Skip to navigation Skip to content Skip to footer
Cleveland State University

The Official Home of the Cleveland State University Vikings

Cleveland State Ready to Scuffle to Start 2018

Cleveland State Ready to Scuffle to Start 2018
Posted: Dec 31, 2017

Live Video ($) | Live Results | Entries by Team | Entries by Weight | Pre-Seeds | Full Schedule

CLEVELAND, Ohio - The Cleveland State University wrestling team will hit the road to open the New Year, as the Vikings participate in their most prestigious in-season event of the campaign.

CSU will compete at the Southern Scuffle, presented by Compound Sportswear and hosted by the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. The two-day event begins Monday, Jan. 1, at 10:00 a.m. FloWrestling ($) will provide live video of the event while live results will be available on FloArena. Links to both of those along with lists of entries, pre-seeds and a schedule of events, are available at the top of this article.

Twenty three Division I schools are expected to send their teams, including reigning national champion Penn State and perennial power Oklahoma State. Six schools—Lehigh, Northern Iowa, OSU, PSU, Virginia and Virginia Tech—that placed among the top 20 at last year's NCAA Championships are expected to send their teams. Eight schools ranked in Intermat's most recent top 25 tournament rankings are sending their teams.

The loaded field includes 20 All-Americans that are scheduled to compete, including seven NCAA champions. Sixty one athletes ranked in the top 20 at their weight class are slated to participate, 32 of which are situated within the top 10.

Thirteen Vikings have been entered into the event: redshirt freshman Cameron Lathem (125), redshirt senior John Martin (125), junior Evan Cheek (141), junior Sam Matzek (141), redshirt freshman Ryan Ford (149), redshirt sophomore Ryan Montgomery (157), junior John Vaughn (157), true freshman Georgio Poullas (165), redshirt senior Gabe Stark (174), redshirt sophomore Caleb Stockmaster (174), redshirt senior Nick Corba (184), true freshman John Kelbly (197) and sophomore Collin Kelly (285).

Corba, who earned the No. 7 seed for the event, continues to be ranked by multiple outlets at his weight class. He owns a team-leading 16 wins on the season and is 15-3 in matches that have not ended via forfeit. He also tops the squad in pins (5) and bonus-point wins (9). Corba won each of his first two matches via pin last time out at the Cleveland State Open before a medical issue forced him from the event.

Stockmaster and Stark have also hit the double-digit wins mark this season. Stockmaster is 11-5 in open events this season while Stark owns five bonus-point wins among his 10 victories.

This is the 15th consecutive season that the Southern Scuffle has been contested although the event was originally held in Greensboro, N.C. This is the seventh consecutive season that Cleveland State has traveled to the event, as it has competed every year since the event moved to the Volunteer State.

The Vikings have placed at least one wrestler in each of the last three iterations of the event, with Nick Montgomery being the only unseeded athlete to place at 149 pounds last season. Five current Vikings—Cheek, Corba, Martin, Stark and Vaughn—own wins at the Scuffle in their careers.