Duke Finishes Sixth At ACC Championships, Shvartsman And Barone Place Third

Saturday, March 3

Raleigh, N.C.

10 a.m.

Duke University

Day One

Duke Finishes Sixth At ACC Championships, Shvartsman And Barone Place Third

3/3/2007 12:00:00 AM | Wrestling

By: Duke Sports Information

RALEIGH, N.C. ? Duke's wrestlers competed in their last meet of the year on Saturday in the ACC Championships in Reynolds Coliseum. The Blue Devils finished sixth out of the six ACC teams for the second year in a row with a total of 23 points. Host N.C. State ran away with the title with 103.5 points. All 10 weight class champions and four additional “wild cards” move on to the NCAA Championships March 15-17. Duke did not place any wrestlers among those 14.

At 125 pounds, junior Kellan McKeon started off the day by picking up his second ACC victory of the season in an upset over top-seeded Drew Forshey of North Carolina in a 4-3 sudden victory decision. McKeon then fell 4-0 to N.C. State's No. 4 seed Taylor Cummings and dropped the third place bout to Forshey, 6-3, to place fourth.

Freshman Spencer Jasper picked up his second ACC win this year at 133 pounds. As the No. 5 seed, he pinned No. 4 seed Sheridan Moran of Virginia Tech at 4:54 of their match. Jasper then lost matches to the No. 1 and No. 3 seeds in the tournament to finish the day.

At 141 pounds, senior Philip Wightman was unseeded and had the unfortunate luck of facing the No. 1 and No. 3 seeds in his two matches. Wightman dropped both, and finishes his Blue Devil career with a 24-26 record.

Tied for the best finish at the ACC's for Duke was senior Daniel Shvartsman at 149 pounds. Shvartsman was the top seed and began by defeating Drew Dipasquale of Virginia, 5-3. After being upset by No. 4 seed Joe Caramanica of N.C. State, Shvartsman won two matches in the consolation round to place third. He scored a major decision, 10-2, over Virginia Tech's A.J. Johnson before winning 3-1 for the second time against Dipasquale. Shvartsman finishes his career at Duke with an 87-67 mark, which is also good for ninth place on the all-time school wins list.

Unseeded sophomore Addison Nuding picked up a 4-0 upset decision over the No. 4 seed (Mike Sewell of Virginia) at 157 pounds. Nuding then dropped consecutive decisions to No. 1 seed and nationally-ranked Kody Hamrah of N.C. State and Mike McGill of Maryland.

Redshirt sophomore Aaron Glover was seeded fourth at 165 pounds, where he won his first match, 9-6, over Obie Simpson of N.C. State. Glover then was beaten was top-seeded Jason Kiessling of Maryland and Damian Johnson of Virginia.

At 174 pounds, redshirt freshman John Barone joined Shvartsman by placing third at the meet. Seeded fourth, Barone edged out Deon Barrett of North Carolina, 5-4, before being defeated by the No. 1 seed, Maryland's Mike Letts. Barone won two matches in the consolation round: the first over Virginia Tech's Steve Ratley in an 11-3 major decision and the second in an upset pin of No. 2 seed Mike Grogan of Virginia at 2:04 of their match.

The three upper weight classes were unable to produce a victory for Duke, as redshirt sophomore Dan Tulley (184 pounds), senior Patrick Keenum (197) and redshirt freshman Mike Tunick (285) all faced opponents seeded in the top four in both of their matches. Keenum completes his Duke career with a 19-43 record.

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