Nov. 6, 2008

ANNAPOLIS, Md. -- The No. 21-ranked Navy wrestling team opens its dual season this weekend when it travels across the country to battle three teams from The Golden State. The Mids battle Cal State Fullerton on Friday at 7:00 pm Pacific before taking on Stanford and Cal State Bakersfield in back-to-back matches on Saturday beginning at 3:00 pm Pacific.

The Mids are coming off a successful opening-weekend performance at the Eastern Michigan Open a week ago where 11 of the 21 Navy wrestlers placed among the top six. Four Navy wrestlers qualified for the championship bout in their respective weight classes, including senior team captain Scott Steele (Baltimore, Md.) who won the heavyweight division for the second consecutive year. In addition to Steele, Navy freshman Pat McCaffrey (Chicago, Ill.) turned in a 3-0 record to win the 125-pound title, while returning NCAA qualifier Bryce Saddoris (Spring Creek, Nev.) put together a 4-0 mark to claim the 149-pound weight class.

While Navy jumped out to a fine start to the 2008-09 campaign, the story that will be followed throughout the year is how ninth-year Navy head coach Bruce Burnett's youthful team will react. Heading into the dual matches this weekend, six of the 10 starters are members of the freshman or sophomore class, including rookies at 125, 133, 141 and 174 pounds. If one would take last weekend's EMU Open performance and analyze it, the Navy youth movement was impressive with McCaffrey taking the title at 125 and Luke Rebertus (Elkton, Md.) placing second at 17.

"Without a doubt our young wrestlers compete hard at last week's Eastern Michigan Open," said Burnett. "It's not easy being a freshman at the Academy, nor is it easy to be a young wrestler in a program. These guys will need to learn how to travel, how to manage their weight and how to compete in front of a crowd that is not in their corner. It's a challenge, but it's something you adapt to with experience."

That experience will be put to a test with its California road swing this weekend against three solid Pac-10 teams.

"It's always challenging to wrestle on the road and, in particular, against the Pac-10 which has consistently placed among the top teams at the national tournament. All three matches will be challenging, but we are looking forward to seeing where we stack up against them."

Steele and Saddoris, two of Navy's three ranked wrestlers, will be in action and could face an opponent out of the top 20. Cal State Bakersfield heavyweight Mitch Monteiro will enter his match against No. 5 Steele ranked 20th in the country. Meanwhile, Stanford senior Luke Feist, who was ranked No. 14 in the preseason at 174 pounds, looks to be pushing up to heavyweight.

Saddoris, who is ranked 18th and is coming off a thrilling 4-3 decision over seventh-ranked Jake Patcsil of Purdue, is projected to wrestler Stanford sophomore Max Rosefigura. However, second-year standout Lucas Espericueta entered the year ranked 20th in the rankings at 149 and could slide back down from 157.

Meanwhile, Navy's McCaffrey is on tap to battle Cal State Bakersfield's Brandon Zoetewey, a senior who is ranked 17th.

Navy enters the weekend with a combined 8-1-0 record against its three dual foes. The Mids have easily won its previous two matches against Cal State Fullerton, including a 29-6 advantage in its last meeting in 2005. Navy owns a 40-0 record against the Cardinal, however, the Mids have not crossed paths with Stanford since 2003 when they cruised to a 30-6 win. Cal State Bakersfield won the opening match of the series in 1995, though Navy has won back-to-back matches, including a narrow 23-19 victory on the Roadrunners' home mat.


Projected Lineups
Wt. Navy Cal State Fullerton Stanford Cal State Bakersfield
125 Pat McCaffrey or Prescott Garner Andre Gonzalez Matt Senenbaugh Brandon Zoetewey
133 Aaron Kalil T.J. Dillashaw Porfirio Madrigal Justin Durham or Thomas Kimbrell
141 John Majka Teddy Astorga or Adin Duenas Cameron Teitelman Elija Nacita
149 Bryce Saddoris Nick Blackshaw Max Rosefigura Sam Barnhart or Calvin Miller
157 Joel Ahern or Robby Neill Steven DeLaFuente Lucas Espericueta Trevor Hall
165 Matt DeMichiel or Jason Coyne Devin Velasquez Nick Amuchastegui Joey Granta
174 Luke Rebertus Todd Noel Victor Haug Jason Points
184 Casey Caldwell or Greg Prioleau Tim Hawkins Kyle Barrett Troy Goodban or Seamus Dean
197 Philip Neese John Drake Jake Johnson Riley Orozco
HWT Scott Steele Kurt Klimek Luke Feist Mitch Monteiro

### Go Navy ###