Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, March 19, 1994 TAG: 9403190135
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: From staff reports
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Branch, seeded fifth in the 142-pound class, lost 12-4 to top-seeded Alan Fried of Oklahoma State. Branch, a junior from Petersburg, will wrestle today in the consolation bracket against an opponent who was to be determined in a match late Friday night.
All-America honors go to the top eight finishers in each weight class. The best Branch can finish is third, and the worst is sixth.
Branch secured All-America status with a 4-2 victory over Illinois' Steve Marianetti, the wrestler who beat him in the consolation round of last year's NCAA meet. That loss prevented Branch from earning All-America honors.
Josh Feldman became Virginia Tech's first wrestling All-American in more than 30 years.
Feldman, seeded 12th in the heavyweight division, lost 5-3 in a sudden-death overtime quarterfinal match Friday to unseeded John Kading of Oklahoma. He beat Nebraska's Tolly Thompson 6-3 in his next match to clinch a finish in the top eight. Thompson was seeded 11th.
Feldman (27-7) lost to Navy's eighth-seeded Dan Hicks 4-2 in the consolation quarterfinals Friday night. He will wrestle No. 9 seed Justin Harty of North Carolina today for seventh place.
Brandon Glover was the Hokies' last All-America wrestler, placing third at 130 pounds in 1959.
In other college sports:
In Buies Creek, N.C., Brian Pardue and Robert Wilson each drove in three runs as Radford edged Campbell 12-9 in a Big South Conference baseball game.
The Highlanders (7-6 overall, 3-1 in the Big South) scored in each of the first five innings and never trailed. Radford took a 12-5 lead in the top of the eighth inning on Kelly Dampeer's RBI single before Campbell (5-16, 1-6) scored four runs off Radford reliever Chris Waldron in the bottom half of the inning.
Jim Abbott pitched seven innings and gave up seven hits while striking out five to earn his first victory of the year.
In Winston-Salem, N.C., four Virginia Tech athletes placed in the top three in their events at the fourth annual Wake Forest Relays.
Senior Brett Matthews won the men's 800 meters in 1 minute, 52.1 seconds; John Hawthorne, a junior who graduated from Cave Spring High School, was third in the 10,000 in 31:32.6; sophomore Erin Graham was second in the 400 intermediate hurdles in 1:04.60; and freshman Johli Carscallen was third in the hammer throw with a toss of 131 feet, 3 inches.
Sophomore Meredith Newby was fifth in the hammer at 127-3, and senior Nancy Gilmore was seventh at 123-1. The meet ends with the men's 400 relay at 3:45 p.m. today.
by CNB