TUESDAY. MARCH 11. 1958 Johnston,. Gratt Favored in EIW 12 Tutors Give NCAA Champs Unanimous Nod By LOU PRATO Two defending national cham pions and an unbeaten sophomore are favored in the lightweight divisions of the Eastern Inter collegiate Wrestling Association’s 54th annual tournament which opens at the Pitt Field House Friday afternoon. Penn State’s own Johnny John ston, last year’s 130-pound NCAA tilleholder and a two-time 130- pound Eastern champ, and Le high’s Joe Gratto, NCAA 137- pound winner last year and the EIWA’s 137-pound titlist in 1956, are overwhelming favorites to capture the crown of their respec tive weight classes. Dave Auble, the unbeaten yearling from Cor nell (10-0), is given top honors in the 123-pound class. Johnston and Gratto were the unanimous choices of 12 EIWA coaches who participated in a re cent poll conducted by Pitt’s pub licity agent Carroll Cook. Auble was given the tutors' edge over Pitt's Paul-i Powell (10-0-1) to succeed three-time NCAA champion Ed Peery as the new 123-pound champ. However, Powell, another soph omore. may not compete in the iournameni. Humors ,out of Pittsburgh have the Lock Haven native sidelined with mononu cleosus disease. • , Other leading 123-pound con tenders include Syracuse’s George Creason, third place finisher in last year’s affair; Brown’s John Cummings, the fourth place win ner in 1057; Temple’s Art McCall, who owns a 22-dual match win ning streak; and Yale’s Bobby Fitch. Creason, who wrestles at 130: during'the regular season has a 5-3 record, Cummings, who could wrestle anywhere from 123-137. is 6-2 for- the season. McCall is unbeaten in six dual encounters while Fitch's only loss- in eight scraps was to Lehigh’s Bobby Myers. Johnston will, have his hands full trying to gain his third straight 130-pound Eastern title. All three of last year's "money winners" have returned this year as have '-several other top flight men. Pitt's Vic DeFelice, whom the Lion captain .beat in the finals last year, 6-3. is back as well as third place man Leon Harbold of Lehigh and fourth place finisher Jerry Weisen seel of Army. Johnston has the best record of* the pack with eight wins and no defeats. DeFelitfe—who goes at! 137 during the dual campaigns—| is 7-2-2, Harbold is 5-2 and Wei senseel is 8-1. Weinsenseel’s only] defeat was to Creason, 1-0. In-i eluded among his victims 'was] Harbold by a 7-3 count. | Other highly-rated challengers! at 130 include Syracuse’s Ed Car-! lin (7-1-1), whose only loss has been to Auble; Cornell’s Carmen Molino (8-2); Pitt’s Shcrm Moyer (3-3), who owns wins over'JHar bold and Creason; and Harvard's Dave Skeels (6-2). Gratto will be seeking to re gain the 137-pound crown he vron as a sophomore in 1955. The Lehigh captain was beaten by Penn Slate's John Pepe, 4-2, in the Eastern finals last March but later avenged' that defeat in the NCAA finals. Gratto posted a 9-0-1 mark this year, tying Navy’s Joe Longton, 2-2. Gratto’s toughest competition is expected to come from Cor nell's unbeaten sophomore iLee Austin (8-0). However, Rutger’s Bill Griffa, whose only loss in nine matches was to Gratto, 3-2; Penn State’s Guy Guccione (2-4-1) or Dan Johnston (2-2); Harvard’s Bob Watkins (6-2); Army’s Jim Hankee (4-4); Syracuse’s- George Willis (4-3) and Longton (4-2-1) also figure in the title contention. Gym, Mat Draw Gymnastics and wrestling share the spotlight with basketball dur ing the winter sports season at Penn State. Each of the three sports attracted overflow crowds of 6000 during the -1958 indoor season. THE DAILY COLLEGIAN. STATE COLLEGE PENNSYLVANIA * * . . defends 130-pound eastern title IM Cage Playoffs Open at Pec Hall Intramural basketball compe-. Gamma Delta and Kappa Delta' tition will get tougher and tenser;?* 10 (6-1), fraternity champions' as IM basketball enters its final 1" 5 .? 1 1955-56, meets Sig , - . ma Phi Epsilon (6-1) at 7 p.m. in week of play. fraternity quarterfinal contests. The playoff schedule was an- i n independent ball, the League! nounced yesterday by the antra- H winner The Tribe or Red Raid mural athletics department. ers m eets the Watts I (8-0) and After last night's tie breaking the Skeller Rats (7-1) takes on the , games for five league champion- Sharpshooters at 7:45 pjn. At 8:30 i ships, the tournament will get the Studniks (8-0) meet League ; into full swing this evening C champions (Nittany 23 or Nit ! when six games will be played, tany 31) and Nittany 25 (7-0) j Alpha Tau Omega was made! m . ee^s either the Sinkers or the the official League E champion; Night Raiders, the League D iover the weekend. It was dis-; titlist. [covered that Alpha Phi Delta,) Defending champion Alpha Sig who defeated ATO, 25-24, in thejma Phi (7-1), having only one ; final game of the season for both! defeat in the past two years—a teams, had used an ineligible play- 26-22 defeat at the hands of Tau |er. The loss had been ATO’s firstlKappa Epsilon, will enter semi |The player Alpha