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Senior #1 Mike
Cannon won his second consecutive EIWA Championship
Sunday afternoon to help the American University wrestling team to
a program-record fifth-place finish at the 106th EIWA
Championships. Cannon was joined in the finals by first-time
placewinner #7 Jordan
Lipp as a team-record seven Eagles finished on the
podium.
Cannon captured the 184 lbs. EIWA Championship with a 5-1
decision over second-seeded Louis Caputo of Harvard. Cannon was
making his third appearance in the EIWA finals, having also won
last year's 174 lbs. title and wrestling for the 165 lbs. crown in
2008. Cannon's championship earns him an automatic berth into the
NCAA Championships, joining him with Josh
Glenn, '08, as the school's only four-time NCAA
qualifiers.
Lipp made his first appearance in the finals after upsetting
both the tournaments second and third seeds at 141 lbs. on
Saturday. He faced top-seeded Kyle Drake from Cornell in the
championship match where he fell by a score of 9-2. Lipp's
second-place finish marked the first time in his career he has
placed at the EIWA Championships and has earned the senior his
first appearance at the NCAA Championships.
A total of seven Eagles finished on the podium at the EIWA
Championships, surpassing the previous program record of six
placewinners set last year. Junior #2 Steve
Fittery placed third at 157 lbs. and freshman #5 Daniel
Mitchell placed fourth at 197 lbs., earning the pair
an automatic berth into the NCAA Championships. American's other
placewinners included #2 Kyle
Borshoff (5th), #3 Jasen
Borshoff (6th) and #7 Thomas
Williams (7th).
With Cannon, Fittery, Lipp and Mitchell all automatically
qualifying for the NCAA Championships, the Eagles have matched
their program record for NCAA qualifiers in a single-season.
American sent Glenn, Christopher
Stout, '09, Cannon and J. Borshoff to the 2008 NCAA
Championships where Glenn and Cannon each earned All-America
honors. K. Borshoff, J. Borshoff and Williams can still qualify for
Nationals through the NCAA's at-large process. The NCAA has
reserved 46 spaces for at-large qualifiers to this year's
championship and will announce the recipients of those bids on
Wednesday, March 10.
American finished the team race in fifth place with a total of
96 points, marking the team's best-ever finish at the tournament.
The Eagles' previous best finish was sixth place which they had
achieved each of the last three years.
Click here for complete
results from day one of the EIWA Championships.
125 lbs. - #3 Jasen Borshoff
Borshoff fell behind Harvard's Steven Keith midway
through the first period of the consolation semifinals and was
unable to mount a comeback. Keith controlled the tempo throughout
the match en route to a 9-3 victory. In the fifth-place match,
Borshoff was again unnable to get on his offense and dropped a 6-4
decision to fourth-seeded Aaron Kalil from Navy to place sixth.
133 lbs. - #7 Thomas Williams
Williams squared off with Army's Travis Coffey, seeded
sixth, in the seventh place match where he was forced to fight back
from a 2-1 third-period deficit with Coffey also holding riding
time advantage. With less than a minute remaining, Williams
reversed Coffey and caught the Black Knight on his back for the pin
to place seventh.
141 lbs. - #7 Jordan Lipp
Lipp, making his first EIWA finals appearance, fell to
top-seeded Kyle Dake from Cornell, 9-2. Dake scored a takedown and
back points in the first period for a 4-0 lead and added to his
advantage in the second. Lipp came on strong in the third period,
scoring a takedown midway through to close to within 6-2. A Dake
takedown at the end of the period, however, closed the door on
Lipp's championship bid. Lipp's second place finish marked the
first time in his career that he has placed on the podium and has
earned the senior his first career appearance at the NCAA
Championships.
149 lbs. - #2 Kyle Borshoff
Borshoff took a 2-0 lead over Navy's Glenn Shober, seeded
fourth, after scoring the first takedown of the match but could not
hold on to his lead as the Midshipmen took a 4-3 advantage into the
third period. Borshoff chose to begin down but was unable to escape
from Shober who rode out the period for the win. The 2009
All-American returned in the fifth-place match where he caught
Columbia's Steve Santos with a takedown and two sets of back points
in the first period for a 6-0 lead. He would tack on an escape
point in the second period and another takedown in the third. With
riding time advantage, Borshoff earned the 9-1 victory for a
fifth-place finish.
157 lbs. - #2 Steve Fittery
Fittery scored his first fall of the tournament with a second
round pin of fifth-seeded Matt Dragon from Penn. The junior scored
the match's first takedown and later used a reversal and three back
points to build a 7-2 advantage. He added another set of back
points in the second period before pinning Dragon's shoulders to
the mat for the victory. In the consolation finals, Fittery picked
up an escape point in the second period and rode out Rutgers' Daryl
Cocozzo, seeded fourth, in the third period for a 2-1 victory and
third place. Fittery has earned his first NCAA Championships
appearance as an Eagle after placing second at the 2008 and 2009
NCAA Div. II Championships while wrestling for Shippensburg
University.
184 lbs. - #1 Mike Cannon
Cannon won his second consecutive EIWA Championship with
a 5-1 decision over Harvard's Louis Caputo, the tournament's second
seed. Cannon was solid in the victory, scoring a takedown in the
first period jump out on top. He added an escape point and another
takedown in the second and third periods to gain the final margin.
Cannon is now a four-time EIWA placewinner, a two-time EIWA
Champion and one of only two wrestlers in the school's history to
qualify for four NCAA Championships.
197 lbs. - #5 Daniel Mitchell
Mitchell earned his first trip to the NCAA Championships
with a dramatic victory over seventh seeded Lamar Brown of Rutgers.
Mitchell trailed early but worked his way to a one-point lead with
an escape and takedown in the third period. A Brown escape tied the
score before Mitchell was able to counter a shot and put Brown on
his back for the fall. Mitchell returned to the mat in the
consolation finals where he lost a 7-2 decision to Army's Richard
Starks, who was seeded second. Mitchell's NCAA qualification puts
him in an exclusive club at American with Cannon and Glenn as one
of only three freshmen to earn a trip to Nationals.
