Cleveland claims eighth at NCAA

Cody Cleveland claimed eighth place in the NCAA championships in the medal round of the 2008 NCAA Division I Wrestling Championships in St. Louis last Saturday. "I am really excited for Cody," Head Coach Chris Bono said. "He is my first All-American as a head coach, and he is a local product. This sets the stage for him for next year, and he should be ranked pretty high in the preseason rankings."

The championship started Thursday with UTC's Javier Maldonado, 125, Cody Cleveland, 141, Seth Garvin, 157, Lloyd Rogers, 174 and Matt Koz, 197, still in the running for All American honors.

Cleveland took a 9-0 lead in the early session Friday against Oklahoma's Zach Bailey, 141, and held out for a 14-13 victory.

To reach the medal round, Cleveland conquered four straight matches, beating Michigan's Kellen Russell, 7-6 in the fifth round of the consolation brackets Friday.

The four straight matches in the wrestlebacks also included wins over Harvard's Corey Jantzen, 3-0, Oklahoma's Zach Bailey, 14-13, Liberty's Tim Harner, 5-0, and finally Russell, 7-6.

"He had a great tournament, and this is a building block for our program," Bono said. "This is big for me."

Seniors Lloyd Rogers and Matt Koz also held off until the second day in which they were eliminated in the fifth round.

One of the more interesting matches including UTC wrestlers was Steve Hromada's 3-2 loss to Hofstra's Lou Ruggirello, which took nine overtimes to decide.