Muskies place three at the Ohio Athletic Conference Championships

NEW CONCORD, OHIO – The Muskingum College Fighting Muskies hosted the 2009 Ohio Athletic Conference Wrestling Championships Saturday. The Muskies finished seventh with 23 points, while Heidelberg University won its second straight team championship with 101 points. [final results]

Following the final bout, Ohio Northern University’s Luke Miller was named the OAC Wrestler of the Year and Heidelberg’s Jason Miller and Mount Union College’s Mark Hawald were named OAC Co-Coaches of the Year.

The Fighting Muskies found themselves with three wrestlers on the podium at the end of the day. Sophomores Luke Caracofe, Adam Harris, and Todd Neptune all fought their way to the finals and placed.

Caracofe had to battle back from the start. With a tough lose in the first round, Caracofe fought through the consolations. He met David Evans from Wilmington first and recorded a win with a pin at the 6:21 mark. Next, Caracofe met and defeated the third-seed Chris Romeo from John Carroll. Putting him the in the third place match were he wrestled against Josh Malava of Mount Union. He ended the day in fourth place with a tough overtime lose, and a final record of 2-2.

En route to the podium, Harris recorded pin at the 4:21 mark against the fifth-seed from John Carroll, Andrew Schafer. A lose in the quarterfinals forced Harris to battle through the consolations to reach his place match. To secure a place, Harris won a 7-1 decision against the six-seed, Thomas Bohrer of Wilmington. From there he met Bryan Skoff from Mount Union. Harris received fourth place and finished the day with a 2-2 mark.

Neptune wrestled his way out the consolations and ended up in fourth place. Getting there wasn’t easy. Neptune battled through an overtime win of 6-5 against Drew Michel of Ohio Northern. From there, a lose landed him a medical default from Baldwin-Wallace’s Ryan Tudor. Having a small break Neptune came back and wrestled against Brad Rice from Heidelberg in the finals. Neptune ended the tournament with a 2-2 record.

Helping the Muskies along with Caracofe, Harris, and Neptune, were teammates Chip Halko (133), Tommy Patterson (149), Mitch King (165), Danny Dunn (184), and Brian Barnhart (285).

Halko started his day with a 5-3 decision over the fifth-seed from Mount Union, TJ Arnone. From there he ended his day with a 1-2 record. Patterson ending his day 1-2, and recorded his 11-4 win over Terence Simon of Baldwin-Wallace in the first round of consolations. King was able to pull out a 1-2 record as well. He received his win over Mark Sedziol of Wilmington with a 9-0 win. With the pattern continuing, fellow Muskies, Dunn and Barnhart, finished the day 1-2. Dunn was able to gain a 13-4 major decision over Wilmington’s Cody Hamilton. Barnhart, on the other hand, was able to pull out a pin over Terrence Hayes of Baldwin-Wallace in the time of 1:30.