Clarion Wrestling vs. SIU-Edwardsville / Kent State
Saturday, Jan. 23 | 1 / 3 p.m.
Clarion, Pa. | Tippin Gymnasium

Due to Central Michigan pulling out of Saturday's competition, the schedule for this event has changed.

Schedule of Events
 

Time	Mat 1 (Watch)	Mat 2 (Watch)
11 a.m.	SIU-Edwardsville vs. Kent State	Extra Matches
1 p.m. (approx.)	Clarion vs. SIU-Edwardsville	Extra Matches
3 p.m. (approx.)	Clarion vs. Kent State	Extra Matches

How to Watch

Both mats will have free live video available at the above direct links. Only Clarion dual matches will have commentators. Fans can also access the day's matches in the following ways:

• The Clarion Golden Eagle Vision app, available for free on Roku / Amazon Fire TV / Apple TV / Android TV
• Our video web portal through Presto Stretch, at portal.stretchinternet.com/clarion

Ten Quick Points

• The Golden Eagles host a pair of Mid-American Conference opponents in Tippin Gym  on Saturday, when they welcome the SIU-Edwardsville
• This will be the fourth meeting between the Golden Eagles and the Cougars, with Clarion owning a 2-1 edge in the all-time series
• This will be the 24th meeting between the Golden Eagles and the Golden Flashes, with Clarion owning a 13-10 advantage over Kent State
• Greg Bulsak improved to 4-0 on the season with a pair of pinfall wins against Rider last week, and now holds a consensus top-10 ranking nationally at 197 pounds
• The Golden Eagles are looking for their first dual win of the season; last year they rebounded from an 0-3 start to win eight straight team matches
• Freshman Kyle Schickel earned his first career win last week, beating Rider's Bryan Miraglia by 8-2 decision at 141 pounds
• Seth Koleno went 2-0 against competitors from Rider last week, earning a sudden victory 11-4 decision over Bryan Miraglia and a 13-2 major decision over Cole McComas
• The Golden Eagles return two NCAA qualifiers from last year's squad, including NWCA All-American Greg Bulsak (197) and Ty Bagoly (285)
• Head coach Keith Ferraro enters his seventh year at the helm, and has led the Golden Eagles to three consecutive dual match seasons with a .500 record or better
• Clarion will have one more home dual this season when they host Edinboro on Wednesday, February 3

The Lead
The Clarion wrestling team will try to even their season record when they host a pair of Mid-American Conference (MAC) opponents on Saturday, as the Golden Eagles welcome SIU-Edwardsville and Kent State to Tippin Gymnasium on January 23. The Cougars and Golden Flashes are set to start the day in a dual at 11 a.m., followed by their respective meetings with the Golden Eagles.

Series Histories
This will be just the fourth meeting between the Golden Eagles and the Cougars, with Clarion owning a 2-1 edge in the all-time series with SIU-Edwardsville. The teams met last year in Clarion's first season as a MAC affiliate member, with the Golden Eagles defeating the Cougars 30-13 in a match staged at Brookville High School. Clarion held a 6-4 edge in total bouts won, but included in that total were wins by fall from Greg Bulsak and Seth Koleno, as well as a major decision from Ty Bagoly.

This will be the 24th meeting between the Golden Eagles and the Golden Flashes, with Clarion owning a 13-10 advantage in the all-time series with Kent State. It is the second straight year that Kent State has taken on the Golden Eagles in Tippin Gym, with Clarion defeating them 30-8 in last year's home finale. The Golden Eagles claimed seven of the bouts that night, including a Ty Bagoly pin over Spencer Berthhold at 285 pounds.

Adjusted Format
Matches during the 2020-21 season will look different to longtime Golden Eagle fans, as teams will also contest extra matches during and after the main dual. The main dual will occur while additional matches will occur on an adjacent mat in the main gym. After the conclusion of the dual, the teams will then feature wrestlers from the dual taking on counterparts from their opponents, though these matches will not impact the result of the original dual.

About the Coach
Keith Ferraro, a native of Brookville, is in his seventh year as Clarion's head wrestling coach in 2020-21. He has been integral in elevating the Golden Eagles back into the national spotlight.

The Golden Eagle program has made tremendous strides under Ferraro's tutelage, with perhaps no more telling figure than the number of NCAA qualifiers the Golden Eagles have produced.  The team that Ferraro took over in 2014-15 went 1-16 in dual matches and sent no wrestlers to the NCAA Championships.  The Golden Eagles have produced multiple NCAA qualifiers in every year since then, including four in 2017-18, tied for the most in a single season since the Golden Eagles sent five wrestlers to the 2004 Championships. Clarion has had 13 NCAA qualifiers in the last six years.

The Golden Eagles have rebounded to become leaders in the classroom as well as the wrestling room.  Clarion was recognized by the NCAA as being in the top 10 percent of the Academic Progress Rate (APR) report in both 2018-19 and 2019-20, the only wrestling program in the Mid-American Conference (MAC) to earn recognition in either year.  The Golden Eagles also led all of their former Eastern Wrestling League compatriots in number of EWL Scholar-Athletes in 2019, with 17 athletes on the list.

Bulsak, Bagoly Crack National Rankings
Clarion returns two NCAA qualifiers from a season ago, and both find themselves in the national conversation as the team readies for its third and fourth matches of the year. 

• Three-time NCAA qualifier Greg Bulsak ranks among the best in the nation at 197 pounds, coming in at seventh according to TrackWrestling, 10th according to InterMat and ninth according to FloWrestling.

• First-time NCAA qualifier Ty Bagoly ranks 22nd in the nation at heavyweight, according to TrackWrestling. Bagoly would have competed in his first NCAA Championships last year, starting in the "pigtail" round.

Fast Start for Bulsak
Greg Bulsak entered the season as a consensus nationally-ranked contender, and his first weekend of the year did nothing to disabuse pollers of that assessment. The redshirt senior defeated Navy's 24th-ranked 197-pounder Jacob Koser by a 7-2 decision in the dual match, and then scored a 13-2 major decision over Malcolm Wiley in the extra matches. He followed that up with a pair of first period wins by fall against opponents from Rider, including a win over graduate student Matt Correnti in the dual.

Racking Them Up
Greg Bulsak has been a supremely consistent force in the Golden Eagle lineup over the last three years, and is working on an impressive streak as he heads into matches against SIU-Edwardsville and Kent State. With two wins last week against Rider, Bulsak improved his win streak to 20 consecutive matches dating back to last year. He has not dropped a match since falling in the fifth-place bout at the Cliff Keen Invitational on Dec. 7, 2019, and has not lost a dual match since Purdue's Christian Brunner beat him on Nov. 24 of that same year.

First Taste of Victory
Freshman Kyle Schickel earned his first career collegiate victory in the dual against Rider on Jan. 16, beating the Broncs' Bryan Miraglia by decision at 141 pounds. Schickel carried the early initative with two takedowns in the first period and never let Miraglia back into the bout, winning handily by an 8-2 score.

Seth Steps Up
Junior Seth Koleno notched a pair of bonus point victories in extra bouts against Rider on January 16, as he looks to get his 2020-21 season off to a good start. Koleno recorded an impressive 11-4 sudden victory decision over Bryan Miraglia, taking him down and earning four near fall points to secure the win, and then followed up with a 13-2 major decision over Cole McComas.