, Cal-Bakersfield and Wisconsin. Oklahoma State leads the team competition with 19.5 points.

At 125, Rocco Mansueto tied eighth-seeded Skyler Holman of Oklahoma State 6-6 before winning the tiebreaker. Mansueto, a 2003 EWL champion, next will face ninth-seeded Jason Powell of Nebraska.

Harris, also a 2003 EWL champion, earned the seventh seed at 184. He slipped past Brown's Nick Ciarcia 2-1 and will take on 10th-seeded Jake Rosholt of Oklahoma State in the next round.

Phil Mansueto, seeded 11th at 133, lost a hard-fought match to Eastern Illinois' Pat Dowty, 7-6. He will receive a bye in the consolation bracket and will await the loser between #1-ranked Johnny Thompson of Oklahoma State and Cal-Bakersfield's Matt Sanchez.

At 149, Minnesota's #2-seeded Jared Lawrence recorded a technical fall over Coleman in 6:31. Coleman will face Illinois' Tony Pedrosa in the consolation round. At 197, Miocic lost 10-7 to #8-seeded Anthony Reynolds of Sacred Heart. He will meet Wyoming's Kevin Kessner in the consolation bracket.

At heavyweight, Penn State's Pat Cummins, the #7 seed, downed Davie 12-2. Davie also will receive a bye in the consolation round before taking on the loser between Arizona State Kellan Fluckiger, the #4 seed, and Purdue's Israel Blevins.