Dec. 30, 2008
Day One Brackets in PDF Format 
Contact: Ryan Mulford
Evanston, Illinois - After a long day of elite competition on the mats of Welsh-Ryan Arena, Rashard Goff has an opportunity to capture the Midlands title on the second day of competition.
This year's invitational marks the 46 straight year that the tournament has been held. The 2008 tournament began with 373 competitors, the most since the 2003 tournament.
"We wrestled very hard today," head coach Ben Stehura said. "This is a tough tournament and our guys fought hard all day."
Goff began the invitational by winning his first two matches by scores of 6-0 and 6-1 over Arizona State's Imamiboum Etukeren and Wes Schroeder of Eastern Michigan to put his up against fourth ranked Kyle Massey of Wisconsin.
After three intense periods, Goff and Massey were tied at one point a piece heading in to overtime. As soon as the overtime period began, Goff was able to get position and shot in and score a takedown giving him a 3-1 decision. His semi-final match will be against the third ranked Mark Ellis of Missouri.
Rob Michaels also gave the Vikings a strong performance battling back from a first round loss to EWL foe Ethan Headlee of Pittsburgh. Michaels grabbed his team high fifth pin defeating Nebraska-Kearney's Ross Brunkhardt in 5:53.
He then went on to take down Joe Barczak of Illinois by a score of 4-3, putting him up against Jake Kerr of Iowa. Trailing by three late in the match, Michaels was able to get one escape point and then quickly shot in and take Kerr down to tie the score, but came up just shot in the end of a 14-10 score.
Jordan Keller also notched two wins at his first Midlands tournament. After losing a first round match against third ranked Brandon Precin of Northwestern, Keller came back to win back-to-back matches including a 14-3 major decision against Maryland's Louis Ruland.
"We had a big turn around from last season's Midlands performance," Stehura said. "This team continues to improve every time they take the mat and I am very proud to be their head coach."
Cleveland State returns to action Saturday, January 3 when they host a quad meet. The Vikings will compete against Buffalo, Gardner-Webb and the University of Northern Iowa. Action is set to begin at 12:00 p.m. in Woodling Gym.
