Wrestlers Prepped for ACC Championships
3/4/2004 7:00:00 AM | Wrestling
March 4, 2004
COLLEGE PARK, Md. - The University of Maryland wrestling team will compete in its first Atlantic Coast Conference Championships under new head coach Pat Santoro this Saturday when the Terrapins travel to the University of Virginia for 2004 Mat Jam.
Both the ACC and the Southern Conference will hold their championships simultaneously in University Hall. First-round competition will begin at 11 a.m. with semifinals at 1 p.m. Consolation semis will be at 3 p.m. and third-place matches are set for 4:30. The finals are are scheduled to begin at 7 p.m.
Maryland, which won the first 20 straight ACC team titles between 1954 and 1973, will be led by senior co-captain Matt Pandullo. The 125-pounder from Severn, Md., has won five straight matches, eight of his last nine and is 11-2 in dual matches so far this season.
Pandullo will be competing in his third ACC Championships, having placed third as a freshman in 2000 and fifth last year. He went 2-2 in a tightly-contested 125-pound division during the ACC dual-match season, losing a pair of one-point matches -- 5-4 to Christian Smith of Duke and 3-2 to Jeremy Hartrum of NC State.
Pandullo comes into the ACCs with a 57-38 career record, not including his redshirt season in 2000-01.
Like Pandullo, junior co-captain John Antonelli and junior Mike Lupa will be competing in their third wrestling tournaments. Antonelli has been fourth the past two seasons and will wrestle at 165 this year, while Lupa has also been fourth twice.
The 2004 ACC Championships will be the second for both Jason Kiessling (157) and Pat Cissne (174).
Pandullo, Kiessling and Jason Gribschaw (141) enter the tournament with winning records in 2003-04... Maryland will have six wrestlers in the tournament lineup with double figures in victories.
Maryland went 2-2 in its last four dual matches of the regular season. The Terps also had close dual-match losses with ACC rivals Virginia (25-15 on Feb. 18) and North Carolina (19-15 on Jan. 23).
The Terps have a number of wrestlers who have suffered recent close losses individually: John Antonelli has a pair of two-point losses in February, but is 5-3 in his last eight matches including those losses... Two of Jason Kiessling's dual-match losses were by two points, including one takedown in a tie-breaker period... Mike Lupa has five losses by three points or less in the dual season.
