Sports
Wrestlers Open Season at Rec Center
Clarion records nine place winners in its opening tournament at the Rec Center on Sunday. (Lunga Bechtel / The Clarion Call)
Friends, family and student supporters ringed the Clarion University Rec Center on Sunday, Nov. 6 for the wrestling team’s first tournament of the season.
Clarion hosted the Clarion-Knight Point Open for a myriad of Division I teams from across the nation.
Wrestlers from prestigious schools such as Pittsburgh, Penn State, Maryland, Princeton, and Navy were all in attendance.
Clarion seniors Bekzod Abdurakhmonov and Quintas McCorkle both displayed impressive outings throughout the day-long tournament.
Abdurakhmonov, who competed in the 165-pound weight class, managed to wrestle his way to the finals of his class.
He lost in the final match to Brandon Hatchet of Lehigh University, who went undefeated for the day.
The match remained tied until the final seconds, when Hatchet took Abdurakhmonov to the ground.
McCorkle, made it to the final match of his 285 pound weight class as well, but lost to Ashland’s Justin Southwick.
Southwick wrestled undefeated on the day, and sported a singlet emblazoned with symbols of the former U.S.S.R., a symbol that stood out amongst the other
uniformed wrestlers.
McCorkle and Southwick fought in a stalemate for most of the match until the final minute.
Southwick pinned McCorkle to the ground and came away as the champion.
Despite his loss in the finals, McCorkle put impressive skills of strength and finesse on display during the tournament.
He pulled off multiple hard-fought wins, including Penn State’s Collin Campbell.
Clarion’s Mark Havers, a true freshman out of Bradford, Pa. impressed onlookers when he pinned Bloomsburg’s Cody Zechman to the ground in a mere 15 seconds.
Havers started off his freshman season in high fashion, placing a 5-1 record for the day, good enough for third place in the 157 pound weight class.
The Clarion Wrestling squad will travel to Brockport, N.Y. on Saturday, Nov. 12, to compete in the Oklahoma Gold Invite, where McCorkle and Abdurakhmonov hope
to pull off even better performances than last time.
After Sunday’s tournament, hopes are high for the future of the wrestling team as it enters into the 2011 season.
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