Four Navy Wrestlers Advance to Semifinals of the EIWA Wrestling Championship

3/3/2001 - Wrestling
Four Navy Wrestlers Advance to Semifinals of the EIWA Wrestling Championship

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PHILADELPHIA (March 3) - Four members of the Navy wrestling advanced to the semifinals of the EIWA Wrestling Championship at the Palestra Saturday afternoon, while the Mids are in sixth place overall. The semifinals will begin at 11 a.m. Sunday with the finals slated to begin at 7 p.m.

Jason Homestead (Sr./Sayville, N.Y.), seeded fifth in the 133-pound weight class, received a first-round bye and defeated Rutgers' Jon Rodriguez, 3-2, in the quarterfinals. Homestead will face top-seeded Matt Picarsic from Harvard in the semifinals.

Second-seeded Mark Conley (Jr./Exton, Pa.) scored a 5-0 win over Harvard's Nick Picarsic in his opening match of the 141-pound weight class for the Mids. Conley went on to defeat seventh-seeded Tom Wysocki from Rutgers in the quarterfinals, 8-6, and will battle third-seeded Joe Clarke from Princeton for a spot in the finals.

Navy team captain Mark Newman (Sr./Mayer, Minn.), the fifth-seed in the 174-pound weight class, posted a 10-2 victory over Brown's Nick Ciarcia in his opening match. Newman followed it up with a 5-3 win over fourth-seeded Greg Parker from Princeton to advance to the semifinals. In his semifinal match Sunday, Newman will take on top-seeded Maurice Worthy from Army. Worthy, ranked third nationally in the 174-pound weight class, has defeated Newman by a point the last two times they have faced each other.

In the 197-pound weight class, fourth-seeded Mike Bigrigg (Jr./Santa Ana, Calif.) defeated Army's John Paxton for the third time this year, 9-6, to earn a spot in the semifinals. Bigrigg will wrestle top-seeded Mike Fickell from Pennsylvania Sunday.

The top-two finishers in each weight class will automatically qualify for the NCAA Wrestling Championship in Iowa City, Iowa.

Team Scores (after the first day of competition)

1. Pennsylvania 62.5

2. Lehigh 51.5

3. Harvard 46.5

4. Cornell 42.5

5. Rutgers 39.5

6. Navy 29.5

7. Princeton 27.0

8. Brown 22.0

9. Army 19.5

10. Bucknell 13.5