Sports
Wrestling takes third at EWLs
The Clarion University wrestling team finished their season with a record of 8-8 and a third place finish at last week’s Eastern Western League Championships.
Clarion University wrestler Steven Cressley wrestles at a home match in Tippin Gymnasium earlier in the season. (Archive Photo / The Clarion Call)
The 8-8 record is the first time the team has finished their season above .500 since head coach Teague Moore became coach four years ago.
The Golden Eagles posted some impressive wins this season with upsets over teams such as the University of North Carolina and West Virginia.
Even their losses were impressive as the team was wrestling against some of the best teams in the country including ranked teams Edinboro and Kent State.
Other losses came down to one match that if it had gone Clarion’s way, the team would have came out with the win.
The team’s performance at last week’s EWL’s points shows how this group of wrestlers may be the turning point for the Golden Eagle wrestling program.
Clarion posted four second place finishes which helped them finish in third place behind powerhouses Edinboro and Pittsburgh.
James Fleming, Hadley Harrison, Greg Lewis and Alex Thomas finished in second place.
The second place finishes by Fleming and Harrison qualified them for the NCAA D-1 Nationals which take place March 18-20 in Omaha, Neb.
Finishing in fourth place for Clarion were Nick Milano, Steven Cressley, Clint Podish and Quintas McCorkle.
Fleming, a freshman, will face off against American University’s Kyle Borshoff in the first round of the tournament.
Fleming finished the season 28-6 at 149 pounds while Borshoff finished 24-5. Harrison, a senior, finished the season 38-9 and currently has 102 wins in his Clarion wrestling career.
In the 157 pound weight class, Harrison will go against Northern Colorado’s Justin Gaethje who went 24-13.
As this match isn’t considered the first round of the tournament, the winner will be the one to move on to the first round.
With Harrison and Lewis being the only seniors on the team, the Golden Eagles will return next year with an experienced core of young wrestlers several of which started this year.
The team will be going into next season with the experience and confidence they gained from their success this year.
Because of that, this generation of Golden Eagles wrestlers could very well be the turning point for the program.
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