?THE WEEK AHEAD: CSU Bakersfield travels to St. Louis, Mo., for the 2008 NCAA Division I Wrestling National Championships. Competition will take place at the Scottrade Center in downtown St. Louis. Two sessions of competition will take place Thursday, March 20 and Friday, March 21. The championship finals on Saturday, March 22, begin at 7:30 p.m. (CST) and will be nationally televised.

WHAT'S AT STAKE: The four Roadrunners (Daniel Atondo, Mitch Monteiro, Riley Orozco and Brandon Zoetewey) competing this week will be in the hunt for NCAA All-American status. CSUB has not had an All-American since 2005 (Efren Cebalos and Matt Sanchez) and will be looking to break that streak this year. The Roadrunners have only gone eight seasons since 1977 without a Division I All-American.

NCAA TICKET INFORMATION: Tickets are sold as all-session packages only. Should seats remain available, tickets to individual sessions may be put on sale prior to the Championships. Ticket packages range from $60 to $150, depending on seating area. For information, call the St. Louis Sports Commission at 314-206-7388 or toll free at 866-646-8849. Tickets may also be purchased online at www.ticketmaster.com.

NCAA NOTES: Bakersfield returns to the NCAA Championships for the 35th consecutive year...ranks 23rd in NCAA history with 42 Division I All-Americans despite only competing in 34 NCAA meets...the first NCAA Championship was in 1928...also ranks in a tie for 17th for most NCAA champions with nine...the nine champions is by far the most by any school that has had their first champion come in the past 30 years...the next closest is North Carolina and West Virginia with five...three of Bakersfield wrestlers (Mitch Monteiro, Riley Orozco and Brandon Zoetewey) are competing in their first NCAA Championship...Daniel Atondo is making a return trip after earning his first nationals appearance last year.

TOURNAMENT HISTORY
? Bakersfield's highest finish at the NCAA Championships is third place in 1996.
? The Roadrunners have four top-10 finishes all-time and eight top-25 finishes.
? With four national qualifiers this year, the Roadrunners have qualified at least three wrestlers to the nationals every season since 1985.
? Bakersfield also sent wrestlers to the Division I championships when the school was Division II and earned 20 of its 42 total All-American honors during that time.

ALL-TIME RESULTS
? 2007: 44th (7.0 points)
? 2006: 47th (4.5 points)
? 2005: 22nd (27.0 points)
? 2004: 29th (15.5 points)
? 2003: 39th (7.5 points)
? 2002: 52nd (3.0 points)
? 2001: 28th (12.5 points)
? 2000: 23rd (20.5 points)
? 1999: 8th (58.5 points)
? 1998: 11th (42.5 points)
? 1997: 8th (43.5 points)
? 1996: 3rd (66.0 points)
? 1995: 28th (13.0 points)
? 1994: 49th (4.0 points)
? 1993: 54th (2.5 points)
? 1992: 36th (5.5 points)
? 1991: 9th (38.5 points)
? 1990: 12th (30.5 points)
? 1989: 28th (14.5 points)
? 1988: 53rd (2.0 points)

FOUR NATIONAL QUALIFIERS: Senior Daniel Atondo, sophomore Mitch Monteiro, redshirt freshman Riley Orozco and junior Brandon Zoetewey are all headed to St. Louis, Mo., for the 2008 NCAA Division I Wrestling National Championships. Of the four, only Atondo has previous nationals experience, having made the trip as a junior in 2007.

FIRST FRESHMAN SINCE 2002: Qualifying at 197, Riley Orozco is the first Bakersfield freshman to qualify for nationals in six years. In 2002, both Efren Ceballos (133) and Matt Sanchez (125) qualified as freshmen, later becoming two of Bakersfield's four four-time qualifiers. Orozco has had a solid first year in a Roadrunner uniform, posting a 25-13 overall record. After competing most of the year at 184, he moved up to 197's for the Pac-10 Championships where he earned a fourth place finish and one of the league's eight at-large bids for nationals.

PAC-10 PLACEWINNERS: Making an immediate impact for the CSU Bakersfield squad, sophomore Mitch Monteiro, who wrestled in his first official match on Feb. 10, was the Roadrunners top placewinner at the Pac-10 Championships, finishing second in the heavyweight division. Daniel Atondo (165) and Brandon Zoetewey (125) earned third place finishes, Riley Orozco (197) placed fourth, Thomas Kimbrell (133) and Trevor Hall (157) placed fifth, Jeremy Doyle (149) placed sixth, Elijah Nacita (141) placed seventh and Jason Points (184) placed eighth. Six ?Runners finished at or above their seed entering the meet. With just 12 points separating second place and seventh place in the team standings, Bakersfield came up slightly short with a 94.5-point, seventh place finish.

MAN OF THE YEAR: Head Coach T.J. Kerr was named Amateur Wrestling News Man of the Year for 2007, the magazine recently announced. Awarded every year since 1962, and considered perhaps the most prestigious honor in wrestling, Kerr becomes the third honoree associated with Roadrunner wrestling to be named Man of the Year. Joe Seay, CSUB's inaugural coach, was honored in 1990, though he was serving as the head coach at Oklahoma State at the time. Four-time All-American and two-time NCAA Division I National Champion Stephen Neal was named AWN Man of the Year in 1999.

CRACKING INTO THE CSUB RECORD BOOK: With the National Championships still on his schedule, senior Daniel Atondo has added his name to the CSUB career wins list at No. 45. Atondo has 69 victories to date and can add to that mark with a successful run in his final week of collegiate wrestling. Also breaking into the record book is freshman Trevor Hall who finished the year with a team-high seven pins. That number is good for a tie at No. 47 for single-season pins.

CSUB KEEPS QUALIFIERS STREAK ALIVE: Since 1974, the second season of the wrestling program at Bakersfield, the Roadrunners have had a qualifier to the NCAA Division I Championships every year. And since 1976, Bakersfield has had at least two qualifiers to the championships. The Roadrunners have also qualified at least three wrestlers to the NCAA Championships every year since 1979.

PIN FOR A WIN: Through 646 matches, the Roadrunners have earned 83 of their 398 wins by virtue of a pin. That number far surpasses the 2006-07 season total of 61. Leading the way in that statistical category is freshman Trevor Hall (15?7) with seven pins. Elijah Nacita (141), Jeremy Doyle (149), Riley Orozco (197) and Ryan Bergman (285) all totaled six pins. However, the ?Runners fastest pin of the season (23 seconds) came by the hands of freshman Justin Durham (133).

400 AND COUNTING: On Saturday, Jan. 19, Head Coach T.J. Kerr became the fifth active NCAA coach to reach 400 career wrestling victories, following a 37-12 win over Portland State. Kerr now holds a 35-plus-year career record of 404-200-7. Now in his 24th season at the helm of the Roadrunner program, Kerr also owns a 222-130-4 record at CSUB.