December 29, 2006

GREENSBORO - Several members of the Virginia Tech wrestling team competed on the first day of the Southern Scuffle, which started Saturday afternoon at the Greensboro Coliseum Special Events Center.

Steve Borja remains in contention for a title after going undefeated on the first day while Steve Ratley tied a school record. The second day of competition will begin Sunday morning.

At 184 pounds, Borja, who is seeded seventh, opened with a 12-1 major decision over Matt Moyer of George Mason before picking up a forfeit win to move into the round of eight.

At 165 pounds, Eric Decker defeated Kevin Cook of Davidson, 9-2, before downing Johnny Nunez of Boise State, 5-3, to advance. Decker was beaten by Cornell's Steve Anceravage, 3-1, but came back in the consolations to pin Trebor Clavette of Davidson at the 5:41 mark.

At 149 pounds, Jon Bonilla-Bowman opened with an 11-9 sudden victory over Nate Patterson of Binghamton before falling to Chris Ramos of North Carolina 8-2. He came back to beat Levi Duyn, 10-7 to stay alive in the tournament.

Ratley picked up a pin in his first match to add to his impressive total on the season. He pinned Garth Wara of Cal-St. Bakersfield at the 43-second mark. After his first-round win, he was pinned by No. 1 Ben Askren of Missouri, but bounced back to pick up a 9-0 major decision over UNC Greensboro's Jeremy Cannon before picking up two more pins. First, he downed Derek Coffey of Old Dominion at the 1:52 mark and then he pinned John Barone of Duke at the 1:26 mark. That pin was the senior's 15^th of the season. With more than two months left in the season, Ratley has tied the school's single-season pins mark of 15 set by Sean Gray in 2001-02 and tied by David Hoffman in 2004-05.

At 133 pounds, Justin Staylor, who was wrestling unattached, lost 7-4 to Thomas Kimbrell of Cal-St Bakersfield. He came back to pin Nick Bridge of Cornell at the 2:30 mark, but was eliminated when he dropped an 8-3 decision in sudden victory to Kevin Vinh of Lehigh.

At 165 pounds, Mark Czarny dropped a 3-1 decision to Leif Ruschmeyer of East Stroudsburg. He advanced in the consolations with a medical forfeit over Campbell's Brent Poynter. He was eliminated when he dropped a 9-1 major decision to George Mason's Tyler Tisdale.

Jim Powers defeated Derrick Callaway of Appalachian State, 3-0, to open the day in the heavyweight bracket. He was then eliminated when he was pinned by Navy's Ed Prednergast at the 3:22 mark and then by Kent State's Willie Leonard at the 5:12 mark.