Jan. 31, 2004

Annapolis, MD - Juniors Keith Clifton, Sean Markey and Ryan McClester all brought home individual titles, while leading The Citadel to a second place team finish at the 10th Annual All-Academy Wrestling Championship Saturday afternoon in Alumni Hall on the campus of the U.S. Naval Academy.

The Citadel (7-2, 2-0 SoCon) scored 83 points to take second place, 24 points behind first place Navy, which won with 107 total points. The Bulldogs outdistanced Army by ten points as the Black Knights came in third, one spot behind the cadets of the Military College of South Carolina. The Citadel's second-place finish is the squad's best in the ten-year history of the All-Academy Championships. McClester, ranked 15th in the nation, won the 125-pound title after posting a perfect 3-0 record in his bracket. The Lugoff-Elgin, SC native started off the tournament with a pin over Norwich's Patrick Howard at the 1:32 mark, McClester's first of the year.

In the second round, McClester, a junior with a 29-5 season mark, used a 19-1 technical fall over Army's Andy Henry to advance to the championship round. In the finals, McClester, the number one seed at 125, downed Navy's Sam Gray 2-1 in overtime to earn the title of 125-pound All-Academy Champion. The 2004 title gives McClester back-to-back All-Academy wins, as he was also the 125-pound champ in 2003.

At 133-pounds, junior Sean Markey, seeded first, continued to tally the pin falls as he used two to advance to the championship bout, giving him a total of 20 falls on the season. The 16th ranked wrestler in the nation, Markey began his run to the title with a fall over Norwich's Johnny Walker with 55 seconds remaining in the first period.

Markey, a native of Randolph, NJ, then pinned Seth Weatherman of Air Force at the 1:37 mark to proceed to the 133-pound finals where he would meet VMI's Micah Amrozowicz. For the second time this season Markey downed Amrozowicz 6-0, but this time it was for the 133-pound All-Academy title. The two met earlier this season in the UNC Rubbermaid Open with Markey getting the upper hand pinning Amrozowicz in 1:52. Markey, who has a 28-4 record in 2004, has now won consecutive 133-pound All-Academy titles, as he was the 133 champ in 2003.

The third Bulldog to win an individual title was 174-pound junior Keith Clifton. Clifton, ranked 19th in three major polls, used two major decisions over Army's Connor Sanders and the Coast Guard's Jeremy Romesburg to move on to the title bout. Clifton, who has won 25 of 33 matches in 2004, defeated Sanders 15-3 and Romesburg 13-3. In the finals, Clifton, the Colleyville, TX native, blanked Navy's Andrew Hemminger 6-0 to win his first 174-pound All-Academy Championship.

The Citadel had three wrestlers place third in 141-pound freshman Levi Duyn, the tournament's number 3 seed, 149-pound sophomore Travis Piccard and 157-pound sophomore Dan Thompson. Duyn, the 19th ranked wrestler in the nation, defeated Army's Patrick Simpson 9-3 to earn third-place, while Piccard, the number two seed, beat the Black Knights' Anthony Dunkin 10-7 to take third. Thompson, the number three seed, defeated fellow SoCon wrestler Chris Hardy of VMI 6-3 in the consolation match.

Sophomores Mike Martinez, the number three seed at 165-pounds, and 184-pound John Dickerson added valuable team points, as the pair of second-year cadets took fourth-place in his respective weight class.

Martinez, 15-17 in 2004, advanced to the consolation round only to fall to Army's Chad Marzek 8-5, while Dickerson, a native of Eaton Rapids, MI who has posted a 11-14 mark this season, fell to the Coast Guard's Josh Boyle by pin fall at the 4:30 mark in the consolation bout.

Nick Leone, a freshman 197-pounder, surprised a few by becoming the third Bulldog to take fourth place in this year's All-Academy's. Leone, who is now 5-9 over the 2003-04 campaign, lost 11-7 in the consolation match to Silver Oghayore of Norwich.

Senior Jordan Everett (14-11) was the lone Citadel grappler to not place, but he was filling in at heavyweight for injured Bulldog Billy Linane, who did not travel to Annapolis for the championships. Everett, the 197-pound Southern Conference runner-up in 2003, went 1-2, beating Coast Gurad grappler Gavin Garcia in his last All-Academy Championship.

The Citadel wrestling team will take the next two weeks off as they prepare for SoCon rival Chattanooga. The Bulldogs will host the Mocs on February 14 at 5 pm in McAlister Field House on the campus of the Military College of South Carolina.

Final Team Standings

1. Navy, 107.0

2. Citadel, 83.0

3. Army, 73.0

4. VMI, 62.5

5. Air Force, 36.5

6. Coast Guard, 22.0

7. Norwich, 9.0

8. U.S. Merchant Marine, 3.5

Championship Bouts

125 * Ryan McClester (Citadel) dec. Sam Gray (Navy), 2-1(sv)

133 * Sean Markey (Citadel) dec. Micah Amrozowicz (VMI), 6-0

141 * Nate Gulosh (Navy) dec. David Metzler (VMI), 5-0

149 * John Cox (Navy) maj. dec. Sam Alvarenga (VMI), 20-8

157 * Phil Simpson (Army) def. Pat Lukanich (Navy), 6-2

165 * Mike Barikian (Navy) maj. dec. Blaine Brown (Air Force), 15-4

174 * Keith Clifton (Citadel) dec. Andrew Hemminger (Navy), 6-0

184 * Luke Calvert (Army) dec. Luke Lefever (Air Force), 12-6

197 * Thayer Paxton (Navy) dec. Jason Cox (VMI), 14-12(sv)

HWT * Tanner Garrett (Navy) dec. Bo Reynolds (Army), 11-5