March 19, 1999

STATE COLLEGE, Pa. - Virginia's Matt Roth (Wescosville, Pa./Parkland) and Jim Harshaw (Cranberry Township, Pa./Seneca Valley) both won their matches in consolation bracket of the 1999 NCAA Wrestling Championships. By viture of their wins Friday, both men will finish in at least eighth place. They will continue in the NCAA tournament on Saturday morning.

The two men represent Virginia's first All-Americans since Mike Krafchick in 1994. Roth and Harshaw are only the fifth and sixth All-Americans in Virginia history.

Roth, seeded eighth at 125, defeated Adrian Tramultola from UT-Chattanooga in a pin at 3:57. He then defeated Matt Azevedo of Arizona State 5-1 to advance to the consolation quarterfinals where he would meet his long-time nemesis Chuckie Connor of North Carolina. For the second consecutive time, Roth defeated Connor, seeded seventh, this time by a score of 3-2. It was Roth's 100th career win at Virginia and guaranteed him All-American status. His pin was his career-leading 28th and his 11th of the season, establishing a new single-season record.

Roth then fell to Moses Delfin, the 6th seed, 7-5 in sudden victory. He will face 12th-seeded Jason Silverstein of Purdue for seventh place on Saturday morning. Roth now has a career record of 101-46. His 101 wins is in a tie for third all-time at Virginia for career wins.

Harshaw, the 11th seed at 165, defeated Chris Snyder of Central Michigan with a pin at the 3:37 mark. His pin tied him for the single-season record with 11 pins. Harshaw then defeated Andy Varner of Cal-State Bakersfield 7-0 to advance to the consolation quarterfinals, where he defeated the fourth seed, Josh Holliday of Minnesota, 10-8. Harshaw then fell to the top seeded Joe Heskett of Iowa State in a fall in the first period. He will wrestle the sixth seed, Mark Samples of Edinboro, for seventh place.

Samples defeated Harshaw 7-5 earlier in the tournament. Harshaw now has a career record of 102-36. His 102 wins is the second most career wins at Virginia (Mike Krafchick, 116). He also has a record of 40-7 this season. His 47 matches is the second-highest total in Virginia history (Jason Mutarelli, 49, 1998) and his 40 wins ranks third all-time for a single season (Derek Capanna, 42, 1989).

At 197, Craig Fenstermaker (Hilton Head, S.C./Northampton (Pa.)) defeated the eighth seed Tony Wieland of Northern Iowa 8-2 and then Mike French of Cal-Poly 6-5 before falling to the second seed, Andrei Rodzianko of Penn 11-1. He concludes his season with a record of 28-11.

Meanwhile, Carolina heavyweight Matt Kenny was set to wrestle Bandele Adeniyi-Bada of Pennsylvania late Friday night, with the winner earning All-America honors.

Kenny, unseeded at heavyweight, defeated eighth-seeded J.R. Plienis of Nebraska, 3-2, and ninth-seeded Wes Hand of Iowa on Thursday. Friday afternoon, he lost by default to top-seeded Stephen Neal of Cal State-Bakersfield to drop to the consolation bracket. Late Friday, he wrestled Bandele Adeniyi-Bada of Pennsylvania for All-America honors.

All other Carolina wrestlers have been eliminated from NCAA competition. JohnMark Bentley (149 lbs.), Jamie Groudle (174 lbs.) and Corey Bell (184 lbs.) all lost in the consolation bracket in Friday morning's session.

Action continues Saturday morning at Penn State at 11:00 am.