March 16, 2006

Oklahoma City, Okla. - The Pienaar brothers recorded victories Thursday night in the first round of consolation competition to remain alive in the NCAA Division I National Championships.

David Pienaar was awarded a medical forfeit victory over Cassio Pero of Illinois in 141-pound action. He will take a 23-14 record into a Friday morning match against Christopher Ettelson of Northern Iowa (28-10).

Charlie Pienaar (David's older brother) became the first Rock wrestler since 1999 to record an on-match win in national competition when he won a 4-3 tiebreaker decision over Harvard's Louis Caputo.

Charlie will take a 24-13 record into Friday morning's match against Alex Camargo of Kent State (32-4).

This will be the second meeting of the season for those two wrestlers, Camargo beat Pienaar by a 3-1 margin on Jan. 22 at the Wendy's Duals in Ashland, Ohio.

The last Rock wrestler to record an on-mat victory in the national competition was current Rock head coach Derek DelPorto, who earned All-America honors with an eighth-place finish.

Three Rock grapplers saw their seasons end with losses Thursday night in first-round consolation matches.

Chris Clarke dropped an 8-3 decision to Cory Berges of Fresno State in 125-pund action and finished the season with a 23-24 record.

Rock captain Jason Cardillo lost a narrow 8-7 decision to 10th-seeded Patrick Pitsch of Arizona State in 165-pound competition and concluded his season with a 34-12 record.

Cardillo, who dropped an opening-round match to seventh-seeded Troy Letters of Lehigh, concluded his collegiate career with a 102-58 record and ranks ninth on The Rock's all-time wins chart,

SRU heavyweight Matt Burkholder was pinned (5:22) Thursday night by Jon May of Nebraska and finished the season with a 19-17 record.

Burkholder, Cardillo, Clarke and Charlie Pienaar each earned berths to the national competition by winning East Regional titles on March 4. David Pienaar received the regional's lone wild-card berth to nationals after finishing second in his weight-class competition.

Complete results of Rock wrestlers' matches on Thursday are as follows:

125 pounds
First round: Luke Magnani (Iowa) maj. dec. Chris Clarke, 8-0
Consolation first round: Cory Borges (Fresno State) dec. Chris Clarke, 8-3

141 pounds
First round: Alex Tsirtsis (Iowa) dec. David Pienaar, 6-0
Consolation first round: David Pienaar won by medical forfeit over Cassio Pero (Illinois)

165 pounds
First round: #7 Troy Letters (Lehigh) maj. dec. Jason Cardillo, 10-2
Consolation first round: #10 Patrick Pitsch (Arizona State) dec. Jason Cardillo, 8-7

184 pounds
First round: #1 Joshua Glenn (American) pinned Charlie Pienaar, 4:45
Consolation first round: Charlie Pienaar dec. Louis Caputo (Harvard), 4-3 TB

285 pounds
First round: #3 Greg Wagner (Michigan) pinned Matt Burkholder, 3:43
Consolation first round: Jon May (Nebraska) pinned Matt Burkholder, 5:22