CLARION, Pa. – Two Golden Eagle wrestlers won titles and two others reached the finals at the 2021 Clarion Open, capping an exciting opening day at Tippin Gymnasium. The Golden Eagles showed well in the loaded – both in quantity and quality – field in the tournament, setting the stage for great things over the course of the season.
 
Seth Koleno and Brent Moore won the individual titles at 141 and 149 pounds, respectively, with the two seniors stringing together five straights wins each to win the knight helmet trophies that are given to each tournament champion. Both wrestlers mixed in wins by fall to go with more traditional decisions, and were large part of the reason the Golden Eagles finished fourth as a team behind only Navy, West Virginia and Pitt.
 
Koleno, in fact, started his day with two straight wins by fall. He started by pinning Franklin & Marshall's Avery Clarke just 1:28 into the bout, and he needed just eight more seconds to pin Bloomsburg's Josh Mason and reach the 141-pound quarterfinals. The senior won handily in the quarterfinal round, beating Buffalo's Jack Marlow by 10-4 decision, and then he tacked on a major decision over Maryland's Danny Bertoni to reach the championship bout.
 
The Terps' Ethen Miller got the only takedown of the first period but Koleno wriggled loose of his grip with just 11 seconds left to steal a point before the first break. Koleno started the second period on bottom and escaped again to tie the bout at 2-2, and once again struck in the final seconds of the period, this time to take the lead. He came in on a shot with just eight seconds remaining in the second to catch Miller off guard, taking him down for a 4-2 lead entering the third period. Koleno took Miller down late one more time, this time countering a shot on the edge with just 13 seconds left in regulation for the 6-3 decision.
 
Moore, meanwhile, put together a string of tight decisions, all the way up to the 149-pound championship bout. Making his first collegiate wrestling appearance since 2019, Moore started with a 7-5 decision over West Virginia's Walker Heard, before eking out a 2-1 decision over Lehigh's Paul Watkins. He defeated Lock Haven's Ty Linsenbigler by decision in the quarterfinal before punching his ticket to the championship against Bucknell's Kolby Depron, pinning him just 1:09 into the bout.
 
Taking on Lock Haven's Conor Eck in the final, neither wrestler managed a point in the first period. Moore started the second period on the bottom and quickly escaped to get on the board, and Eck returned the favor with an escape to start the third. Moore finally managed a takedown early in the third, coming behind Eck to take a 3-1 lead. Moore fought off all of Eck's shots for the remainder of the bout for a 3-2 victory.
 
Two other Golden Eagles reached the finals in their own weight classes. Kolby Ho, wrestling unattached, made it to the 157-pound championship bout after winning his first four bouts of the day. He started with back-to-back decisions over Aaron Ferguson and Patrick Edmondson before pinning Hofstra's Joey McGinty. He topped WVU's Alex Hornfeck in the semifinal round before dropping a decision to Navy's Andrew Cerniglia in the final. 197-pounder Will Feldkamp also reached a championship bout, starting with a major over Buffalo's Eli Sheeren and a 12-10 decision over Kent State's Tyler Bates. Feldkamp won his semifinal bout with Maryland's Jaxon Smith but fell to Navy's Jacob Koser in the final.
 
The other major placer for Clarion was freshman Joey Fischer, who wrestled unattached at 125 pounds. Fischer pinned Hofstra's Dylan Acevedo in his collegiate debut, followed by an 11-1 major decision over Maryland's Zach Spence. The freshman did produce one of the highlight victories of the day, defeating Lock Haven's Luke Werner in an exciting sudden victory decision. Werner was a 2020 NCAA qualifier at 125 pounds with nearly 100 career victories under his belt, but Fischer outlasted him in the late moments of the bout and took him down in sudden victory for the win.