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SJSU Wrestling Archives The Spartan Daily 3-1-83 |
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Wrestlers Win PCAA Title, Go To Nationals |
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by Mike McGuire |
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| The SJSU wrestling team reaffirmed its reputation as one of the strongest wrestling powerhouses in the West by
winning its ninth PCAA title. The Spartans qualified six out of nine wrestlers for the upcoming NCAA championships. Out of the six teams participating in the tournament, the Spartans were able to take five first-places, three third-place finishes and one second-place finish. Spartan Andy Tsarnas (190) took first place in his weight class and was voted by the coaches as the PCAA's Wrestler of the Year. "Andy demolished his guy in the final round," said head coach T.J. Kerr, "and did it so convincingly that the coaches voted him wrestler of the year." The other Spartans heading for Oklahoma City and the NCAA finals are Al Perez (126), John Middlestead (134), Dave Barnes (142), Jay Slivkoff (150), Tsarnas, and heavyweight Jerry Morrison. Each of these wrestlers took first place in their divisions, with the exception of Morrison who was voted in as a wildcard. Wildcard selections are voted on by all of the participating coaches at the end of the tournament. Morrison's selection was a little surprising to Kerr. "Jerry was third (in the tournament)," Kerr said, "but the coaches thought he was better than the second place heavyweight." According to Kerr, the original seeding of the tournament was a little confused, so that first and third place finishers were on the same side of the bracket. "There was no "true" second place finisher. "So they voted him in," Kerr said, "which was unusual for us because we haven't had a wildcard since i've been coaching here. Politically, it was surprising." Kerr was very happy with the results of the tournament, citing tough wrestling and opponents' bad luck as factors in SJSU's victory. "We had damn close to a perfect tournament," Kerr said. "Only two points prevented us from having nine people in the finals, which would have been unbelievable." Utah State, traditionally one of the Spartans' biggest rivals, had a stretch of bad luck that kept the team from posing as big a threat as expected. "Their 150-pounder didn't make it to the finals," Kerr said, "and in fact their five lower-weight wrestlers didn't make it into the finals even though they were all seeded first or second in their weights. They didn't live up to their seeds." Kerr said that the Spartans' victory was important in that it gave the program some respect. "It's one of those tournaments you hope you have," Kerr said, "everything went right. The neatest thing for me was that i think a lot of the coaches now have respect for the program and the guys that we have wrestling." |
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