The Edinboro wrestling team may have entered the 2010 Eastern Wrestling League Championships in the rare form of underdog, but somebody forgot to tell them. With an incredible run in the second and third sessions that featured 16 straight wins, Edinboro rallied for its eighth straight EWL Championship, outdistancing Pittsburgh 135.5 points to 121.5 points. Clarion came in third with 111 points.
Pittsburgh had claimed the regular season crown and came in as the favorite to unseat the Fighting Scots. The Panthers had a strong showing, including four champions, but they were no match for an Edinboro squad which finished with all ten of its wrestlers finishing in the top ten.
That included four winners and seven third place finishers. Pittsburgh’s Ryan Tomei was named the EWL Championships Outstanding Wrestler.
Edinboro was in second place after the first session, trailing the Panthers by 18.5 points. Head coach Tim Flynn has always preached that you can win championships in the consolation round, and the Fighting Scots definitely picked up steam with six straight wins.
Then came the finals, with the Fighting Scots running off wins in an incredible ten straight bouts. Torsten Gillespie (149 pounds), Jarrod King (165 pounds), Phil Moricone (174 pounds) and Pat Bradshaw (184 pounds) came away with championships.
It marked the third straight title for King at 165 pounds He was scheduled to face West Virginia’s Donnie Jones for the third straight year, only to see Jones forfeit the match.
King is Edinboro’s lone seeded wrestler. The defending national champion at 165 pounds, King is seeded second with a 35-1 record. The top seed is the wrestler he beat in last year’s finals, sophomore Andrew Howe of Wisconsin, who is 32-1. King drew Erin Civan (26-12) of Columbia in his first round match. King is making his third appearance at Nationals.
Bradshaw will make his third trip to Nationals after winning his second straight EWL title. After winning the 197 pound weight class last year, he moved down and prevailed by a 3-2 decision over Zac Thomusseit of Pittsburgh in the finals at 184 pounds. This win was despite wrestling with an injured finger on his left hand. Bradshaw faces fifth-seeded Clayton Foster (19-3) of Oklahoma State in his first national match.
Gillespie made an incredible turnaround after losing all three of his matches a year ago at 149 pounds He won a 4-0 decision over Clarion’s James Fleming, who came in ranked 15th, to join his brother Gregor as an EWL champion. Gregor won three EWL titles. Torsten Gillespie comes in with a 28-13 record and will face Dean Pavlou (22-11) of Chattanooga in a first round match.
Moricone made his return for a sixth year worthwhile. After missing over a year of competition with neck and knee injuries, he is headed for his third trip to Nationals after winning the title at 174 pounds He was a 6-1 winner over Nate Graham of Bloomsburg. He’ll oppose ninth-seeded Luke Manuel (38-4) of Purdue in his first match at nationals.
Edinboro’s four champions earned automatic berths to the NCAA Division I Wrestling Championships set for March 18-20 in Omaha, Neb. In addition, Chris Birchler’s third place finish at heavyweight earned him one of the EWL’s 19 automatic bids. He makes his second trip to Nationals after representing East Stroudsburg last year.
He faces Northern Iowa’s Christian Brantley (23-9) in the first round. Should he prevail in the bout he would likely face second-seeded Jared Rosholt (30-2) of Oklahoma State in the next round. A year ago it was Rosholt who eliminated Birchler at Nationals by a 3-1 decision in overtime.
Eric Morrill was awarded one of 50 at-large selections by the Division I Wrestling Committee.
Morrill finished third at 125 pounds at the EWL Championships, with just two automatic spots allotted to the EWL. The junior was one of four wrestlers added at 125 pounds He will be making his second appearance at Nationals after going 2-2 in 2008. He redshirted a year ago.
Morrill enters Nationals with a 31-7 record. He was ranked as high as fifth during the season before slumping late in the year and losing three straight matches before righting himself with back-to-back wins in the Championships.
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