Dec. 20, 2003

NEWARK, Del. - Junior Mark Canty and sophomore David Dashiell each placed fourth in their respective weight classes to lead the North Carolina wrestling team to an eighth-place team finish at the Beast of the East tournament Friday at the University of Delaware's Bob Carpenter Center. The Tar Heels scored 61.5 points, while Pittsburgh tallied 126.5 points to win the 20-team event.

Seeded No. 2 at 184 pounds, Canty moved on to the final four in his bracket with victories against Nate Shirk of Bloomsburg (11-3) and Brandon Mihalko of East Stroudsburg (5-2). Following a loss to third-seeded Adam Wright of Old Dominon (4-2), Canty bounced back with a 14-3 major decision over Bloomsburg's Nate Shirk in the consolation bracket. Canty then fell to No. 4 seed Alex Carmago of Kent State (8-2) to finish fourth. Canty was 3-2 on the day and is now 11-7 this season.

Dashiell, seeded fifth at 197 pounds, also finished fourth in his weight class. He opened with a 17-4 major decision over Scott Smith of Virginia before falling to Ohio's Joel Weimer, the No. 4 seed, 2-1. Dashiell then won over Princeton's Matt Hawrilenko (Fall 3:00) and Duke's Tim Marcantonio (20-5) and picked up a medical forfeit win to move into the consolation final. Dashiell, who is 7-6 on the season, fell 2-0 to Bloomsbrug's Chad Hoare to place fourth. Junior Venroy July was 3-2 at 197 pounds.

Two more Tar Heels also placed, as junior Chris Rodrigues took sixth at 125 pounds, as did senior Ryan Adams in the heavyweight class. Rodrigues was 2-2 on the day and now stands 9-7 this season, while Adams went 3-2 Friday and is now 9-5 on the year.

In his first action of the season, freshman heavyweight Ben Connell opened the tourney with wins over Kent State's Nick Hiller (Fall 5:39) and George Mason's Ryan Kittrick of George Mason (10-4), before falling to No. 4 seed Derrell Lothridge of Old Dominion (5-3) in the quarterfinals. Connell then took a medical forfeit in the consolation bracket. Also posting 2-2 records for the Tar Heels were redshirt freshman Bobby Shaw at 133 pounds, junior Andrew Slack at 149 pounds, sophomore Garrett Atkinson at 165 pounds and sophomore Ashton Buswell at 157.

Carolina returns to action at the Southern Scuffle, Dec. 28-29, in Greensboro.