The Rocket

Issue date: 2/3/06 Section: Sports

Media Credit: Jared Ursta Charlie Pienaar wrestles from behind his opponent during the PSAC Championships Saturday.

If the Slippery Rock University wrestling team was tired on Wednesday night, it didn't show.

SRU, which finished fourth in the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference tournament on Saturday, hammered Division II Gannon, 34-7.

The Rock's fourth-place finish came one year after limping home in last place.

"I'm very happy with what we did," coach Derek DelPorto said. "We did well, we did real well. I'm happy."

SRU, with 87.5 team points, finished three points behind Lock Haven. Edinboro won the team championship with 146 points, 33 points ahead of second-place Bloomsburg. The title was Edinboro's seventh in nine years.

"You have to wrestle well to win the conference," Edinboro coach Tim Flynn said. "I think the guys did great and it feels good."

The Rock's Jason Cardillo and Charlie Pienaar, at 165 and 184 pounds, respectively, took second place in their respective classes. Both lost to opponents from Edinboro that they saw earlier in the season at the Avalon Duals on Nov. 12.

Cardillo, who dropped an 11-8 decision to Deonte Penn in November, trailed 3-2 after two rounds Saturday before Penn ended the match with his third pin fall of the day.

"(Penn) is pretty tough," Cardillo said. "He's always coming at you. He's constant. He's a little stronger than he is quick, but he's pretty quick too at the same time."

Penn said Cardillo was his toughest opponent of the day.

"All the other ones were fish," Penn said. "I give (Cardillo) a lot of props, he's a good wrestler."

Cardillo's teammate in the finals, Pienaar, escaped his first match with a 3-2 win before cruising in the semifinals, 10-1. Pienaar, the defending 184-pound champion, lost to Alex Clemsen, 5-3, in the final.

"All in all, as hard as it is (to lose), I look at it as a learning experience," Pienaar said. "Sometimes I look at it as a good way to lose so I know what I'm up against when I go to the bigger tournaments."

Clemsen won the first meeting, 3-2.

"I've wrestled guys in the top 10 in the country and he's as big as anybody and he moves well," Clemsen said of Pienaar. "He wrestles everybody close. He's a tough kid and doesn't want to lose. He always puts himself in position to win."

Despite being unable to defend his title, the team's improvement made Pienaar feel a sense of accomplishment.

"I think we're all excited," Pienaar said. "The biggest part of our team is that we learned to work together."

Shawn Baglio, at 149 pounds, made the most surprising run of any SRU wrestler. After winning his 'pigtail' match, Baglio, the No. 6 seed, knocked off No. 3 seed George Hickman of Bloomsburg, 5-3, on his way to a third-place finish.

"Shawn Baglio wrestled his butt off," DelPorto said. "He scored a lot of team points for us. He deserves a lot of credit and acknowledgment."

SRU is at the East Region Duals on Sunday at Duquesne. The Rock's first of four matches is at 9 a.m. against Millersville.

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