WEST
VIRGINIA CAPTURES EWL TEAM TITLE
Mountaineers Crown Three
Individual Winners En Route To Victory
(Lock
Haven, Pa.) – The West Virginia University
Mountaineers captured the 27th Annual
Eastern Wrestling League Tournament team
championship, crowing three individual champions
en-route to their second tournament title and
first since the 1996 season.
WVU’s Greg Jones (174 lbs.) was named the
tournament’s Outstanding Wrestler.
West Virginia posted 114.50 team points for
the win. Only
a half point separated second and third place, as
Edinboro University (104.50) edged out Lock Haven
University (104.00) for the runner-up position.
Finishing fourth was the University of
Pittsburgh (87.00), followed by Cleveland State
University (67.00), Clarion University (66.00),
Virginia Tech (48.50), and Bloomsburg University
(41.00).
The Mountaineers claimed three individual
champions, while Virginia Tech and Clarion each
crowned two individual titlists.
Edinboro’s Shawn Bunch (Leavenworth,
Kan./Leavenworth) opened up championship
competition with a win by injury default (5:53)
over Lock Haven’s Trap McCormack (Loganton/Bald
Eagle Nittany).
McCormack was ahead at the time, 8-3,
before a knee injury put the senior Bald Eagle out
of commission.
The 133-pound
championship match-up between Cleveland State’s Phil
Mansueto (Middletown, N.Y./Middletown) and
Clarion’s Rad Martinez (West Jordan,
Utah/West Jordan) went into the tie-breaker at
1-1. Mansueto
choose to take the offensive position, and rode
out Martinez over the 30-second overtime for his
first EWL title.
Virginia Tech’s Sean
Gray (Flemington, N.J./Blair Academy) joined
the annals of EWL history as a three-time winner,
surviving a late surge by West Virginia’s Shane
Cunanan (Spokane, Wash./Central Valley) for
the 7-5 victory in the finals at 141 pounds.
At 149 pounds, Lock Haven’s JaMarr
Billman (Easton/Easton Area) won his second
straight crown, taking the medical forfeit for
victory over West Virginia’s Billy Smith (New
Alexandria/ Greensburg-Salem).
West Virginia’s Joe
Carr (Lexington, Ky./Woodford) made the return
to the top spot on the awards stand after
finishing first in 2000, winning this year’s
157-pound weight class with a 7-3 decision over
Edinboro’s Ryan Yates (Lower Burrell/Burrell).
The Mountaineers’ Tom
McMath (Sharpsville/Sharpsville Area) followed
up with another West Virginia win, this time at
165 pounds with a 6-4 decision over Edinboro’s Matt
R. King (Connellsville/Connellsville).
McMath held a 2-1 lead after two periods,
then scored two escapes and a takedown with 35
seconds remaining to secure the win.
West
Virginia freshman Greg Jones (Slickville/Greensburg-Salem)
posted a 3-2 tiebreaker victory over two-time
defending EWL champion Josh Koscheck
(Waynesburg/Waynesburg) of Edinboro to capture
his first league title at 174 pounds.
Jones had the 2-1 advantage over Koscheck
after two periods, but an escape by Koscheck in
the third knotted the match at 2-2.
After scoring the first takedown of the
bout, Jones earned the choice in the tiebreaker
and took the defensive position, escaping just
three seconds into the overtime period for the
win.
After
finishing as the runner-up one year ago, Virginia
Tech’s Scott Justus (Grundy, Va./Grundy) tasted
victory with a 14-5 handling of Bloomsburg’s Justin
Johnson (Wyalusing/ Wyalusing) in the
184-pound bracket.
Justus piled on three takedowns in the
third period to add to his cushion after jumping
out to the 7-2 lead in the first two periods.
At
197 pounds, Clarion’s Eric Mausser
(Sharon/Sharon) used a late takedown in the
second period and another in the third to seal the
win over Edinboro’s David Shunamon
(Tewksbury, Mass./Tewksbury).
At
heavyweight, Clarion’s John Testa (Newark,
Del./St. Mark’s) earned his second-straight
EWL title after runner-up Jacob Lininger
(Hummelstown/Lower Dauphin) of Pittsburgh was
forced to use a medical forfeit.
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