Dec. 30, 2005

• Southern Scuffle Website
• Southern Scuffle Results

GREENSBORO, N.C. -- The 24th-ranked Navy wrestling team scored 55.0 points to place ninth out of 31 teams in the third annual Southern Scuffle hosted by the University of North Carolina-Greensboro. Three Mids earned top-eight finishes, highlighted by senior heavyweight Tanner Garrett's second-place finish. Garrett fell to second-ranked Cole Konrad of Minnesota in the finals.

"Basically, you can't take 14 days off and be competitive in this tournament and that is what we were trying to do," said Navy head coach Bruce Burnett. "We showed our time off in this tournament. I felt we had a lot of subpar performances, and didn't wrestle to our ability this week."

The Mids had strong performances at heavyweight, gaining two of the top eight placewinners. Garrett had a strong tournament, garnering a runner-up finish to run his record to 26-2 on the season. He was defeated by Konrad in the finals, but defeated 11th-ranked Tyler Shovlin in the semifinals, 10-3, and avenged a loss to Ohio State's Kirk Nail, 3-2, in the quarterfinals. Nail defeated Garrett in last year's NCAA Tournament.

Sophomore heavyweight Ed Prendergast garnered an eighth-place finish, via a 5-3 record. Prendergast fell to Nail, N.C. State's Jainor Palma and 16th-ranked Mike Faust of Virginia Tech, but easily exceeded the tournament's preseed.

"I thought our heavyweights looked very good this week," said Burnett. "They competed hard and battled in every match."

Navy's other placing came from junior John Jarred's eighth-place finish at 157 pounds. Jarred was forced to a medical forfeit in the seventh-place match, but had two major decisions in the wrestlebacks en route to the high finish.

Burnett also was pleased with the performance of 165-pounder Craig Dziewiatkowski. He was seeing his first action in over a month-and-a-half after suffering an ankle injury and finished one win from a top-eight placing.

"It's just time to start focusing on the second half of the season and start to buckle down in the room," said Burnett. "We have the ability, now we just need to perform better."

Navy will be in action next in the Lone Star Duals on Jan. 7, in Arlington, Texas. The Mids will wrestle UT-Chattanooga, Purdue and Utah Valley State.

TEAM SCORES:
1. Minnesota -- 192.0
2. Missouri -- 149.0
3. Cornell -- 131.0
4. Edinboro -- 103.0
5. Ohio State -- 94.5
6. Lehigh -- 86.0
7. Kent State -- 82.5
8. Oregon State -- 68.5
9. Navy -- 55.0
10. North Carolina -- 50.5

# GO NAVY #