Cal State Fullerton will wrap up the dual match portion of its 2003-04
wrestling schedule Sunday with a pair of matches at No. 24-ranked Wyoming
and at Northern Colorado. The match in Laramie begins at 1 p.m. and the
Greeley match starts at 7 p.m.
Wyoming is 7-3 in dual matches including a 30-13 home victory Friday night
over Northern Colorado, which is 2-7 going into two matches this week
before hosting Fullerton.
Wyoming will be the sixth team in the current InterMat national
rankings that the Titans have faced this season. Fullerton has faced current
No. 5 Michigan, No. 15 Cornell, No. 18 Purdue, No. 21 Cal State Bakersfield
and No. 22 Arizona State. Fullerton also has faced teams getting "other
votes" in Cal Poly, Oregon State and Stanford.
Wyoming has four wrestlers ranked in the national Top 20. Dusty Hoffschneider
is No. 15 at heavyweight, Kevin Kessner is No. 16 at 197, Andrew Shuler
is No. 17 at 157 and Blake Gunter is No. 20 at 141. The Titans have one
nationally ranked wrestler in Leo Sanchez, No. 20 at 174.
Wyoming is coached by Steven Suder.
UNC is in a "reclassification" peiod between Div. II and Div.
I status. Head Coach Jack Maughan is in his 17th season with a current
dual record of 99-121-1. Top Bear wrestlers include Mark Hastings, 11-5
at 133 pounds; and Kyle LeValley, 11-9 at 141.
The match will be broadcast on radio (KSIR, 1010 AM) in Fort Morgan, Colorado,
and can be accessed, for a fee, on the internet at www.uncbears.com.
Fullerton's Sanchez had two more pins last week to improve his season's
total to 10, which ties him for second in the nation behind Ben Askren
of Missouri with 14. The Titans' Juan Mora also has 10 pins at 141 pounds
to earn him a sixth-place tie nationally. In wins, Sanchez is No. 2 at
30-9 to Buffalo's Edward Pawlak, who is 31-7. Fullerton's Landon Seefeldt
is tied for No. 6 in wins at 197 pounds with his 25-10 record.
In the current Pac-10 rankings the Titans have seven
wrestlers listed in the top eight at each weight. Sanchez and Mora are
both ranked No. 3, Seefeldt is No. 4, Jesse Miramontes (125), Dustin Vance
(157) and Ian Murphy (184) are tanked No. 6 and Brett Gordon (149) is
at No. 7.
After this weekend, the only remaining competition is the Pac-10 Championships,
Feb. 29 and Mar. 1, at Arizona State. That serves as the qualifying tournament
fo the NCAA Championships to begin Mar. 18 in St. Louis.
