March 15, 2007

Auburn Hills, MI - Heavyweight Wade Sauer is the only one of four Cal State Fullerton wrestlers to win his opening bout Thursday morning and advance in the championship brackets of the 2007 NCAA Wrestling Championships at Auburn Hills, Michigan.

Sauer beat Kyle Massey of Wisconsin, 5-4, and will now face a nemesis in Ty Watterson of Oregon State. The Pac-10 champion has beaten Sauer three times this season -- 6-2 at the Cliff Keen Invitational in Las Vegas, 2-1 at the Tournament of Champions in Reno and 3-2 in a dual match. They did not meet in the Pac-10 championships, where Sauer placed third.

The Titans' Pac-10 champion Morgan Atkinson lost his opening bout in the 149-pound bracket to Wisconsin's Tyler Turner, 8-4. At 133, T. J. Dillashaw lost to David Marble of Bucknell, 15-7, and at 165 Bryan Tice lost to Roger Smith-Bergsrud of Illinois, 3-2. All three drop into the consolation bracket and second-round bouts tonight.