27th EWL Championships
MAUSSER & TESTA WIN EWL TITLES/MARTINEZ SECOND
CLARION QUALIFIES 4 FOR NCAA D-I TOURNAMENT
(Lock Haven, Pa.): Clarion’s Eric Mausser and John Testa won individual titles on Sunday and Rad Martinez finished second, as the Golden Eagles scored 66 points, qualified four wrestler for the NCAA Division I Nationals and placed 6th as a team at the 27th Annual (EWL) Eastern Wrestling League Championships.
Mausser, Testa and Martinez qualified for the NCAA Division I Nationals by virtue of their placing. Also selected by the coaches as a wild card was sophomore Jeremy Reitz, who finished fourth at 157.
Dom Surra, who also finished fourth, was selected as the first alternate and could go to nationals in case any of the 39 already selected cannot go.
Held March 9-10 at Lock Haven University’s Thomas Field House, West Virginia won the team title with 114.5 points, defending champion Edinboro was second with 104.5 and host Lock Haven was third with 104. In the eight team field Pittsburgh was fourth with 87 points, Cleveland State fifth with 67, Clarion sixth with 66, Virginia Tech seventh with 48.5 and Bloomsburg eighth with 41 points.
Testa won his second straight EWL heavyweight title and upped his season record to 32-5 in winning his weight class. He won in the finals when Pitt’s Jacob Lininger medical defaulted due to a knee injury he suffered earlier in the tournament. Testa won his quarterfinal bout over Steve Itterly of Lock Haven 12-6 and his semifinal match over Edinboro’s Josh Pearce 11-5. Testa has a career record of 89-22 at Clarion and will be headed to the NCAA’s for the third time in three years.
Mausser won his title at 197 in impressive style, upsetting #1 seed Dave Shunamon (Edinboro) 6-3 in the finals. He had a second and third period takedown to pave the way. The Clarion junior defeated Canaan Prater (Va. Tech) 6-0 in the quarterfinals and Avery Zerkle (Lock Haven) 3-2 in the semi’s. Mausser now has a 31-7 season record and a career mark of 85-27.
Martinez lost a tough 1-1 rideout decision to Cleveland State’s Phil Mansueto in the EWL finals. Both wrestlers notched escapes to take the match into overtime. After nos core in the first overtime, Mansueto won the coin toss and chose the top position. He rode Martinez out the 30-second rideout period. Also a junior, Martinez advanced to the finals with an impressive 25-9 technical fall over Mark Piermattei (Bloomsburg) in the quarters, and edged Cory Ace (Edinboro) 2-2 rideout in the semi’s. In that match Martinez had a takedown for the first points and earned the right to choose the down spot in the sudden death overtime. He escaped less than ten seconds into the overtime to win the match. Rad now has a 28-5 season record and a two-year mark of 57-15.
Clarion’s Jeremy Reitz and dom Surra finished fourth at 157 and 149 respectively, while 184-pounder Marcus Surin was sixth.
Reitz was 2-2 at EWL’s. In Sunday’s wrestle backs he defeated Virginia Tech’s Mike Cox 6-2, then lost his third place battle with Pitt’s Zack Doll 5-2. Jeremy nearly upset WVU’s Joe Carr in the seni’s, when he took eventual the eventual champion to his back late in the third period to go ahead 7-5. But Carr reversed Reitz with 25 seconds left and won the bout on riding time 8-7. Reitz upped his season record to 18-12 overall and will be making his first trip to the NCAA’s.
Surra posted a 2-2 record including a 6-2 win in the wrestle back place match against Charlie Soto (Edinboro), but lost a heartbreaking 1-0 decision to Pitt’s Justin Giovinco. Surra finished the season at 17-15 and has a career record of 58-53.
Surin was 1-3 in placing sixth. His win came in the first wrestle back round when he logged a 15-4 major decision over Pitt’s Rob Black.
Clarion’s Peter Derstine at 125, Starlin Jimenez at 141, Jim Perry at 165 and Todd Schuchert at 174 all posted 0-2 records and were eliminated.
Clarion now has 47 individual champions in EWL history since the league was started back in 1976. Clarion has had at least one individual champion in every year except 1983, 89 and 2000. The NCAA Tournament is scheduled for March 21-23 in Albany, New York.