Redshirt-Juniors Travis Porter, Alex Medved and Justin Guthrie Lead GWU Grapplers at 2012 Southern Conference Championship
March 04, 2012 | Wrestling
Chattanooga, Tenn. - Gardner-Webb redshirt-junior Travis Porter took third-place overall at 197 pounds, while both Alex Medved and Justin Guthrie posted fourth-place finishes in their respective weight classes, each going 2-2 on the day, to lead the Runnin' Bulldog grapplers at the 2012 Southern Conference Wrestling Championship on Saturday in Chattanooga, Tenn.
Saturday marked the first time that the Runnin' Bulldog wrestling program had ever competed in a postseason conference championship tournament, joining the Southern Conference as an associate member this season.
Gardner-Webb's Travis Porter started the day off at 197 pounds with a 5-2 loss to No. 4 Nikolas Brown of Chattanooga in the first round, yet bounced back to upset No. 2 Paul Weiss of Appalachian State with a 13-2 major decision win in the consolation semifinals.
Travis Porter then blanked No. 6 Urayoan Garcia of VMI 3-0 in the consolation finals to advance to the True Second-Place Match against No. 3 John Weakley of Campbell with an NCAA National Championship berth on the line. In the bout, Travis Porter was pinned by Weakley giving him third-place overall.
Medved recorded a fall over No. 5 Pierre Frazile of the Citadel at 6:10 in the first round before falling to No. 1 Daniel Waddell of Chattanooga 9-0 in the semifinals at 157 pounds. The redshirt-junior then earned a major decision win over Ted Gottwald of VMI, 11-4, to move into the consolation finals where he was defeated by No. 3 William Powell of Appalachian State 8-4 to finish fourth overall.
GWU's Guthrie posted a first round fall over No. 4 Carry Joseph at 6:08 to continue on to the semifinals where he was pinned by No. 1 Kyle Blevins at 6:00 to fall into the consolation bracket. There he shutout No. 3 Ryan Krecker for the 2-0 decision to advance to the consolation finals where he fell in a rematch with Joseph, 3-1, to finish fourth at 165 pounds.
At 125 pounds, redshirt-senior Michael Slaughter led off his day with a win over No. 5 Matt Zarth of Davidson, 4-2, to move to the semifinals to take on No. 1 Manuel Ramirez of Chattanooga where he suffered a 13-3 major decision loss to fall into the consolation bracket.
In the consolation semifinals, Slaughter lost to Tanner Bidelspach of Campbell by way of a pin at 2:23 to end his day at 1-2 overall.
After dropping a 6-3 decision to No. 3 Kyle Casaletto of the Citadel in the first round at 133 pounds, sophomore Robbie Golde bounced back with a pin at 6:13 over Joe Jarrells of VMI in the consolation quarterfinals to move on to the consolation semifinals. There Golde was battled No. 4 Brett Boston for all three periods, before suffering a 15-11 loss to end his day at 1-2 overall.
Fellow sophomore Erin O'Dell advanced to the consolation semifinals as well at 174 pounds, as he rebounded from an 11-4 loss to No. 3 James Cook of Campbell in the first round to defeat Ian Solcz of Davidson 5-4 in the consolation quarterfinals.
In his next bout, the consolation semifinals, O'Dell was shutout by No. 4 Matt Brock 5-0 to end his day at 1-2 overall.
Sophomore Alex Hamm went 0-2 at 141 pounds, as the No. 6 seed was defeated 7-1 in round one by No. 3 Jordan Dix and then edged 8-6 by Benjamin Hartshorn of Davidson in the consolation quarterfinals.
Like Hamm, freshman Davante Andujar went 0-2 on the day, suffering losses to No. 4 Seth Vernon of the Citadel and No. 2 Mark Hartenstine of Campbell at 149 pounds, while redshirt-junior Jason Porter went 0-2 at 184 pounds with a 5-3 loss to John Dommert of VMI and an 8-3 loss to Josh Tuck of the Citadel.
At the heavyweight class, No. 3 Justin Kozera suffered a first round 10-5 loss to No. 6 Joe Cummings of Appalachian State to fall into the consolation bracket where the freshman then fell to No. 4 Joe Nolan of Campbell 10-5 to end his day at 0-2.
Chattanooga won the 2012 Southern Conference Wrestling Championship with a total of 102 points, finishing 29.5 points ahead of both Appalachian State and The Citadel who tied for second-place overall in the team standings with 72.5 points.
Gardner-Webb finished sixth overall in the team standings with 21 points.
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| Final Team Standings |
| Final Brackets |
