As they have the past two seasons, the Golden Eagles will start the new year in Chattanooga, Tenn. competing at the 2026 Southern Scuffle (Jan. 3-4).

The Southern Scuffle was first held in 2003 and contested in Greensboro, N.C. its first eight years. Following a one-year hiatus in 2010, the tournament was relocated to the University of Tennessee-Chattanooga and has been held on-campus in McKenzie Arena since (with the exception of 2022, when it was temporarily moved to Nashville).

A premier mid-season event, The Scuffle is a grueling, two-day double-elimination competition often critical for RPI rankings and end-of-year tournament seedings.

The first round starts at 9 a.m. Saturday (Jan. 3), the opening day concluding with the sixth round (Quarterfinals, 1st consolation of the Round of 8) at 6:00 p.m. Round 7 (2nd consolation of the Round of 8) gets underway at 9 a.m. Sunday (Jan 4), with the medal matches slated for 3 p.m.

Fans can watch all the action on Flo or follow along on FloArena.

Clarion at a Glance
Joey Fischer enters 2026 on a roll, the 133-pounder going 3-0 in the Golden Eagles' three season-opening dual meets. He is 10-4 overall.

Two other grapplers have looked impressive in early dual meet action, both 2-1 – 125-pounder Travis Clawson and 165-pounder Alejandro Herrera-Rondon. Clawson is 9-3 and Herrera-Rondon 12-3.

Other Clarion wrestlers heading to Chattanooga with winning records are 125-pounder Easton Mull (5-3), 141-pounder Scott Johnson (7-5), 149-pounder Matthew Smith (8-4), 157-pounders Wesley Barnes (8-3) and Connor Eck (8-5), and 174-pounder Gabe Lilly (6-4).

Clarion at The Scuffle
Barnes, Adrian Gacek (184 pounds), and Ethan Wiant (197 pounds) have competed at The Scuffle during the previous two seasons. All are 2-4 down south.

In 2025, Clarion had two placers – John Worthing, fourth at 174 pounds, and Kyle Schickel, fifth at 149 pounds. The Golden Eagles finished 16th in the 23-team field. Johnson was 2-2 in 2025 and Patrick Cutchember (174 pounds) 1-2. Clawson also made the trip last season (0-2).

Cam Pine's second place at 184 pounds in 2024 paced Clarion to 12th in the 21-team tournament.

Herrera-Rondon and Fischer competed at the 2024 Scuffle, the former going 2-2 and the latter 1-2. John Meyers (285 pounds) was on the 2024 trip (0-2).

Teams at The Scuffle
Clarion is one of up to 29 teams slated to have wrestlers competing at The Scuffle.

Programs sending ranked wrestlers include Penn (6), Virginia Tech (6), Army (5), North Dakota State (5), Virginia (5), Arkansas-Little Rock (4), Cornell (4), Utah Valley (4), American (2), Brown (2), Duke (2), Maryland (2), Navy (2), North Carolina State (2), The Citadel (2), Bellarmine (1), Cal Baptist (1), Michigan State (1), Northern Colorado (1), and Tennessee-Chattanooga (1).

Those represented by Top 10 grapplers are Arkansas-Little Rock (2), Penn (2), Virginia Tech (2), Cornell (1), Maryland (1), and North Carolina State (1).

Of local note, Penn State is sending multiple wrestlers, though none are currently ranked.