Robby Bell’s 12-03-02 Update On College Wrestling Involving SC Participants

 

The past two weeks former South Carolina stars have been busy on the college wrestling scene as well as our two colleges that still fund college teams. Anderson College was busy two weekends ago in Norfolk, VA at the Old Domininon Invitational. The Trojans finished the weekend led by former Dutch Fork High School stars Clyde Pollock (2nd @ 125) and Careef Robertson (2nd @ 174). Pollock was defeated in the finals by Adam Bessinger, 2001 State Champ from Battery Creek High School. Bessinger beat Pollock 6-3. Brent Poynter also placed 3rd at 165. This past Thanksgiving weekend the Trojans competed in the UNC Open in Chapel Hill, NC. Led once again by Careef Robertson (3-2 @ 174) and Clyde Pollock (2-2 @ 125), Anderson College looks to bright futures from its young team. Also on the weekend Steve Valponi was 0-1, and Brent Poynter was 0-2. Tough first rounds for the Trojans when Clyde Pollock was defeated by the UNC-P wrestler who placed, as well as Robertson drawing 2002 Returning All American from Appalachian State Mark Fee.

Next up competing in some top competition the last two weeks was none other than The Citadel competing and placing 6th out of 8 teams at the Navy Classic. The Bulldogs placed behind nationally ranked teams from West Virginia, Kent State, Navy, North Carolina State and Rutgers. (as of 11-26-02 only West Virginia was ranked nationally 8th and North Carolina State is Honorable Mention, however Kent State and Rutgers are usually in the top 30 teams in the nation) The Bulldogs were led by Sean Markey, who won the tournament at 133, as the lone finalist for the Bulldogs. South Carolina natives competed in the tournament with good showings from Ryan McClester (5th @ 125), Vince Bartges (1-2 @ 149), John Bohren (4th at 184) and Troy Bartges (1-2 @ 197). The Bulldogs also competed along side with Anderson at the UNC Open in Chapel Hill. The Bulldogs were led once again by Sean Markey losing in the finals to Evan Sola of UNC 7-0. However the big win of the day was Markey over former South Carolina Star and nationally ranked Travis Drake of Appalachian State. Markey stayed on the offensive shooting Drake off the mat and came out with the big win in the Quarterfinals. The Citadel also had another runner-up at 174, Keith Clifton lost to Mark Fee of Appalachian, a 2002 NCAA Division I AA. The Citadel boasted a large amount of South Carolinian Natives this past weekend that included Vince Bartges (0-1 @ 149), Braxton Harrison (0-1 @ 157) both of whom medical forfeited out of the tournament as well as Troy Bartges and John Bohern who were 1-2 at 197 and 184. Derek Neitz (149) and Marua Bria (133) rounded out The Citadel lineup having tough freshmen campaigns going 0-1 and 0-2 in the tournament.

Other wrestlers on the college scene competing these past few weekends were none other than Travis Drake of Appalachian competing in his first competition of the year. Travis coming in was ranked 15th at 133 by Intermatwrestle.com. Travis was 2-2 in the tournament finishing in 5th place. Also former Rock Hill High School champ Terrance Thompson was 2-2 at 125.


From UNC Ryan Adams was competing at Heavyweight and finished 4-1 on the day with a 3rd place finish. Ryan lost in the semis 4-2 in OT to Josh Etu of Virginia who was a 2002 NCAA qualifier.
And last but not least Rubuen Daniels former state champ from Summerville now wrestling at Edinboro University was 5-1 in the tournament placing 5th.

Look for The Citadel to be in Action this weekend at the Army Quad with Army, American University, and Franklin & Marshall.