Oregon State
NCAA Championships
Pitsch, Rakevich remain in NCAA Wrestling
March 18, 2004 | Wrestling
March 18, 2004
ST. LOUIS, Mo. - Oregon State 184-pounder Dan Pitsch and heavyweight Jamie Rakevich remain in the NCAA Wrestling Championships after the first day of the event at the Savvis Center. Both OSU wrestlers earned victories over nationally-ranked opponents on Thursday.
Beaver 149-pounder Tony Hook, 165-pounder Matt Ellis and 174-pounder Jed Pennell were all eliminated with a pair of losses. ; Oregon State is tied for 54th place.
"It's a good tournament," OSU head coach Joe Wells said. "You saw an awful lot of seeded kids get knocked off. At 125 pounds, I think there were five or six ranked kids who got beat by unranked kids. It's fairly typical of what to expect; it can come from anywhere. I thought we just didn't wrestle as well as we're capable of."
Pitsch will face eighth-seeded Kurt Backes of Iowa State in the second round of wrestlebacks on Friday morning. Backes, ranked 11th nationally by Amateur Wrestling News, was knocked out of the championship bracket in the first round and then won a pair of wrestleback matches.
Rakevich will go against Matt Wilcox of Clarion in the first round of wrestlebacks. Wilcox was beaten by top-seeded Tommy Rowlands of Ohio State in the first round.
Pitsch improved to 20-11 this season by splitting his two matches on Thursday. The sophomore was the only Beaver to gain a win in the championship bracket, beating 17th-ranked Nick Ciarcia of Brown 8-6.
"Dan really dominated at the beginning of the match, then stood around and gave up couple takedowns toward end of periods," Wells said. "He almost gave it up at the end, but he pushed on through it."
Pitsch then lost to third-seeded Jake Rosholt of Oklahoma State, the defending national champion, in a 16-0 technical fall in 4 minutes, 23 seconds.
Rakevich is 16-10 this season after also splitting two matches on the tournament's opening day. Rakevich lost a tough 3-2 decision to sixth-seeded Greg Wagner of Michigan; Rakevich scored the match's only takedown but Wagner rode him out in the final period to earn a point for riding time. Rakevich came back to beat 16th-ranked Marc Allemang of Duquesne 10-5 in the preliminary round of wrestlebacks.
"Jamie found a way to win," Wells said of the freshman. "He took him down a couple times. He had a couple of offensive takedowns and one defensive takedown; he got close to back points a couple of times and did a nice job."
Ellis had been OSU's highest-ranked wrestler entering the tournament, being rated 14th by AWN, and he took an 18-match win streak into the NCAA meet. He was beaten by third-seeded Matt King of Edinboro 6-1 in the first round, then was eliminated by Craig Pequignot of Millersville 8-6 in the first round of wrestlebacks. Ellis got off to a slow start against Pequignot but nearly tied the match with a late takedown; however, he was unable to complete the move inbounds.
Ellis, the Pac-10 champion at 165 pounds, finished his junior season with a 29-8 record.
Pennell, the lone senior in OSU's lineup much of the season, was the Beavers' other nationally-ranked wrestler at No. 18 on the AWN list. He was beaten by 12th-ranked Ralph DeNisco of Wisconsin 4-1 in the preliminary round, then was knocked out of the tournament with a 10-6 loss to 19th-ranked Ed Pawlak of Buffalo in the preliminary round of wrestlebacks.
Pennell finished the season with a 24-10 record and seven pins. He ended his OSU career with a record of 70-44 with 14 pins, tying him for 41st on OSU's all-time list for career wins and tying him for 45th for career pins.
Hook also drew a third-seeded wrestler in the first round, falling to Travis Shufelt of Nebraska in a 13-4 major decision. Hook then injury-defaulted his match in the first round of wrestlebacks to Ben Young of Slippery Rock in 4:24; Hook was knocked unconscious when he attempted a takedown and went out of bounds, striking his head. Hook finished the season with an 18-10 record.
OREGON STATE AT NCAA CHAMPIONSHIPS - DAY ONE
(Current Amateur Wrestling News national rankings in parentheses)
TEAM SCORES - 1. Oklahoma State 30; 2. Illinois 28; 3. Nebraska 25; 4. (tie) Iowa and Minnesota 23.5; 6. Lehigh 23; 7. Iowa State 22.5; 8. Michigan 21.5; 9. (tie) Cornell and Oklahoma 20; 54. (tie) Oregon State 2.5.
149, Tony Hook - Major dec. by No. 3 seed (3) Travis Shufelt, Nebraska, 13-4 in first round; inj. def. to Ben Young, Slippery Rock, 4:24 in wrestleback first round.
165, (14) Matt Ellis - Dec. by No. 3 seed (3) Matt King, Edinboro, 6-1 in first round; dec. by Craig Pequignot, Millersville, 8-6 in wrestleback first round.
174, (18) Jed Pennell - Dec. by (12) Ralph DeNisco, Wisconsin, 4-1 in preliminary round; dec. by (19) Ed Pawlak, Buffalo, 10-6 in wrestleback preliminary round.
184, Dan Pitsch - Dec. over (17) Nick Ciarcia, Brown, 8-6 in first round; tech. fall by No. 3 seed (3) Jake Rosholt, Oklahoma State, 4:23 (16-0) in second round.
HWT, Jamie Rakevich - Dec. by No. 6 seed (6) Greg Wagner, Michigan, 3-2 in preliminary round; dec. over (16) Marc Allemang, Duquesne, 10-5 in wrestleback preliminary round.
