Wrestling Notebook 12/27/06

Wednesday, December 27th, 2006 CSUB Sports Information News Release

THE WEEK AHEAD: Cal State Bakersfield travels across the country in the final competition of its season-opening 45-day road trip that featured four tournaments and one dual meet at the Southern Scuffle, which takes place at the Greensboro Coliseum on Friday and Saturday (Dec. 29-30).

WHAT’S AT STAKE: The main thing at stake in this tournament is Bakersfield’s final chance to see plenty of top-notch competition from outside the Pac-10. This is the final tournament that the Roadrunners will compete in as a team until the Pac-10 Championships. It will also be the last chance for Bakersfield’s top individuals to really impress some of the national pollsters who will no doubt be in attendance and will later have the opportunity to include the Roadrunners in the national individual rankings.

TICKET INFORMATION: Advance single match and season tickets are available now. Contact the CSUB Ticket Office (661) 654–BLUE for more information.

ON DECK: Bakersfield opens its home dual meet season next Tuesday when it competes in the Icardo Center for the first time in the 2006-07 season with a battle against Pac-10 foe Oregon. The Roadrunners continue on Jan. 4 at home against NAIA powerhouse Embry-Riddle and stays at home on Jan. 7 with duals against Columbia and San Francisco State.

WEEK IN REVIEW: Cal State Bakersfield put together what can be described only as its best tournament of the season last Wednesday with a seventh-place finish at the Reno Tournament of Champions. More impressively, Bakersfield finished third among the nine Pac-10 teams in attendance, with only third-place Oregon State and fourth-place Cal Poly finishing in front of the Roadrunners. Bakersfield also finished ahead of teams like Cal State Fullerton, Stanford, Boise State, UC Davis, Arizona State and Oregon. The reason for the success as a team came from strong individual performances. Matt Schumm was second at 141 pounds, while Brandon Doyle and Brandon Halsey placed fifth at 149 and 197 pounds respectively. In addition, Ernesto Ancona came just one match from earning placewinner honors at 184 and Thomas Kimbrell missed becoming a placewinner by just two matches.

LOADED SCUFFLE FIELD: Eight of the top 25 nationally-ranked teams will be in competition this weekend at the Southern Scuffle, and this will be the only tournament to feature No. 1 and No. 2 in the nation this season until the 2007 NCAA Championships. Missouri, currently ranked No. 1, will be the favorite to win the tournament after easily taking the Las Vegas Invitational earlier this season. No. 2 Minnesota will be quality competition as well. In addition, No. 12 Edinboro, No. 13 Cornell, No. 18 Chattanooga, No. 19 Ohio State, No. 23 Lehigh and No. 24 Pittsburgh will also be a part of the 32-team field.

PAC-10 NEARLY DORMANT THIS WEEKEND: In past years, it was common for nearly the entire Pac-10 conference to compete at the Midlands Championships on the 29th and 30th of December. But with the rise of the Southern Scuffle and slight downgrade of the Midlands, suddenly the Pac-10 has decided to not compete at all after the Reno Tournament of Champions. Nine of the 10 Pac-10 squads were in attendance at Reno, but only three Pac-10 teams are headed to the Southern Scuffle and none are going to Midlands.

CALIFORNIA REPRESENTED IN THE SCUFFLE FOR THE FIRST TIME: Despite the meteoric rise of the Southern Scuffle to one of the top tournaments in the country in four short years, there has been a significant lack of West Coast representation at the tournament. In fact, Bakersfield and Stanford will be the first teams from California to compete at the Scuffle. Oregon State is the lone Pac-10 team to have competed in the tournament in the past, and that came last year.

BREAKING NEW GROUND: This weekend’s competition at the Southern Scuffle marks the first time that Bakersfield will have competed in wrestling within the state of North Carolina in the school’s history. The Roadrunners have wrestled against the University of North Carolina (once) and North Carolina State (twice), but all three meetings took place at the Virginia Duals. Bakersfield has also wrestled against Clemson, from South Carolina, on two different occasions but both came on campus at Cal State-Bakersfield.

COACHES, NICHOLS HEADED TO MIDLANDS: While the rest of the Roadrunners will be in North Carolina, Bakersfield will still be represented well at the Midlands Championships as Volunteer Coach Roberto Vargas, Special Projects Coach and mixed martial arts standout Brian Cobb, and sophomore heavyweight Colton Nichols will all be in competition in Illinois. Vargas and Cobb will both wrestle at 157 pounds while Nichols, of course, will be at 285.

WANT TO WATCH THE SCUFFLE?: Roadrunner fans who can’t make the trip to Greensboro but who want to be a part of the action can do just that as UNC-Greensboro will be offering a Web cast of the tournament. Follow the action on three mats throughout the day on Friday and Saturday over the Internet for just $9.95. Go to www.southernscuffle.com for more information.

NEED MORE INFO?: For all of the most up-to-date information about Cal State Bakersfield men’s soccer and all other Roadrunner sports, check out the CSUB Athletics Web site at: www.gorunners.com. Not near a computer? Dial up the Roadrunner Sports Hotline by calling (661) 654-3071 and selecting option “1” to hear the current scores and schedule information for your Roadrunners.