Edinboro Tournament Notes

The Edinboro Lineup (8-11, 6-0 EWL)
 

			2015-16	Career
			Record	Record
125	Sean Russell	R-Fr.	27-7	27-7	Lawrenceville, Ga./Collins Hills
149	#16 Patricio Lugo	Fr.	29-7	29-7	Homestead, Fla./South Dade
157	#14 Austin Matthews	R-So.	10-4	10-4	Greenville, Pa./Reynolds/Clarion
165	Casey Fuller	R-Sr.	26-9	71-58	Hamlin, Pa./Western Wayne
184	#3 Vic Avery	R-Sr.	13-1	96-30	Foxboro, Mass./Foxboro
285	Billy Miller	R-Fr.	28-9	28-9	Perry, Ohio/Perry

 
RANKINGS: NCAA Seeds


NCAA DIVISION I NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS SCHEDULE

Thursday, March 17  
Session I -- 12 noon (ET)
    Pigtails & First Round Matches
Session II -- 7 p.m.
    Wrestle-Back Prelims (pigtail matches) as needed;
    Wrestle-Back First Round. Followed by Championship Round,
    Second Round and Consolation Round

Friday, March 18  
Session III -- 11 a.m.
    Quarterfinals
    Wrestle-Back Second and Third Rounds
Session IV -- 8 p.m.
    Semifinals
    Wrestle-back Fourth Round and Fifth Round

Saturday, March 19
Session V -- 11 a.m.
    Wrestle-Back Semifinals
    Third, Fifth and Seventh Place Medal Round
Session VI 
    Grand March Parade of All-Americans -- 7:35 p.m.
    Championship Finals


The Match Stories

Edinboro has enjoyed back-to-back record-setting runs the last two years at the NCAA Division I National Championships In 2014, the Fighting Scots finished fifth in the team race, the best in school history. A year ago, they bettered that by reaching the podium for the first time with a third place finish in St. Louis, along with a record-tying four All-Americans. Just like 2015, six wrestlers will head to the Big Apple to compete at the 2016 NCAA Division I Wrestling National Championships. However, three of last year's four All-Americans are gone, with Vic Avery returning in search of becoming Edinboro's fifth Division I national champion and a two-time All-American. Four of the other five Fighting Scots taking the mats at Madison Square Garden will do so for the first time at Nationals. The event runs from Thursday, March 17 to Saturday, March 19, with the ESPN network televising all sessions, including the semifinals and finals on ESPN.  ESPNU will televise the other sessions, and ESPN3 will show all sessions.  

Three of Edinboro's six wrestlers earned seeds for Nationals. Leading the way is Vic Avery, who is the number three seed at 184 lbs. after winning his third EWL crown. A year ago he was seeded 13th and would go on to finish third.  A four-time national qualifier, Avery comes in with a 13-1 record, missing over two months at the beginning of the season after undergoing preseason knee surgery.  Austin Matthews, the only other Fighting Scot to previously appear at Nationals, is seeded 14th at 157 lbs. Like Avery, Matthews did not compete until mid-January, missing over a full year following knee surgeries. He has a 10-4 record and won his second EWL championship. Matthews qualified for Nationals in 2014 while competing at Clarion. Patricio Lugo is the third seeded Fighting Scot. The true freshman comes in with a 29-7 record after finishing third at EWL's, and is seeded 16th at 149 lbs.

Like Lugo, Edinboro's other three national qualifiers earned their first trip to Nationals. Redshirt senior Casey Fuller qualified thanks to a second place finish at 165 lbs. at the EWL Championships. He has a 26-9 record. Redshirt freshmen Sean Russell won the 125 lb. EWL championship and owns a 
27-7 record. Heavyweight Billy Miller was second at EWL's and has a 28-9 ledger. 

Edinboro had three EWL champions while finishing second at the recent 2016 EWL Championships. It snapped a string of back-to-back EWL titles, but the Fighting Scots have won 14 EWL championships in head coach Tim Flynn's 19 seasons. Vic Avery became a three-time champion at 184 lbs., Austin Matthews won his second title at 157 lbs., and Sean Russell won his first crown at 125 lbs.  Casey Fuller was second at 165 lbs. and Billy Miller the runner-up at heavyweight.

Edinboro finished the dual match season with a deceiving 8-11 record. Eight of the losses came against nationally-ranked teams, with a ninth coming against a Pittsburgh team that was in-and-out of the USA Today/NWCA Coaches Poll. The Fighting Scots finished with a perfect 6-0 record in EWL duals to extend their winning streak in EWL duals to 17 straight matches.    

While no longer competing for the Fighting Scots, Mitchell Port will once be in the corner at Nationals. The three-time All-American at 141 lbs. is in his first season as an assistant coach for Tim Flynn.

