Pair of Top Seeds Lead Mids to Eighth After Day One at Southern Scuffle

Five of Navy's six seeded wrestlers have earned their way into Sunday's quarterfinals.

	Two-time NCAA qualifier Joe Baker is one of six Navy wrestlers who will wrestle Sunday in the championship bracket.

Dec. 29, 2007

Southern Scuffle - Day 1 Results

GREENSBORO, N.C. - Six Midshipmen have wrestled their way into the quarterfinals, including top-seeded Matt Stolpinski (Westfield, Mass.) at 174 pounds and heavyweight Ed Prendergast (St. Louis, Mo.), leading the No. 21 Navy wrestling team to a tie for eighth alongside Kent State after day one of the two-day Southern Scuffle held at the Greensboro Coliseum Special Events Center. In addition to the six who will wrestle on the championship side of the bracket, nine others will battle their way through the consolation bracket on Sunday.

Fourth-ranked Minnesota leads the tournament with a comfortable 11-point advantage over 14th-ranked Edinboro, 53.5-42.5. Meanwhile, just 6.5 points separate the third through 10th-place teams. Boise State is in third (39.5), followed by Old Dominion (38.5), Cornell and Maryland (37.5), Bloomsburg (36.0), Kent State and Navy (34.0) and Hofstra (33.0). The Golden Gophers will have eight wrestlers battling in the championship bracket, while ODU has seven. Maryland and Bloomsburg have the fewest remaining in the championship bracket with four apiece.

Six Navy wrestlers entered the Southern Scuffle seeded and five of the six will appear in the quarterfinals on Sunday, while unseeded Casey Caldwell (Liberty, Ind.) is the lone unseeded Midshipman to earn his way into the championship bracket.

After placing third in last year's Scuffle, junior Joe Baker (Poway, Calif.) has high hopes to capture the title at 133 pounds. Baker easily made his way to the quarters by defeating Maryland's Charles Golden (10-3) and North Carolina's Danny Lopes (12-5). Baker will face Boise State's Andrew Hochstrasser in the quarters.

Rookie Bryce Saddoris (Spring Creek, Nev.) continues to impress the Navy coaching staff, as he earned three wins on the opening day of competition to set up a quarterfinals matchup against the top-ranked wrestler in the country at 149 pounds. Saddoris quickly dispatched Davidson's Scott Matthews in the opening round, pinning him in just 40 seconds. He then defeated Old Dominion's Buffy Okigbo by decision (12-6) and just edged DJ Meagher from Cornell, 2-1. Saddoris, who is 2-3 against ranked foes this season, will face his biggest challenge on Sunday when he battles No. 1-ranked Dustin Schlatter of Minnesota who placed third at last year's NCAA Championship.

One of two top-seeded wrestlers on the docket for the Midshipmen, Stolpinski was stopped short of the title at last year's Scuffle. Navy's team captain is 3-0 in the tournament, defeating VMI's Dustin McCabe (11-6), Bloomsburg's Brian Shaw, while just edging Virginia's Chris Henrich, 6-5. One of the most highly-competitive weight classes in the Scuffle, eight of the nine seeds are currently ranked. Stolpinski, ranked No. 6, will face-off against Virginia Tech's Eric Decker in Sunday's quarterfinals. The two battle earlier this month at the Cliff Keen Las Vegas Invitational with Stolpinski earning a 3-1 decision over Decker.

Perhaps the surprise performance of the tournament for Navy is that of Caldwell, a junior 184-pounder. Caldwell opened up with a 10-2 victory over Chris Daggett of Liberty before earning a 9-7 overtime decision over eighth-seeded Matt Casperson of Boise State. Caldwell, however, will face top-seeded and No. 7-ranked Rocco Caponi of Virginia in the quarterfinals.

Navy's final two competitors in the championship bracket is the heavyweight tandem of Prendergast and Scott Steele (Baltimore, Md.). Prendergast is ranked 14th nationally and was awarded the tournament's top seed. He earned a 7-3 victory over Cornell's Maciej Jochym and a hard-fought 4-2 overtime decision over Jason Marshall from Ohio to earn a quarterfinal matchup against eighth-seeded Justin Dobies of North Carolina. Prendergast placed fourth in last year's Scuffle.

Meanwhile, Steele entered the tournament seeded sixth and has also won a pair of matches. He shut out Old Dominion's Andrew Totusek, 7-0, before pinning Ohio's Andy Hartshorn two minutes into the match. Steele, who owns a 17-2 record this season, will battle third-seeded and 16th-ranked Mike Spaid from Bloomsburg in the quarters.

Navy's nine wrestlers competing in the consolation side of the bracket include: Matt Pagan (Carteret, N.J.) at 133 pounds, Glenn Shober (Reading, Pa.) at 141 pounds, Spencer Manley (Chattanooga, Tenn.) at 149 pounds, Joe Butcher (Westwood, N.J.) at 157 pounds, Jason Coyne (Trafford, Pa.) and Matt DeMichiel (Whitesboro, N.Y.) at 165 pounds, Matt Parsons (Dunkirk, Md.) at 184 pounds and Robert Johnston (Satellite Beach, Fla.) and Tyler Moyer (Bremerton, Wash.) at 197 pounds.

The final day of the Southern Scuffle is set to begin at 9:00 am on Sunday. Fans can purchase live video streaming through Spartan All-Access. Single day packages are priced at $9.95. Additionally, SouthernScuffle.com is your home for live stats updated throughout the tournament.

### Go Navy ###