March 16, 2007

Auburn Hills, MI - Sophomore heavyweight Wade Sauer of Cal State Fullerton has advanced to tonight's round of 12 at the NCAA Wrestling Championships at the Palace of Auburn Hills in Michigan.

Sauer beat Reece Hopkin of Northern Colorado, 9-1, and then bested former teammate and nemesis Cody Parker of Cal Poly, 14-9, to stay alive in the consolation bracket. He will next face the loser of the championship quarterfinal match -- either Ryan Gritter of Central Michigan or Dustin Rogers of West Virginia.

Sauer was trailing Parker, 8-3, and nearly got pinned by his former Fresno State teammate. But Sauer rallied with a flurry of points and almost pinned Parker, taking an 11-9 lead before controlling the final period. Parker beat Sauer twice during the regular season, 7-4 and 4-2.

Titan teammates Morgan Atkinson and Bryan Tice were eliminated from competition in the morning. Atkinson lost to Scott Ervin of Appalachian State, 8-2, while Tice fell to Michael Cannon of American University, 16-1. Both Titans went 1-2. T. J. Dillashaw (0-2 at 133 pounds) was eliminated last night.

The Titans are tied for 39th place in the team standings. Minnesota (66.0) and Iowa State (62.5) are the leaders and each has four wrestlers alive in the championship brackets and three in the consolation brackets.

The top Pac-10 school is Cal Poly, in 19th place with 20.5 points but only one wrestler alive in the championship brackets. Oregon State is 23rd, UC Davis is 25th and Arizona State is tied for 31st. Fullerton, which was seventh in the Pac-10, will definitely finish ahead of Cal State Bakersfield (7.0 points), Stanford (5.0 points), Boise State (2.0 points) and Oregon and Portland State (0 points).