North Carolina
NCAA Championships
Sola Advances To All-American Round At NCAA Wrestling Championships
March 21, 2003 | Wrestling
March 21, 2003
KANSAS CITY, Mo. - The University of North Carolina wrestling team completed day two of the NCAA Championship in a tie for 34th place after scoring 10 points in Kemper Arena today. UNC sophomore Evan Sola (Wernersville, Pa.) is the only Tar Heel still competing at the championship winning three matches today to advance to the seventh-place bout at 133 pounds. Oklahoma State continues to lead the championship with 109 points, holding a 18.5 point advantage over two-time defending champion Minnesota who stands alone in second.
Sola won his second match at the tournament downing Boies State's Jesse Brock 8-0 to advance to third round of the consolation bracket against Indiana's Greg Schaefer. Sola dispatched of Schaefer 7-5 to set up a match against Northern Iowa's Pat Garcia. Sola narrowly defeated Garcia 6-5 to advance to face seventh-seeded Josh Moore (Penn State). Moore ended Sola's run with a pin at 1:05 as Sola falls down to wrestle for seventh place at his weight class. The top eight in each weight division earn All-America honors.
Rodrigues fell to Citadel's Ryan McClester 11-3 in the second round of the consolation bracket ending the NCAA Championship 1-2 at 125 pounds. He ends the season with an overall record of 28-13, inclduing his first ever Atlantic Coast Conference championship on March 8. Senior Chris DiGuiseppe (Holland, Pa.) fell for the second time at the tournament losing a close 7-6 decision to 10-th seeded Derek Jenkins (Rider). DiGuiseppe ends the season with an overall record of 15-16.
Senior Jimmy O'Connor (Woodbine, Md.) responded with a victory over Boston's Leighton Brady 8-0 in the first round of the consolation bracket to take on Nick Frost (Arizona State) in the second round at 165 pounds. Frost got the better of O'Connor on this night with a 12-4 decision to eliminate O'Connor from the championship. He ends the wrestling season with a record of 22-13.
Sophomore Mark Canty (Gahanna, Ohio) dropped his second straight match at the championship in the 174-pound bracket to Cornell's Tyler Baiser 2-1. Canty ended the season 24-12 and 0-2 at the NCAA Tournament.
Sophomore Dusty Heist (Meadville, Pa.) fell for the second straight match against Ohio State's Casey Kapustka in hte first round of the consolation bracket at 184 pounds by a 3-2 decision. Heist went 0-2 at hir first NCAA Championship. He was named the ACC Most Outstanding Wrestler on March 8 and ended the season 16-11 for the Tar Heels.
In the 197-pound consolation bracket, Central Michigan's Brett Faustman defeated UNC freshman David Dashiell (Chesapeake, Va.) 2-0 to eliminate Dashiell from the championship with an 0-2 record. He finished the 2002-03 season with a record of 22-15.
Maryland stands in 43rd place with 4.5 points, while NC State ranks 48th (3.5 points), Duke sits in 50th place (3 points) and Virginia is in 55th place (2.5 points) to round out the ACC.
Players Mentioned
