Red Raider Wrestling to Compete in PSAC Championships on Saturday
Jan. 27, 2005
SLIPPERY ROCK, Pa. - The Shippensburg University wrestling team, currently ranked No. 8 in NCAA Division II, will compete in the 63rd annual Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC) Wrestling Championships on Saturday at Slippery Rock University's Morrow Field House.
The action starts at 9:00 a.m., and will be held in two sessions with the second, championship session set to start at 6:00 p.m. Admission to this year's championship is $7.00 for adults and $2.00 for students per session or $12.00 for adults and $3.00 for students for an all-tournament pass.
The Red Raiders will be looking for their first PSAC champion since 1978. That year, Drew Knapf and Glenn Burkett both won individual championships at 118 and 126 pounds, respectively. Shippensburg has had just six individuals win a conference wrestling championship in its program history with Clyde Cressler (1962), Tom Harbert (1961), Armando Marano (1959) and Jack Bowser (1958) also winning titles.
In 2005, Red Raider senior Corey Jacoby (Hanover, Pa./Delone Catholic) nearly won the championship at 197 pounds, but was defeated by Chad Hoare of Bloomsburg University, 4-3 in a tiebreaker in the final match.
Red-shirt junior Jamie Thomas (Mechanicsburg, Pa./Cumberland Valley) earned a third-place finish for Shippensburg after he defeated Adam Bunting of Millersville University, 3-2.
Entering the 2006 PSAC Championships, Jacoby is seeded first at 197 while red-shirt senior Jake Lininger (Camp Hill, Pa./Lower Dauphin) is second at heavyweight. Junior Mark Murphy (Dillsburg, Pa./Northern York) comes in fourth at 184 pounds behind two-time conference champion Alex Clemsen of Edinboro University, 2005 champion Charlie Pienaar of Slippery Rock and Derrick Morgan of Lock Haven University.
Thomas is unlikely to see any action for Shippensburg at 125 due to injury.
Jacoby, the 2005 NCAA Division II champion at 197 pounds, enters this weekend with an overall record of 18-4 with five falls, two technical falls and four major decisions. He also has a 9-2 record in tournaments with a first-place finish at the East Stroudsburg Open and a fourth-place showing at the West Virginia Open.
Lininger is a definite favorite to win at heavyweight this year with a 20-2 overall record that includes a PSAC-best 10 falls. He is currently on a 10-match win streak while his win total is the tops among all conference heavyweights, eight more than Mike Spaid of Bloomsburg, last year's runner-up, who has 12. Lininger finished second at the East Stroudsburg Open earlier this season.
At 184, Murphy is 14-5 overall and is on an eight-match winning streak with his last five victories coming by fall. The reigning PSAC Wrestler of the Week, he is third in the PSAC this season with seven falls, three of which have come in a minute or less.
Other strong contenders for Shippensburg this weekend include senior Alex Renn (Sunbury, Pa./Shikellamy) at 141 pounds and red-shirt sophomore Dan Nauman (Middletown, Pa./Middletown) at 149 pounds. Renn is 9-3 this year with three falls while Nauman is on a five-match win streak with two falls and a major decision during that time.
-
Red Raider Wrestling -
