Wrestling Tied For 25th After Day One of NCAA Championships

3/18/2004

Senior Josh Birt won both of his bouts on Thursday to advance to the quarterfinals.

ST. LOUIS, Mo. — Four of the Panthers' six qualifiers for the NCAA Wrestling Championships advanced to the second day of competition, leading Pittsburgh into a tie for 25th place in the overall team standings with 8.5 points.

Senior Josh Birt (Spokane, Wash./North Idaho JC/East Valley), a former junior college national champion, won both of his bouts at 197 pounds on Thursday over seeded wrestlers to advance into the quarterfinals. He will need to win one more bout to guarantee a top-eight finish overall and All-America status.

Birt first disposed of the tournament's No. 8 seed, Matt Greenberg of Cornell, with a pin at the 1:14 mark of the first period. He advanced into the second round and earned an 8-2 decision over the No. 9 seed, KC Walsh of Boise State, to advance to the quarterfinals. He will meet the No. 1-ranked wrestler in the weight class, Damion Hahn of Minnesota (30-1), in the first session on Friday. Birt (24-8) will try to join assistant coach Carl Fronhofer as an All-American. Fronhofer made it to the finals of the 174-pound weight class in 2003 as an unseeded wrestler, like Birt.

Three other Panthers won at least one bout to make it into the second day of competition. 12th seed Ronald Tarquinio (McDonald, Pa./West Allegheny) won his first-round match over Nate Gulosh of the Naval Academy, 10-7, but dropped an 11-2 major decision in the second round to fifth-seed Cliff Moore of Iowa. Tarquinio (26-11) will meet Tyler Lauden of Wisconsin in the second round of consolations on Friday morning.

Freshman Matt Kocher (State College, Pa./State College Area) earned a tough draw when he was put into a first-round pigtail match with David Dies of Brown. Dies majored Kocher by a score of 10-1, forcing Kocher to win two matches on Thursday night to qualify for Friday's competition. Dies defeated the No. 8 and No. 9 seeds to advance to the quarterfinals. Kocher first beat Matt Anderson of Lehigh in consolations, 4-2, to earn a rematch with Deonte Penn of Edinboro, who had defeated Kocher twice, including the EWL title bout two weeks ago.

Kocher (31-12) picked up his first win over Penn, a 6-2 decision, to advance on to Friday's consolations against Casey Olsen of Fresno State. Olsen lost in the second round by a 3-1 score to the tournament's No. 4 seed, Ryan Churella of Michigan.

Joining Birt, Tarquinio and Kocher on Friday will be sophomore Francis Iorfido (Johnsonburg, Pa./Johnsonburg) at 174 pounds with a 1-1 mark on Thursday. Iorfido was narrowly edged by the tournament's No. 3 seed, Brad Dillon of Lehigh, in the first round by a score of 12-8. Iorfido moved on with a win in the consolations over Levi Craig of Duke, a 13-3 major decision. Iorfido (26-10) moves on to face Mitch Hancock of Central Michigan, who defeated the No. 8 seed, Andrew Roy of Rutgers, in the first round.

Junior Zachariah Doll (Quakertown, Pa./The Hill School) and sophomore Justin Nestor (Transfer, Pa./Reynolds) were defeated in both of their matches on Thursday and were eliminated from the tournament.

Doll had a tough pigtail opponent at 165 pounds in No. 6 seed Ralph Everett of Hofstra, and gave everything he had before dropping a tough 4-3 decision. Doll (21-9) was then defeated by Matthew Veach of Eastern Illinois by a 15-8 final. Nestor, the Panthers' 157-pounder, was topped by No. 7-seed Phillip Simpson of Army, by a 15-0 technical fall in the first round and battled a familiar opponent in consolations, Charlie Brenneman of Lock Haven, but lost a tough 5-3 decisioin to finish his season at 27-16.

Oklahoma State is the overall leader with 30 points, followed by Illinois with 28 and Nebraska with 25 points. Pittsburgh is tied with Harvard for 25th with 8.5 points, second among Eastern Wrestling League schools. West Virginia is tied for 19th with 11 points.