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Spartan Trio Tripped Up In NCAA Quarterfinals
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by Joe Roderick
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| The pop of a bubble could barely flutter the needle of a richter scale, but the bursting of the Spartan's bubble
Friday at the NCAA wrestling championships would have put a seismograph on the blink. |
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| The Spartans qualified three wrestlers into the NCAA quarterfinals on the first of the three-day competition, a
titanic feat for a college that failed to get five wrestlers past the first round last year. |
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| Meanwhile, two other Spartan wrestlers were still technically alive entering Friday's competition at Byrne Meadowland
Arena in East Rutherford, N.J. |
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| But the three quarterfinalists--Darryl Pope, Marvin Jones, and Andy Tsarnas--lost their round of 16 matches. And
Albert Perez, who's hopes of qualifying for the consolation round hinged on the outcome of another wrestler, got
lucky. |
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| Perez, though, didn't last long Friday, losing in the first round of consolation. Teammate David Barnes, who lost
in the opening round of the tournament, also had to wait, worry, and wonder whether he would wrestle again. |
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| But when Colin Coffey of Rider College lost to Cal State Bakersfield's Jesse Reyes in the quarters, Barnes had
wrestled the last match of his SJSU career. |
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| Pope, the Spartans' 158-pounder, has plenty of matches left at SJSU. He roared through the first day winning three,
losing none and impressing all. |
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| But Pope lost to Oklahoma's Johnny Johnson, the fourth seed, 10-6, in the quarterfinals.It wasn't over yet for
Pope, who was still alive and well as of Saturday. |
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| Saturday's results were unavailable at press time. |
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| Pope won two matches in the consolation round, beating Bruce Arnold of Ausberg College (Minnesota) 10-6, and then
Penn State's Greg Elinsky 4-2. |
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| Pope was to have wrestled Oklahoma State's Bill Dykeman, the second seed, in the consolation semifinals Saturday.
Even if Pope lost, he was guaranteed a sixth-place finish. |
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| The Spartans haven't had a wrestler finish that high since Wayne Jones placed third and Eddie Baza fourth two years
ago. |
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| Pope had only recently moved down a weight class from 167 to 158. He entered the NCAAs unseeded with a 23-10-1
record. |
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| Meanwhile, Marvin Jones, a 177-pound junior, was pinned by Southern Illinois-Edwardsville's Booker Benford with
46 seconds elapsed in the third period of their quarterfinal match. |
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| But Jones redeemed that loss by pinning rival Roger Sayles of Cal Poly San Luis Obispo in 4:59. Sayles had beaten
Jones 14-6 last month in a dual meet. |
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| In the third round of consolations, Jones lost to Wisconsin's Dennis Limex, seeded 11th, 13-6. |
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| Jones wrestled for 7th place Saturday against Stanford's Jeff Wilson, a kid who lost to Jones 8-4 in a dual meet
in February. |
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| The third Spartan to fall in the quarterfinals was Tsarnas, who lost to number 2 seed Jim Baumgardner of Oregon
State 9-4. |
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| Despite the loss, Tsarnas also qualified for the consolations, but lost to North Carolina's Bob Shriner, the number
11 seed 4-3, ending his illustrious Spartan career. |
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| The road to consolation wasn't paved as nicely for Perez, who won his first match Thursday, but lost in the second
round to top-seeded Kevin Darkus of Iowa State. |
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| For Perez to resume wrestling Friday, Darkus had to win his quarterfinal match. Predictably, Darkus beat Orlando
Caceres of Thurston College, giving Perez another chance. |
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| Perez face a familiar foe in the opening round of consolations, John Loomis of Cal State Bakersfield, who beat
Perez 12-4. The duo had tangled twice this year, each winning once. |
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