Dec. 7, 2008

Contact: Ryan Mulford

State College, PA - Senior Rashard Goff went 4-1 on his way to capturing a 2nd place crown at the highly prestigious Nittany Lion Open, while sophomore Robbie Michaels won six matches earning a sixth place finish.

Rashard Goff once again was outstanding as he opened the tournament with a close 2-1 decision over Boston University's James Connors, before going on to beat Penn's Tyler Blakely by a score of 2-0. Goff then went onto to win his next two matches, with victories coming against Patrick Walker of Liberty, 4-0 and then defeating Kocher of SCWC by a 7-3 decision, putting him in the finals against John Laboranti of Penn State. After a close, hard fought match Laboranti edged out Goff with a narrow 5-2 decision.

Robbie Michaels also had a strong performance coming back from an early season injury that had sidelined him. Michaels began his day with a convincing 17-1 tech fall against Penn State club wrestler Brookens and followed with a 6-4 decision against Navy's Jason Coyne. After losing his next match, Michaels came back pinning Lear at 3:26. Michaels finished his day emphatically winning his last three matches, defeating Binghamton's Ryan McGarity 8-2, then pinning Lock Haven's Mark Vuono 0:45 into the match, before finally taking down Rutger's Matt Pletcher by a 12-2 major decision.

Antonio Nicholson and JT Miller each went 4-2 on the day. Nicholson started his day by defeating Lock Haven's Seth Creasy by an 8-6 decision, before rolling off three consecutive decisions. Miller also went on a brief three-match win streak, including a 2-0 victory against Maryland's Patrick Klenkel and a 9-6 win against UPJ's Steve Makin.

The Vikings are back in action on Sunday, December 14 as they host the CSU Open. The tournament is set to begin at 9 a.m. in the Woodling Gymnasium.