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Pine Set for National Stage at NCAA Championships

2024 NCAA Division I Wrestling Championships
March 21-23, 2024
Kansas City, Mo. | T-Mobile Center
 
Schedule of Events (All Times ET)
 
Thursday, March 21
Session 1 (First Round Matches) – Noon
Session 2 (Round of 32 / First Round Consolation) – 7 p.m.
 
Friday, March 22
Session 3 (Championship Quarterfinals / Consolations) – Noon
Session 4 (Championship Semifinals / Consolations, "Blood Round") – 8 p.m.
 
Saturday, March 23
Session 5 (3rd / 5th / 7th Place) – 11 a.m.
Session 6 (Championship Finals) – 7 p.m.
 
How to Watch
 
Every mat and every match will have dedicated video coverage via ESPN+ over the course of the Championships. A generic link to the ESPN+ schedule will appear on this page as well as the wrestling schedule on the athletics site, while notifications for specific mat assignments, as well as mat-specific links, will be added on X on the @ClarionEagles and @WrestlingCUP accounts.

This Week in Kansas City

Senior Cam Pine had the best season of his college career in 2023-24, cracking the national rankings and eventually earning a bid to the NCAA Division I Championships for the first time. He'll work to keep that season going this week in Kansas City when he kicks things off at the T-Mobile Center on Thursday, March 21. The 27th seed in the field, Pine will wrestle Penn State's sixth-seeded Bernie Truax in Thursday's opening round.

In his third year as a Golden Eagle after transferring from Campbell at the start of the 2021-22 season, Pine won 20+ matches for the third consecutive season and showed himself up to the task in multiple tournaments over the course of the year. He opened the year by reaching the finals of the Clarion Open, and later reached the finals of the 184-pound bracket at the Southern Scuffle. Pine clinched his NCAA Tournament bid two weeks ago when he reached the finals of the Mid-American Conference (MAC) Championship.
 
Pine has gone 69-22 in his Golden Eagle career, including a 23-6 overall record this season. He got hot midway through the year, going 14-2 since the calendar flipped to 2024. That included an undefeated 9-0 streak in dual match competition.
 
The winner of the first round match between Pine and Truax will face either Missouri's Colton Hawks or North Carolina's Gavin Kane.


History Lesson
  • Clarion sends wrestlers to the NCAA Championships for the ninth time under head coach Keith Ferraro, who is in his tenth season as head coach.
  • After sending no NCAA qualifiers in Ferraro's first year as head coach, 2014-15, the Golden Eagles have been represented every year since.
  • The last time the national championships were held in Kansas City was in 2003. Two Golden Eagles - Rad Martinez (133) and John Testa (285) - earned All-American honors, with the former placing fifth and the latter eighth.
  • In 2023 Clarion brought three wrestlers to the NCAA Championships, with Will Feldkamp earning the 48th NCAA All-American honor in program history by placing seventh at 184 pounds in Tulsa.

The Clarion Tradition

  • Clarion wrestling first rose to national prominence in the early 1970's, when the Golden Eagles combined for five individual titles in two years.  
  • Gary Barton and Wade Schalles won individual titles in 1972, while the trio of Schalles, Don Rohn and Bill "Elbows" Simpson all won in 1973.
  • Former head coach Bob Bubb was inducted into the National Wrestling Hall of Fame in 2005 after a 26-year coaching career that ended in 1992 with 322 career dual wins and a seven individual national champions.  
  • Bubb served as the Secretary Rules Editor of NCAA wrestling from 1989-2011, Executive Director of the NWCA from 1995-99, and Chair of the NCAA Wrestling Committee from 1987-89.
  • The Golden Eagles have produced eight national champions and 47 All-Americans throughout history.  Two of those national champions were recognized on the NWCA/NCAA 75th Anniversity All-Time Collegiate Team in 2005 - Kurt Angle and Wade Schalles.

The World Stage

  • Golden Eagle wrestling boasts two Olympic medalists, including one of the most famous names in the sport.
  • Kurt Angle was a two-time NCAA champion at heavyweight (1990, 1992) and a finalist in 1991. He went on to win Olympic gold at the Atlanta games in 1996.
  • More recently, Bekzod Abdurakhmonov was a 2012 All-American, placing third at 165 pounds for Clarion. At the Tokyo games in 2021, his only loss came to the eventual gold medalist, and Abdurakhmonov finished with the bronze medal.
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