Chelf Places Fourth at Midlands Championships; UW-L Finishes 18th Overall

For Immediate Release: Sunday, December 30, 2007

Evanston, Ill. - The UW-La Crosse wrestling team placed 18th overall at the Midlands Championships Sunday night at Northwestern University. The Eagles finished with 32.0 team points. The University of Iowa took the team title with 185.0 points while Iowa State University was second with 139.0. Central Michigan University placed third (117.5) followed by the University of Illinois (100.0) and Northwestern (89.5) to finish out the top-five.

A total of 52 teams competed.

UW-L's Josh Chelf, the defending NCAA Division III champion, led the Eagles with a fourth-place finish in the 174-pound division. He went 5-2 overall. Chelf, seeded seventh in the tournament, opened with a win by major decision (12-0) over JT Miller of Cleveland State. Chelf then won by decision (6-3) over Illinois' Ben Friedl before falling by decision (3-1) to second-seeded Brandon Sinnott of Central Michigan in the quarterfinals.

Chelf came back in the wrestleback to win by decision (6-3) over Michigan State's John Murphy and fourth-seed Nick Hayes of Northwestern (5-3). He advanced to the third-place match with a major decision win (10-1) over fifth-seed John Dergo of Illinois. Chelf and Sinnott then faced-off in the third-place match with Sinnott coming away with a win by decision (3-2).

In other results for UW-L, Josh Zabel finished 5-2 at 184-pounds while Tim Palmer, seeded eighth at 165-pounds, went 3-2. Dan Laurent was 2-2 at 285-pounds.

The Eagles' Dan Schulte finished 1-2 at 174-pounds while Brenden Faust was 1-2 at 184 and Andy Moore 1-2 at 197. UW-L's Pat Parrillo (125), Ryan Farwell (149) and Jay Milz (157) all went 0-2.

UW-L returns to action Saturday, January 5 at the Flash Flanagan Open in Dubuque, Iowa and at the North/South Duals in Collegeville, Pa.