PITTSBURGH, Pa. – The Clarion wrestling team authored a series of gutsy efforts on Thursday, with Evan Delong and Greg Bulsak competing at the 2019 NCAA Division I Championships at PPG Paints Arena. 
 
Both Delong and Bulsak found themselves on the wrong end of a pair of hard-luck losses, with both dropping tight consolation matches that would have stretched their seasons into Friday.  Delong finishes his season with a 16-15 overall record and his career with a mark of 88-59.  Bulsak wraps his season with a 17-8 overall record.
 
Delong's day started with the difficult task of taking on reigning national champion and second-ranked Vincenzo Joseph of Penn State.  He showed his trademark aggressiveness in the early going against Joseph, taking several shots but coming up just short of landing the takedown.  Joseph countered one of Delong's shots and scrambled behind him for a two-point takedown, and then maneuvered him for a near-fall.  He brought Delong to his back again, this time getting the fall with just two seconds left in the first period. 
 
In his consolation match against Lehigh's 18^th-ranked Gordon Wolf, Delong landed a pair of solid shots in the first period to tie things up at 4-4, but Wolf countered with a reversal and a two-point near fall in the second period.  Delong connected on a double-leg to start the third period to pull with 8-6, and the two wrestlers traded reversals to eventually put Wolf ahead 11-8.  Delong took Wolf down one more time to make it 11-10, but with the riding point in hand, Wolf took the win 12-10.
 
Bulsak opened his afternoon against Stanford's eighth-ranked Nathan Traxler, who defeated him earlier this season at the Cliff Keen Invitational.  The first period was tight, with Traxler managing just a single takedown to take a 2-0 lead after three minutes of action.  The lead became 4-1 as Traxler took Bulsak down again, though Bulsak threw a flurry of shots at him in each of the three periods.  Traxler took him down one more time and claimed the riding point, defeating him in a 7-3 decision. 
 
Against Ben Honis in the consolation match, Bulsak went down in a pair of takedowns in the first period, trailing 4-1 after three minutes of action.  He escaped from the bottom position to start the second period, cutting the lead to 4-2, and then spun around Honis for a takedown to tie the score at 4-4.  Bulsak locked in and rode Honis long enough to wipe out the latter's riding time advantage, leaving a relatively fresh slate entering the third period.  He took Honis down again late in the third period, but the two were still tied at 6-6 entering the final 30 seconds.  Honis worked Bulsak for a takedown in the final seconds, though, taking the 8-6 decision.