Jan. 18, 2003
Charleston, SC -
The Citadel wrestling team came up short, as a balanced Appalachian team was able to pull out the close matches that gave the Mountaineers the advantage. Many matches were predicted to go either way and many of them did in this premier Southern Conference wrestling match-up.
Appalachian (3-0, 2-0 SoCon) struck first by taking the first two matches, both by decision to jump ahead 6-0. The Citadel's Sean Markey had beat ASU's SoCon Champion Travis Drake earlier in the season, but came up short on Friday night. The Citadel (7-2, 0-1 SoCon) struck back starting with Mike Martinez earning a 6-4 decision over Mountaineer Jason Jones at 141 and Dan Thompson's pin at 1:46 over Appalachian's Carl Elliott at 149. The Citadel would then go up 13-6 with Travis Piccard's 14-4 major decision over Dominic Buckman at 157.
Appalachian All-American performer Mark Fee knotted the match at 13 with his 14-4 major decision over Keith Clifton at 174. Sean McIntosh put ASU ahead to stay with his 6-2 win over John Bohren at 184. McIntosh scored a near-fall to break open a 3-1 match late in the second period to bolt ahead 5-1.
The Citadel will turn their focus to Anderson. The Bulldog grapplers wrestle Anderson at Dutch Fork High School in Irmo, SC on January 22 at 6 p.m. The next conference action will take place at Davidson January 25 and the next home event will be VMI on February 15 at 4:30 p.m.
Appalachian 20, The Citadel 17
125 Ryan Caisse (ASU) dec. Ryan McClester (Citadel), 3-0
133 Travis Drake (ASU) dec. Sean Markey (Citadel), 9-5
141 Mike Martinez (Citadel) dec. Jason Jones (ASU), 6-4
149 Dan Thompson (Citadel) wbf Carl Elliott (ASU), 1:46
157 Travis Piccard (Citadel) maj. dec. Dominic Buckman (ASU), 14-5
165 Lee Roper (ASU) dec. James Rose (Citadel), 9-3
174 Mark Fee (ASU) maj. dec. Keith Clifton (Citadel), 14-4
184 Sean McIntosh (ASU) dec. John Bohren (Citadel), 6-2
197 John Carroll (ASU) maj. dec. Jordan Everett (Citadel) 10-2
HWT Billy Linane (Citadel) maj. dec. David Hazel (ASU), 10-2
