Dec. 19, 2007

Reno, NV - With a pair of second-place finishes, a third and a fifth to go with 15 pins, Cal State Fullerton's wrestling team accumulated enough points Tuesday to place fifth and match its best finish ever at the 26-team Tournament of Champions in Reno.

Central Michigan was the tourney champion by a comfortable margin with 152.5 points to 128 for runnerup Oklahoma State. Cornell was third at 99 points followed by Navy at 91 and Fullerton at 86.5. There was a significant drop off to sixth place where Cal Poly had 59.5 points.

Morgan Atkinson at 149 pounds and Ian Murphy at 184 were the Titan runnersup. Wade Sauer placed third at heavyweight and John Drake was fifth at 197 pounds.

No. 2-seeded Atkinson won four consecutive matches before losing in the final to No. 1-seeded Scott Ervin of Appalachian State, 11-8. Murphy was seeded No. 1 and he won three matches before forfeiting in the finals to No. 2-seeded Christian Sinnott of Central Michigan.

Sauer, seeded No. 2, won four matches before getting pinned by No. 3-seeded Ed Prendergast of Navy at 1:36. Sauer bounced back to win two matches in the consolation bracket.

Drake lost his opening bout to Arturo Basulto of Cal Poly, 3-1, before rebounding with four wins before losing to No. 3-seeded Clayton Foster of Oklahoma State. Drake then beat Alex Calvi of Great Falls, 3-1, to take fifth for the best tournament showing of his two-year Titan career.

Fullerton is idle through the holiday break, resuming competition on Jan. 2 when the Titans host West Virginia at 5 p.m. and Oregon at 7 p.m., the latter a Pac-10 dual match.

Complete Team Standings in PDF Format

Complete Brackets in PDF Format