March 3, 2008

Eugene, Oregon - Senior Morgan Atkinson repeated as Pac-10 champion at 149 pounds tonight and was one of four Cal State Fullerton wrestlers to qualify for the NCAA Championships as the Titans placed fifth at the Pac-10 Finals at the University of Oregon.

Atkinson won by default from No. 2-seeded Adam Hall of Boise State to become Fullerton's first repeat conference champion since Mike Elliott won four in a row in 1977 through 1980.

Senior Ian Murphy also qualified for the NCAA meet in St. Louis by finishing in third place at 184 pounds. He punched his ticket 58 seconds into his match with Zack Giesen of Stanford when he logged his meet-high third pin.

Boise State was the runaway team champion over a closely bunched field with 152.5 points thanks in great part to two champions and four runnersup. Stanford was second with 106.5 points followed by Oregon State at 106, Arizona State at 103, Fullerton at 101.5, Cal Poly at 99.5 and Cal State Bakersfield at 94.5. Rounding out the standings were UC Davis at 79.5, Oregon at 59 and Portland State at 16 points.

Junior T. J. Dillashaw finished in fourth place after losing to Borislav Novahkov of Cal Poly, 9-2, and was a wild card selection to the NCAA finals by a vote of the head coaches, as was 197-pounder John Drake, who placed fifth. Todd Noel also finished fourth at 174 pounds after losing No. 2-seeded Luke Feist of Stanford, 8-0.

Fullerton most likely would have finished second had it had the services of heavyweight Wade Sauer, who was ranked No. 1 in the Pac-10 and No. 5 in the nation but suffered a neck injury in the final regular seaosn match.

Complete Brackets and Standings in PDF Format