Fittery Advances to Second-Straight East Region Championship, Nauman, Wilson Battle For Third
Feb. 29, 2008
JOHNSTOWN, Pa. - Shippensburg University wrestling sophomore Steve Fittery (Denver/Cocalico) will look for his second consecutive East Region championship at 141 pounds after he defeated Pittsburgh-Johnstown's Shane Valko by major decision 15-5 Saturday afternoon at the 2008 NCAA Division II East Region Championships hosted by the University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown.
In addition to Fittery, red-shirt senior Dan Nauman (Middletown/Middletown) and red-shirt junior Jake Wilson (Carlisle/Carlisle) have also put themselves in a position to earn a trip to the NCAA Division II Wrestling Championships March 14-15 as both will wrestle in the third-place match at 157 and 165 pounds, respectively.
As a team, Shippensburg currently sits in eighth-place with a total of 41.0 points, just one head of UNC-Pembroke and two ahead of Kutztown. Pembroke has two wrestlers in the championship bracket and one in the consolation while the Golden Bears have five wrestlers still competing in the consolation bracket.
Newberry and UPJ are currently tied for first with 115.0 points each as both teams have six wrestlers in the championship bracket and three in the consolation bracket.
With a win in the championship match at 141, Fittery would be the first back-to-back East Region champion in school history since Kevin Boccella won in 1999 and 2000. Since Shippensburg made the transition from Division I to Division II, there has never been a three-peat regional champion in school history.
SU Hall of Famer Glen Burket won three-straight East Region championships from 1976-78 at 126 pounds on the Division I level.
Fittery will face Tony Washington of Newberry in the championship match Saturday evening. It will be the second time the two have faced in their careers with Fittery winning by injury default at last year's East Coast Duals on Jan. 20, 2007.
After falling to sixth-seeded Phil Bliss of Belmont Abbey in the semifinals at 157, Nauman advanced to tonight's third-place match after eighth-seeded Mazen Kholi of UPJ forfeited to set-up a rematch between Nauman and Dave Zeek of Kutztown. Nauman beat Zeek 8-6 on Friday night to get to the semifinals.
At 165, Wilson lost to top-seeded Kyle Keane of UPJ in the semifinals before posting a fall in 4:21 over Trevor Sanford of Anderson (S.C.). It was the second fall this season for Wilson and his second victory in as many matches against Sanford. Wilson will face second-seeded Hudson Harrison of Mercyhurst in the third-place match Saturday night.
Shippensburg's other two contenders, red-shirt freshman Chris Barrick (Carlisle/Big Spring) at 174 and red-shirt sophomore Jon Hade (New Oxford/Bermudian Springs) at 184, both lost their only matches of the day on Saturday and were eliminated from the tournament.
The sixth-seeded Barrick lost to seventh-seeded A.J. Sayles of Gannon 4-0 while Hade, also seeded sixth, lost to Kutztown's Kyle Davis, also seeded seventh, 4-2.
The fourth and final session of the 2008 NCAA Division II East Region Championships gets underway at 2:30 p.m., with the finals, consolation finals, fifth and sixth-place matches as well as true fourth-place matches.
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