Clarion University's NCAA Division I Wrestling program hits the road on Friday, January 28th as the Golden Eagles square off against #17 ranked Kent State. The match will start at 7:05pm at the M.A.C. Center.
Friday night's match can be heard locally on WWCH-AM (1300) and on the internet at redzonemedia.com with
Rich Herman calling the play by play.
Clarion has had a quality 2010-11 season under fifth year head coach Teague Moore. Clarion is 3-4 in dual meets defeating Davidson (36-15), Princeton 25-21 and Edinboro 25-21, while losing to #3 Virginia Tech (39-3), North Carolina (32-10), West Virginia (39-4) and Eastern Michigan (33-10).
Clarion's lineup Friday will be:
Thomas Gowing (2-10, Jr. Eugene, Or.) or Trey Hicks (1-9, So. Amityville, N.Y.)at 125 or 133; Cameron Moran (10-7, Jr. James City, Kane) at 141, Anthony White (17-8, Fr. Philadelphia, Pa. North Catholic) at 149; #8 James Fleming (21-4, So. West Mifflin, West Mifflin) at 157, Bekzod Abdurakhmonov (18-6, Jr. Tashkent, Uzbekistan) at 165, Scott Joseph (8-15, Sr. Export, Kiski Area) at 174, Steven Cressley (11-12, So. Punxsutawney) at 184, Alex Thomas (13-8, So. Seaford, De., Sussex Tech) at 197 and Quintas McCorkle 17-10, Jr. Alexandria, Va.) at heavyweight.
Kent is led by seventh year head coach Jim Andrassy, who has the Golden Flashes ranked 17th in the nation coming into the dual and whose team is currently 10-5 overall.
Kent has impressive wins over North Carolina (25-10), Pittsburgh (16-15), Rider (26-16), Arizona State (31-7) and Lehigh (18-16). Close losses have come against #15 Iowa State (23-19), #6 Virginia Tech (25-12), Virginia (18-13) #7 Missouri (19-15) and #1 Penn State (27-15).
The Kent lineup will have #12 Nic Bedelyon (15-3) at 125, Tyler Small (13-11) at 133, Chase Skonieczny (15-14) at 141, Marcel Clopton (16-10) at 149, #17 Matt Cathell (12-5) at 157, Ross Tice (21-9) at 165, Brandon Johnson (18-14) at 174, Casey Newburg (17-12) at 184, #3 Dustin Kilgore (26-2) at 197 and #10 Brendan Barlow (17-9) at heavyweight.
Clarion returns home next Friday to host Bloomsburg at 7pm, and then has a double dual on Super Bowl Sunday. Clarion will host Rider at Noon, then host Ohio University at 2pm. The Rider match is changed from the original 4pm start because of the Super Bowl.
CLARION NOTES: Clarion has an all-time series lead against Kent State of 12-7 … Kent won last year 24-15 and in 2009 by a 22-14 score… Clarion's last win against Kent came in 2001 by a 23-12 score…
KENT 24 CLARION 15 – W.S. TIPPIN GYM, 12-20-2009.