With a lineup featuring four true freshmen and three redshirt freshmen, it was anticipated that Edinboro would see its string of four straight PSAC championships come to an end. But someone forgot to tell the Fighting Scots. Six wrestlers reached the finals on December 5, with all six coming away with titles, and a total of eight Fighting Scots placed. It all added up to a fifth straight championship for the Scots, who finished with 136.5 points to outdistance Lock Haven, who finished second with 118 points, in the 12-team field. A trio of seniors led the way. Casey Fuller won his second straight title at 165 lbs., while Vince Pickett was doing the same at 197 lbs. Patrick Jennings won his first championship at 174 lbs. The freshmen did their part, as well. Redshirt freshmen Sean Russell and Billy Miller finished first at 125 and 285 lbs., respectively, while true freshman Patricio Lugo took home the crown at 149 lbs. Freshman Spencer Nagy added a third place finish at 157 lbs., with fellow freshman Nate Hagan fourth at 141 lbs.     

HEAD COACH
EDINBORO -- Tim Flynn (Penn State '86) is wrapping up his 19th season as the helm of the Fighting Scots.  He has elevated the Edinboro program to one of the best in the country, compiling a 206-84-5 record.  Edinboro has had 13 top-20 finishes and five in the top ten at the NCAA Division I National Championships during his tenure.  That includes the two best finishes in school history the last two years. The Fighting Scots made the podium for the first time at Nationals with a third place showing a year ago, and in 2014 they were fifth. He has produced three national champions and 37 All-Americans.  All told, Flynn has been named the EWL Coach of the Year seven times and the PSAC Coach of the Year 13 times. Two years ago, Flynn captured nearly every Coach of the Year award, including being named the NWCA NCAA Division I Coach of the Year, WIN's Dan Gable Coach of the Year, and was InterMat's Co-Coach of the Year along with Minnesota's J Robinson.

FLYNN COMMENTS ON THE NCAA's: "Our first goal is always to reach individual goals. For some, it's get to the stand, be a national champion. That's always our first and favorite goal."

AVERY SEEKS TO BECOME TWO-TIME ALL-AMERICAN, FIFTH DIVISION I NATIONAL CHAMPION 
A year ago, Vic Avery made his third trip to Nationals as the 13th seed at 184 lbs. He proceeded to upset four higher seeds on his way to a third place finish and All-American honors for the first time. After a 3-0 decision over Nikko Reyes of Illinois in his opening match,  he defeated returning All-American and No. 4 seed Jack Dechow of Old Dominion in the second round, 3-3 in two tiebreakers with riding time the deciding factor. In the quarterfinals, he won a 14-5 major decision over fifth-seeded Taylor Meeks of Oregon State. Avery faced top-seeded Gabe Dean of Cornell in the semifinals, again going to two tiebreakers tied at 3-3, with riding time again proving the difference in favor of Dean, who would win the national championship. He came back to win two more upsets to capture third place, a 4-2 decision over No. 6 seed Hayden Zillmer of North Dakota State, and a 3-2 decision over Arizona State's Blake Stauffer, the number three seed, in the third place match. Avery is seeking to become Edinboro's fifth Division I national champion, joining Sean O'Day, Josh Koscheck, Gregor Gillespie, and Jarrod King.

THREE FIGHTING SCOTS SEEDED AT NATIONALS 
Three of Edinboro's contingent of six wrestlers at Nationals are seeded. Vic Avery, who finished third at 184 lbs. to earn All-American honors for the first time, makes his fourth trip to Nationals as the third seed. The redshirt senior comes in with a 13-1 record after missing the first half of the season following preseason knee surgery, and will face Buffalo's Joe Ariola (13-15) in the first round. Avery was seeded 13th a year ago. He comes in with a 96-30 career record. Austin Matthews is the only other wrestler to previously compete at Nationals. Matthews drew the 14th seed at 157 lbs. and will face May Bethea of Penn, who is 22-14. The redshirt sophomore is 10-4 after missing over a year following knee surgeries. As a freshman in 2014, he went 1-2 at Nationals while competing for Clarion. Edinboro's other four qualifiers are all making their first appearance at the national championships. True freshman Patrico Lugo brings a 29-7 record into Nationals an received the 16th seed at 149 lbs. He will face Tyson Dippery of Rutgers (18-13) in the first round, with a potential second-round matchup against top-seed Zane Retherford of Penn State (29-0) looming. Redshirt senior Casey Fuller drew the toughest first-round matchup for the Fighting Scots, as he will meet Daniel Lewis of Missouri, the fourth seed. Fuller has a 26-9 record while Lewis is 25-4. Edinboro's other two qualifiers also drew seeded wrestlers. Sean Russell, a redshirt freshman with a 27-7 record, will face 12th-seed Paul Petrov of Bucknell (31-5) in his initial match at 125 lbs.