Five AU Wrestlers Advance to Semifinals at 104th EIWA Tournament :: No. 1 Josh Glenn, No. 6 Mike Cannon and three other Eagles are still in the championship hunt

No. 1 Josh Glenn, No. 6 Mike Cannon and three other Eagles are still in the championship hunt

March 8, 2008

Lancaster, Pa. - Five American University wrestlers have advanced to the semifinal round of the 104th Eastern Intercollegiate Wrestling Association Tournament this afternoon with wins in the quarterfinals. No. 1 Josh Glenn advanced to the semis with a major decision while No. 6 Mike Cannon and Christopher Stout advanced in much more dramatic fashion.

Jasen Borshoff was the first Eagle to advance into the semifinals with a decision over Columbia's Brandon Kinney at 125 lbs. Borshoff held a 3-1 lead over Kinney heading into the third period but an escape by Kinney and a stalling call against Borshoff tied the match at 3. Borshoff had built up riding time advantage in the earlier rounds though and with that point took the decision, 4-3.

In the first round Borshoff won a 5-1 decision against Mike Demarco from Rutgers. Borshoff's opponent in the semis will be Fernando Martinez from Army.

141-pounder Kyle Borshoff joined his brother in the semifinal round with a come from behind decision of his own over Luke Chohany from Bucknell. K. Borshoff found himself trailing Chohany, 5-2, entering the third period but quickly escaped from his down starting position to move the score to 5-3. With under one minute remaining in the match K. Borshoff connected on a high single-leg to tie the score and was credited with three back points for a resulting near fall to win the match, 8-5.

Earlier in the day K. Borshoff defeated Navy's Joey Breen, 5-3. He will now face Richard Rappo from Penn in the semis.

Stout continued in the championship hunt with a sudden victory overtime win over Penn's Robert Hitschler at 157 lbs. Stout went into the third period with a 3-0 advantage but saw his lead slip away. After the score moved to 3-1, Hitschler connected on a reshot at the 6:55 mark and sent the match into overtime. Stout would prevail though and scored first in the extra period on a takedown to claim the overtime win, 5-3.

Stout won his first round matchup with Thomas Fazio from Brown by major decision, 13-5. He now faces first seed Jordan Leen from Cornell in the semis.

Cannon's second 165 lbs. match of the day also came right down to the wire as he advanced to the semis with a one-point decision over Mike Galante from Lehigh. Cannon fell behind 3-0 off an escape in the second period after riding Galante for more than one minute. Cannon closed the gap on Galante at the end of the period though as he scored a takedown to bring the score to 3-2. Choosing to begin the third period down, Cannon quickly escaped to the tie the score at 3 and cruised through the remainder of the period, taking the decision 4-3 with his riding time advantage.

Cannon won by fall at the 2:30 mark in the first round against Christopher Grill from Army. Cannon will now face Penn's Zack Shanaman in the semifinals.

After receiving a bye in the first round, Glenn proved why he was the No. 1 seed at 197 lbs. with a major decision of Navy's Matthew Parsons. Glenn controlled the match from the first whistle and took a 5-0 lead with 2:52 of riding time into the second period. Glenn extended that lead to 8-0 in the second and to 10-0 in the third with a reversal from his down starting position. After taking Parsons down and cutting him several times near the end of the period Glenn walked into the semis on the strength of a 15-2 major decision.

Glenn's next opponent is Thomas Shovlin from Penn.

Each of the five AU grapplers who have advanced to the semifinals have guaranteed themselves at least a sixth-place finish in the tournament. A finish of fourth or better automatically qualifies wrestlers at the EIWA's an NCAA Championship appearance.

133-pounder Matt Mariacher wrestled his way into the second day of the EIWA Tournament by taking a 4-3 decision over Whitt Dunning from Army in the consolation round. Mariacher had won his first match of the day by fall at 2:59 but in the second round lost a 10-3 decision to Cornell's Mike Grey. With the consolation win Mariacher can still place as high as third in the tournament and qualify for the NCAA's.

Mariacher will now face Brown's Jeffrey Schell in the consolation bracket.

After the first day of competition the Eagles sit in fourth place of the team competition. With six wrestlers still active and five in the semis AU has racked up 37.5 team points. Cornell is currently in first place with 68.5 points and still has all 10 wrestlers alive, including eight in the finals.

Action at the 104th EIWA Tournament will continue tomorrow from the Mayser Center with the semifinals beginning at 10:30 a.m. Eagles fans who are unable to attend the second day of competition are reminded that they can catch all of the action live over the internet thanks to B2 Networks. To catch all of the action live, click here .