CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa. --

After a long day of competition, three Coast Guard men earned All-American status, securing top eight in the nation and a spot to compete tomorrow. The All-Americans are Nathan Fitt(Branchville, NJ), Gabriel Monroe(Kirkwood, NY), and Carl DiGiorgio(Doylestown, PA). For DiGiorgio, it has seemed like clockwork, with his 4th nod. For Fitt and Monroe, it marks their first time as All-Americans after years of hard work to get there.

As a team, Coast Guard sits in 8th place out of 68 teams with 28.5 points.

Starving for a win, Marvin Armistead(Reading, PA) got the afternoon session started, opening up a 3-0 lead with a takedown under 20 seconds in. Two escapes brought the score to 3-2, entering the desperation mode 3rd period. In the 3rd, Armistead's opponent opted to start neutral, giving Marvin a 4th point before he extended that lead with a takedown. The takedown was challenged by New Jersey City but the ruling stood to keep Armistead up 7-3. After being taken down with 20 seconds to go, Armistead clung to an 8-6 victory to stay afloat in the consolation bracket. 

Searching for a berth in the semifinals and All-American status, Nathan Fitt faced off with the 2nd ranked wrestler in the nation. Fitt took a 0-4 deficit into the 2nd. After the 2nd, Fitt trailed 7-3 with some momentum on his side after a takedown. Fitt wound up losing the bout 12-3 but stayed alive in the tournament.

In his first bout of the afternoon, Monroe wasted no time with an early takedown to lead 3-0 after one. Late in the second he added some insurance before cruising to a 13-2 win and putting himself one win away from being an All-American.

Marvin Armistead, who fought back from loss in his first bout of the day, sat one win away from All-American by the evening. He turned his opponent around for a takedown just over a minute in to grab the advantage. In the second however, Armistead was pinned leaving the freshman just short of being an All American in his first collegiate season.

Carl DiGiorgio, the lone Bear in the finals bracket, took an early 3-0 advantage with a takedown two minutes into action in his quarterfinal. After one escape each, DiGiorgio took a 4-1 lead into the 3rd. He would hold onto that lead to seal his fate as a four time All-American. 

Nathan Fitt embarked in a battle with Ryan Hinger for All-American or go home. Fitt came out on fire with two takedowns and an 8-1 lead into the second. He opened that up to an 11-2 advantage right away in the second. Two more takedowns put Fitt up 17-4 and in striking range of a tech fall. He made that come to fruition in the 3rd with a 19-4 win before the elation took over for the senior and he jumped into coach Foley's arms to celebrate his first career All-American nod after coming oh so close his first three seasons.

The final wrestler of the day for the Bears was 197 Gabriel Monroe. Monroe, who fought back through the consolation bracket with a commanding win earlier in the session, now wrestled for a chance to be an All-American for the first time in his career. 

Monroe appeared to get the first takedown of the match just over a minute into action. However, when Penn Tech challenged the points, the refs reversed the call and reverted the score to 0-0. Just seconds later, Nicholas Woodruff of Penn Tech scored seven quick points to take a commanding advantage over Gabe.

"Psycho G" Monroe battled back with two second round takedowns in the first minute of the period. Trailing just 6-9, Monroe tied the score at 9-9 just before bringing the house down with an All-American clinching pin. 

Tomorrow, Nathan Fitt and Gabriel Monroe will each compete in win or go home bouts with a chance to advance into the top 6. 

Fitt will face 3rd ranked Angelo Centrone of SUNY Cortland. Monroe will face 10th ranked Gunnar Garriques. 

2nd ranked Carl DiGiorgio will face 3rd ranked Josh Harkless of RIT with a chance to advance to the finals for the second year in a row.