The Digital Collegian - Published independently by students at Penn State
SPORTS
[ Monday, Dec. 9, 2002 ]

Wrestling wins twice at PSU Open

COLLEGIAN STAFF WRITER

The Penn State wrestling team is getting greedy.

After winning two weight class championships and placing ten wrestlers at the Penn State Open yesterday at Rec Hall, the team could only talk about how much more success they want.

"I think we had some up and down performances," Penn State wrestling coach Troy Sunderland said. "Our lightweights did well ... the upperweights didn't have a great day, with the exception of Mark Becks. He did a nice job in getting another title under his belt."

Becks, a senior, won the 184-pound weight class while junior Josh Moore won the 133-pound bracket.

Becks ran his record to 14-0 with his five wins in the tournament. After beating Navy's Travis Manion, Becks credited much of yesterday's success to extra work with the coaching staff.

"I wrestled coach Hart on Friday," Becks said. "We just went over some basic fundamental stuff, the first thing was controlling a tie and the second thing was getting a tilt and riding a guy. I think that helped me a lot just as far as reiterating things that I needed to work on. And it definitely showed today."

Becks was not happy with the point results in his championship match and said he had hoped to score more points.

Moore beat Edinboro's Shawn Bunch in the championship match to win the title. Moore is the second of four Nittany Lions who still own undefeated records.

Senior Pat Cummins (9-0) and freshman DeWitt Driscol (4-0) are also undefeated. However, they did not wrestle in the tournament.

Sunderland said both wrestlers were kept out of the tournament to keep from aggravating minor injuries.

Other Lions to come in the top six in their weightclasses were freshman James Yonushonis (sixth-174 pound) and Nathan Galloway (third-149), sophomore Jason Woodall (sixth-149), juniors Marat Tomaev (third-133) and Josh Moore (third-141) and seniors Ryan Cummins (fifth-197) and Doc Vecchio (fifth-165).

Penn State did not put any wrestlers in the top six of the 157-pound and heavyweight classes.

Hofstra's Chris Skretkowicz took home the tournament's Oustanding Wrestler honor. Skretkowicz won the 197-pound title.

Sunderland compared the team's start this season to last year. He said last years' team won more medals at the Penn State Open, but this season saw more wrestlers compete further into their bracket than last year.

Sunderland said many members of the team were able to get experience that will help them win more matches over the rest of the season.

The wrestling team will compete again Sunday at 1 p.m. against Edinboro at Rec Hall.

 



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