Phi Delta had; final tourney play on Wednesday used was not registered in the r.ight. Theta Chi (7-0) will also IFC office as having any fra-play its’first game that night, temity connections. _ j Independent semi-finals will In tonight’s action, Alpha Tau be held Thursday night. Both Omega (8-0) will meet the League divisional, finals take place Friday A winner Phi Mu Delta or Phi night. Ex-Lion Greats Win State T Wrestling Titles Larry Fornicola and Bill Oberly haven’t lost any of the talent | which made them NCAA cham pions while wrestling for Penn State a couple of years ago. Both! of the ex-Lion captains proved this by copping state YMCA titles at Bellefonte Saturday night. Fornicola, the NCAA 147-pound winner in 1955. and presently the playing-coach of the second Army mat team, pinned former State schoolboy champ Sam Marano ofi Clearfield to haul in the 167- pound state title. The fall came with a minute left in the second of a two minute overtime session after the two men had battled to a 1-1 draw in the regular time. Oberly. who won the NCAA unlimited title in 1955, flattened (former Lehigh grappler Dave Gallahery, also of Clearfield, in the second period to win the heavyweight title. Oberly wrest 'led under the Easton banner. ! Pitt’s Bob-Bubb, wrestling for the Greensburg YMCA, won the 157-pound title. Volleyball Entries Due Entries for the Intramural Volleyball tournament must be turned in by 4:30 pan. tomor row. Six men are required to form a team. Competition will be run fcr both fraternity and independent groups. Auhle Event O, A ★ ★ * Johnny Johnson THESE ABE THE TEAM CHAMPS of the 1958 Eastern Intercollegiate Gymnastics League Compe tition. Coach Tom Maloney’s Cadets won the team title by handing the Lions a 504-454 setback in mid-season, and then going through the rest of their League schedule undefeated. The happy redhead at the top of the photo holding the championship cup is team Captain Gar O'Quinn who lost his side horse title* but won the parallel bar crown. Wettstone-A Master At Promoting Gym By VINCE CAROCCI Sports Editor Well, Lioft gym Coach Gene Wettstone did it again. Every bit living up to his reputation —at Penn State, anyway—as one of tlie greatest promoters in collegiate athletics today. Wettstone again proved himself the master of his sport with his spectacular handling of the East ern Inter collegiate Gymnastic Championships last weekend at Recreation Hall. When Wettstone promotes some thing. even the famed Mike Todd could stop to learn a lesson or two. Scurrying here and there with the zest of an atomic rocket, he single-handedly ran one of the smoothest tournaments this writ er has witnessed in his four years here. A stickler for Ihei slightest of details. Wettstone made certain nothing was left forgotten. From the awarding of the champion ship medals to having a man hook the flying rings after each performance on the apparatus — these and other details were taken care of in typical Wett stone fashion. He could even be found at times saying "now" lo his head manager Harry Ox man, who handled the P-A. sys tem. It brought back memories of the National AAU Championships and Olympic Trials he staged two years ago in the same Rec Hall confines. Again nothing was left to chance. We said it then and we say it now: Congratulations. Gene, i on a job well done . f . j * * * jningham went over to shake the As with every tournament, thisvictor’s hand in a true sporting one had its usual share of inter-.gesture. esting sidelights. -Here are just a 1 It was a double-barreled ap ffnal {?>“-«» *■» ■ Werner, the other for Cunning. Here s a conversation that took: ham. as close a loser as one ,place between Oxmim and Xaionj could be. • There was certainly fnj Z L^Z a l t ner < WaS r f ad H liltle 10 ch <x»e between the ing himself for, his final all-1 two jaround routine-the free exer-j Asked Afterwords how the vic- OxmVn (who wanted Werner tofe, ,?*?. bea ?, inf ;. Berner wait until the previous r , ep ?i ret i^ u ine ; tor’s score was announced to theiu was c ear evic^ent bow happy fans.): “Give us some time. Jav."; as ’ Werner (with a smile): "You ' • And Cunningham's reply to give me some time." the question of how he fplt after Apparently he got all he needed a clos * loss was: "As long jbecause you know what hap- to, him (Werner), it's all [pened. He won the event with a . . [265 total to give him the all- Wettstone, when asked if he around crown by one point over could remember competition ever ! teammate Lee Cunningham; 1515- 1 being so close in the all-around. 11514 ... - |said: “No. wasn’t that something?** j A roar went up fromthe crowd life added gleefully. “And they’re [when Werner's total was an-[both sophomores.” He had a right tnounced. But an even bigger one;to be happy . . has them followed when the defeated Cun-i back for another two years. PAGE SEVEN Dave Dulaney tumbling cbamp. finallyt
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers