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2008 Championship Recap
Heidelberg College, on the strength of five conference champions, successfully defended its title at the 2008 Ohio Athletic Conference Championships on Saturday, February 23, at the DeCarlo Varsity Center.
The Student Princes scored 99.5 points to capture the OAC tournament crown, followed by host John Carroll University with 88.5. Ohio Northern (48.5), Baldwin-Wallace (41.5), Muskingum (37.5), Mount Union (270 and Wilmington (17) rounded out the field.
For the Student Princes, only senior Nick Sanchez was a repeat winner as he won his third consecutive championship at 141 pounds. The other four Heidelberg champions were first time winners - - freshman Jerrod Hoxie at 125, Zach Mizer at 149, Ryan Fogliano at 197 and Ryan Bowers at 285.
Runner-up John Carroll matched Heidelberg with seven All-OAC wrestlers, but just two were able to win titles. Senior Adam Pizzurro became a two-time league champion at 133 pounds, while junior Ben Adams won his first crown at 184 pounds.
Baldwin-Wallace, Muskingum and Ohio Northern each had one wrestler win a weight class. Baldwin-Wallace senior Gino Russo defended his title at 165, as the Yellow Jacket All-American overcame a broken hand mid-season to win his second career OAC crown.
Muskingum senior Patrick Minner, who was an OAC runner-up in 2006, grabbed an elusive first OAc title at 157 pounds.
Ohio Northern senior Ben Plowman joined Sanchez as the only three-time champs in this year’s field as he won the title at 174 pounds.
Jason Miller of Heidelberg was named the Ohio Athletic Conference Coach of the Year, while Adam Pizzurro of John Carroll was named the Most Outstanding Wrestler.
In addition to the ten conference champions who earned automatic bids into the NCAA Division III Championships, Ohio Northern junior 125-pounder David Penny was extended an at-large bid to compete in the national tournament which will be held March 7-8 in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
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Post Tournament Information
Match-By-Match Results
Final Results
Special Awards & Team Scores
2008 Photo Gallery
contact Chris Wenzler at cwenzler@jcu.edu for original copy of any photo -- please indicate specifically which photo you would need. Every attempt was made to capture each match that took place, but about seven or eight did not photographed. We also had corrupted data in between 157, 165 and awards for 149, 157 and 165 during the final round, which we regret terribly. We apologize if this occurred in a match in which you were interested.
2008 Video Gallery
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Pre Tournament Information
Links To Participating Teams
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OAC Championship History
Team Champions Since 1959
Individual Weight Class Champions Since 1970
