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Vikings Finish Seventh at EWL Championship
March 8, 2008
Contact: Gene Natale, Jr. PITTSBURGH, Pa - Cleveland State finished its run at the EWL Championships, which were held at Fitzgerald Fieldhouse at the University of Pittsburgh on Saturday evening. Marcus Effner and Rashard Goff each earned wild-card selections to the NCAA Championships, continuing a now 43-year run that a Viking has qualified for the event. "Well it's a bittersweet feeling," head coach Jack Effner said, "I saw four guys wrestle their last matches and not realize their dreams to return to the NCAA Championship, and it that is the bitter part of it. The good part is that we come out and keep the streak alive in a tough year." Edinboro won the team title with 133 points, followed by host Pittsburgh (111.50) and West Virginia (103.50). Cleveland State was seventh overall with 53.00 points, only two points behind sixth place Clarion (55.00). "As a team, I'm very disappointed," Effner said, "We were not as sharp as I thought we would be, and I have to attribute some of that to the level of the competition. I have to believe that we are still doing good things." Marcus Effner (165 pounds) finished his run at the EWL Championship with a fifth place finish and a 26-11 record for the season. Meanwhile, Rashard Goff finished with a 20-10 record and a fourth place overall finish as each made it to the NCAA Championship. "We have two qualify wrestlers going to the NCAA Championships," Coach Effner said, "Both have defeated nationally ranked wrestlers and have been nationally ranked themselves throughout the season. They can represent the university and the conference well, and I'm real proud of both of them." Effner was able to win his final bout of the day to finish fifth overall. He lost his first Session II bout to Bloomsburg's Ricky Schmelyn by a close 4-2 decision, but rebounded a win over Lock Haven's Derek Caldwell (13-5 major decision), whom he had defeated in the opening matchup of the day by a 15-5 major decision. Goff also had mixed Session II results, as he followed a win in his first consolation bout (7-1 decision over Clarion's Roman Husam) with a loss to Edinboro's Joey Fendone in the third place bout. Fendone avenged his recent string of losses to Goff (three straight) with a 3-0 victory by decision earned on the strength of a wide advantage in riding time throughout the match. Josh Palivoda (133 pounds) tied Goff for the highest finish by a Viking on the day with a fourth place showing. The true freshman grappler rebounded from his opening loss in Session I (17-4 major decision to Pitt's Jimmy Conroy) with a win in his first consolation bout over Clarion's Rob LaBrake (15-9 decision). Palivoda then lost his next bout to Edinboro's Ricky Deubel (11-1 major decision) to secure fourth place. There were three other Vikings who managed fifth place finishes, including Mike Hurley (141 pounds), Ryan Hurley (149 pounds), and JT Miller (174 pounds). After a 1-1 showing in Session I, the senior 141-pounder Mike Hurley suffered his second tough loss of the day in the early goings of Session II with a 15-9 loss by decision to West Virginia's Stephen Waite. He then came back in his final match of the night to pin Lock Haven's Clint Shirk (5:21) to finish fifth overall. Ryan Hurley (149 pounds) also had a difficult time with his first Session II bout, losing a 12-5 decision to Clarion's Hadley Harrison. The senior team captain rebounded in his final bout of the evening with an 8-5 decision over Bloomsburg's George Hickman, following his brother Mike into a fifth place finish. With the finish, Hurley had his streak of consecutive appearances at the NCAA Championship snapped at three. JT Miller rounded out the top finishers for the Vikings after he recorded his first win of the day in a 9-7 decision over Clarion's Mario Morelli. The win gave Miller a fifth place finish as he finished his season with 22 wins, nearly three times his career total prior to the start of the 2007-08 season (eight). Robbie Michaels (157 pounds) finished his first season in the starting lineup with an 0-3 showing at the EWL Championship, finishing sixth overall. The redshirt freshman never seemed to be able to recapture whatever magic he had early in the season in running his record to 23-4 as he losing his last eight matches of the season to finish at 23-12. Michaels fought through a sudden illness midway through the season, but despite returning to health was unable to regain his form from the first half of the year. However that is not to say that he didn't wrestle against the best of the best - all three wrestlers who beat him at the EWL Championship (Pitt's Matt Kocher, WVU's Zac Fryling, Clarion's Travis Uncapher) were selected as NCAA qualifiers as either an alternate (Uncapher) or wild cards (Fryling, Kocher). The Vikings will return to action at the NCAA Championships, which will be held at the Scottrade Center at the University of Missouri in St. Louis from March 20-22. Team Results Cleveland State Results 133 141 149 157 165 174 184 197 285
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