March 20, 2003

RALEIGH, N.C. - All four of NC State's qualifiers remained alive through Thursday night's second-round action at the NCAA Wrestling Championships, but all four were one loss from elimination in the double-elimination tournament. All four had suffered losses to wrestlers ranked in the national top 10.

Senior 125-pounder George Cintron, junior 149-pounder Jake Giamoni and junior 157-pounder Scott Garren all won their first-round bouts, but lost in the second round. Junior 165-pounder Dustin Kawa lost his first two matches and was eliminated from the tournament.

Cintron, ranked No. 19 nationally but coming off arthroscopic surgery to repair a town meniscus, defeated Aaron Suranofsky of George Mason in the first round, 7-3. His reward for winning was a matchup with seventh-ranked Luke Eustice of Iowa, and Cintron took Eustice all the way to overtime and suddene death, losing a 1-1 tiebreaker. Cintron will return to action Friday morning against Heath McKim of Air Force.

Giamoni won his first-round match 6-3 over Jacob Harris of UT-Chattanooga, but then was paired up with fourth-ranked Jake Percival of Ohio University. Percival prevailed 8-1, sending Giamoni to a Friday matchup against Oregon State's Tony Hook in the wrestlebacks.

Garren, ranked 16th, easily beat Amir Khan of Rutgers, 12-7, in the first round, but lost an 8-2 decision to third-ranked Scott Owen of Northern Illinois in the second round. Garren's first wrestleback opponent had not been determined, but he was to face the winner of the bout between Chris DiGuiseppe of North Carolina and 12th-ranked Derek Jenkins of Rider.

Kawa, ranked No. 12 nationally, somehow got seeded against fourth-ranked Jacob Volkman of Minnesota in the first round, and lost to Volkman 13-8. Kawa then lost 16-7 to Scott Roth of Cornell in the wrestlebacks Thursday night.