Last night, the Intramural Wrestling Tournament wrapped up with Alpha Tau Omega stealing the fraternity title from ACACIA. New faces upset familiar ones while several returning wrestlers remained atop their weight class.

Three of the 18 champions crowned on the night were ATO wrestlers. Since those three accounted for ATO's entire squad, they didn't seem to have a chance against ACACIA, the tournament's four-time defending champion. However, that was all it took for ATO to win their first fraternity title of any kind in five years.

ACACIA thought they had sealed the title yet again after sophomore Orlando Florez and Chris Kaplanis (freshman-Department of Undergraduate Studies) won the 133- and 141-pound championships, respectively, by a combined score of 19-1. Florez pinned his opponent, accounting for 15 points.

Kaplanis came in just hoping to win a few matches and represent the frat, but now with the victory, next year he expects to win again.

"Now that I won it, I'm not going to set expectations so I'll definitely be out to win it next year," Kaplanis said.

Sophomore Mike Prible of ATO had the easiest match of the night; his opponent Dan Synder was unable to change the time of his 8:15 p.m. exam, so he won his 165-pound match by forfeit. Up next for ATO was sophomore Ryan Griffin in the 174-pound clash. Griffin won by a score of 5-0.

Griffin was up 4-0 in the quarterfinals last year when he over-extended his shoulder. "This is definitely redemption. I had something to prove to myself," he said.

Waltemire then hit the mat. ACACIA was unaware that ATO's senior Rick Waltemire was set to grapple in the 184-pound bout. Waltemire had missed the three-day registration period and was placed as an alternate in case there was a forfeit of in his class. Waltemire capitalized on the opportunity, winning four matches prior to the finals. His late entry kept his name off the original list, hence ACACIA had no idea he was there to rip the title away from them. ACACIA had already sent their two wrestlers to the match and they sat believing they had won. However, when Waltemire pinned his counterpart from Sigma Chi, he won ATO the team title.

Both sides believed that ACACIA had won the title until they were told otherwise. Even ATO was shocked. According to Waltemire, this was ATO's first fraternity title in any sport in the last five years.

This win brought vindicated last year's IM season. Griffin and Prible went down to injuries in last year's tournament while Waltemire was abroad. Losing his presence as a past individual champion as well as that of their two other top wrestlers rendered ATO incapacitated to pose a threat to ACACIA.

In the heavyweight fraternity match, senior Chris Major faced favorite senior Bob Mattiford. Major came away with a 3-2 win by following the advice of Penn State wrestler Dewitt Driscoll by stalling. This was Major's first time competing since high school.

In the open tournament 149-pounder Tom Dredge (senior-civil engineering) walked away bloody but victorious after a 13-4 win.

"I have no idea how it happened," Dredge said about his nose injury. "Everything is moving so fast. You can't really tell when things happen. You learn not to let it bother you."

The championship was his fourth. That earns him the distinction of being undefeated in IM matches. Dredge has competed on the club team since it began when he was a freshman. Anything else would've been a failure.

"I couldn't disappoint myself," he said.

The tournament began with 150 wrestlers and Tuesday determined 17 of the 18 champions. Signups began in late January and matches began last week and for many this afforded them the chance to wrestle competitively for the first time since grade school. The tournament was divided into a fraternity league and an open league so there were 18 champions in all.

Said Mark Belden, coordinator of the tournament since 1975 an scorekeeper of the varsity team: "Its nice because for a lot of them this is their only chance [to wrestle] at the collegiate level."

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