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Blue Devil Grapplers Ready For Saturday's ACC Championships
3/4/2005 12:00:00 AM | Wrestling
March 4, 2005
The Blue Devil wrestling squad looks to make history this Saturday with its first ACC championship. The tournament will be held as part of the MatJam at UNC-Greensboro. Based on early seedings, Virginia Tech, NC State, and North Carolina are the favorites, but Duke finished third last year and looks to break into the top three again.
Three Blue Devils figure to garner top-two seedings. Freshman Wes Kuser went 3-1 in league competition, wrestling at 141 pounds, a weight class at which no one went undefeated in conference action. He hopes to get a chance to avenge his lone ACC loss to Isaiah Britton of UNC, a match-up that would likely have to wait until the finals, if both wrestlers reach that point.
Frank Cornely will likely be the number-two seed at 184 for the second straight season. Last year, Cornely won the 184-pound ACC title from the two-spot and turned the tables on Tar Heel rival Mark Canty, winning a 7-6 match after losing 3-1 in the dual meet against UNC. He hopes to find the same success this year against Virginia Tech's Steve Borja, to whom he suffered a loss in overtime of their dual meet match on Jan. 15.
Mark Thompson also should be ranked in the top two at 197 pounds entering the tournament, but he faces a tough road to get to the finals. He will likely have to defeat Zach Garren of N.C. State in the semifinals. Garren was an NCAA qualifier in 2004. Waiting on the other side of the bracket will be David Dashiell of North Carolina, who came from behind to beat Thompson earlier this season.
Three other Duke wrestlers will be seeded entering the tournament. Defending 174-pound champion Levi Craig will be the third seed, setting up a possible semifinal rematch with UVA's Rocco Caponi, who defeated Craig, 5-4, in the last seconds of their match earlier this season. Kevin Gabrielson of NC State is the clear number-one seed, but has wrestled close matches with nearly every other ACC competitor.
Bryan Gibson should draw the fourth seed at 133 pounds, meaning a possible rematch in the semifinals with Evan Sola, the former All-American from UNC. In their first meeting, Gibson scored the first points on Sola, but the Tar Heel wrestler recovered to take the lead and eventually pin Gibson.
Antwone Floyd earned the fourth seed at 149 pounds with his double-overtime victory over Paul Dunstan of Virginia, which clinched the dual for Duke. Floyd will see N.C. State's Alex Hernandez in the semifinals if both wrestlers make it there. Hernandez won a 10-7 match the first time around.
Kellan McKeon has had close matches with every other wrestler at the 125 pound weight class in the ACC, but has yet to break through for an ACC win, and hopes to end that streak Saturday. Daniel Shvartsman will be wrestling up two weight classes at 157 pounds, but still looks to improve off his third-place finish last year at 141 pounds.
Senior Steve Smith will take the mat at 165 pounds. He has also gone close with all his competitors, with only one win to show for it, but has as good a chance as anybody of coming away with a finals berth or ACC title. Former Tar Heel Venroy July has lost four ACC matches at heavyweight by a combined five points. July did win the ACC title at 197 pounds last year as an underdog, and hopes to replicate that success this year.
The ACC tournament also serves as the qualifier for the NCAA tournament. The 10 champions and five wild card wrestlers (as selected by ACC coaches) will represent the conference in St. Louis March 17th-19th. Last year, Duke had its best performance in recent memory, with a record four ACC champions, the most of any ACC team, and five total place-winners, on the way to a third-place team finish.
Players Mentioned
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