Wrestling: WVU Travels to Midlands Classic
December 28, 2006 05:08 PM | General
December 28, 2006
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. - The No. 25-ranked West Virginia University wrestling team travels to Northwestern’s Welsh-Ryan Arena in Chicago, Ill., to compete at the 44th annual Midlands Wrestling Championships Dec. 29-30.
Friday’s action includes two sessions of wrestling with the first beginning at 9:30 a.m. and the second starting at 7 p.m. Saturday features the third session beginning at noon and the championship finals following at 7:30 p.m.
The Mountaineers will be looking to improve on a 17th-place finish at last year’s event. A near-full lineup should help Coach Craig Turnbull’s team in that endeavor as eight wrestlers are slated to compete this weekend compared to just three a year ago. Those include: Kyle Turnbull (125), Mark Anderson (133), Vince Gioella (133), David Jauregui (149), Joe Clutter (165), Kurt Brenner (174), Chance Litton (184) and Jared Villers (197).
WVU enters the tournament with six grapplers earning a top eight seed. Jauregui comes in as the team’s highest seed at No. 3, while Rader, Brenner and Villers all come in seeded sixth. 157-pounder Zac Fryling (sixth) and heavyweight Dustin Rogers (eighth) both earned seeds as well, however, neither will wrestle this weekend due to injury.
West Virginia is coming off of a 13-day layoff from its last competition when it defeated Duquesne, 37-7, in its opening dual meet of the season on Dec. 15.
Last year 60 teams competed in the highly competitive tournament with Illinois claiming first-place.
