Dec. 17, 2004

NEWARK, Del. - Junior Evan Sola captured the 133-pound title, and three other Tar Heels posted top-three finishes to lead the North Carolina wrestling team to a second-place finish Friday at the Beast of the East College Invitational at the University of Delaware's Bob Carpenter Center. Carolina finished with 101 points, which was good for a tie with Bloomsburg University. Northwestern won the team crown with six individual titles and 162.5 points.

After sitting out the December 4 Irwin-Carolina open, Sola reached Friday's 133-pound semifinals with an 18-second pin of Princeton's Steve Sabin in the first round and a 15-0 technical fall victory over Keith Pavlekovsky of Duquesne. In the semis, Sola continued to roll with a 12-1 major decision victory over Buffalo's Mark Budd. He came back with a 14-6 major decision over Bloomsburg's Tony Curto in the final for a perfect 4-0 record on the day to improve to 11-1 on the season. The individual title is Sola's first of the season.

At 149 pounds, freshman Chris Ramos won three consecutive tight matches to reach the final. After opening with a 6-4 win over Princeton's Jesse Palermo, he downed Bloomsburg's Ben Young - also by a 6-4 score. In the semifinals, Ramos bested Buffalo's Pat Lloyd to move on to the final, where Northwestern's Greg Hagel posted a 6-3 victory. Ramos was 3-1 on the day and now stands 6-2 this season.

Redshirt sophomore Spencer Nadolsky (heavyweight) and sophomore Drew Forshey (125 pounds) each finished third in their respective weight classes. Forshey went 5-1 on the day and claimed third when The Citadel's Ryan McClester medically forfeited the consolation final. Forshey is now 13-5 on the season. After dropping to the consolation bracket with a semifinal loss, Nadolsky rallied for wins over Bloomsburg's Mike Spaid (9-3) and Northwestern's Dustin Fox (7-0) to claim third. Nadolsky is now 14-7 this season.

Other Tar Heels posting top-six finishes were Bobby Shaw (sixth - 125), Isaiah Britton (fifth - 141), Kyle Shelton (sixth - 157) and Garrett Atkinson (sixth - 165)

Carolina returns to action December 29-30 at UNC Greensboro's Southern Scuffle. The Tar Heels open the dual meet schedule against Maryland on January 8 in Chapel Hill.