CITADEL BULLDOGS ANNOUNCE WRESTLING SCHEDULE

Posted on | September 16, 2010 | No Comments

For Immediate Release Contact: Ben Waring

Takedown Radio Audio: Rob Hjerling

http://takedownradio.com/articles/7201

September 16, 2010 (843) 953-5120

Bulldog Wrestling Releases 2010-2011 Schedule

Charleston, S.C. – The Citadel Wrestling team and Head Coach Rob Hjerling announced their 2010-2011 schedule on Thursday. Highlighting the home schedule is the annual Citadel Open to begin the season and the 17th annual All-Academy Championships at McAlister Field House in February. The Bulldogs will also host dual matches against Davidson, Campbell, UNC Greensboro and Gardner-Webb.

“Hosting the defending SoCon Tournament Champions UNC Greensboro is important for us,” said Hjerling. “Obviously that dual will be one that we focus on.”“The All-Academy Championships is an outstanding tournament at an important moment of theseason. It is the last tournament that we wrestle in before the Southern Conference Championships. We are very excited to be hosting the All-Academy Championships this year.”

The Citadel will face off in 20 duals in the upcoming season, the most since the 2000-2001 season when they also took part in 20 duals. After opening the season at home with The Citadel Open, the Bulldogs will head to the Hershey Duals to face perennial ACC powers Virginia and Virginia Tech, along with Drexel and Georgia Mason out of the CAA. UVA finished 15th last season and won the ACC Championships.

“This is a strong set of duals to open the season against two tough ACC teams and two tough CAA teams.”The following week the Bulldogs will face Indiana, who finished 24th at the NCAA Championships and Columbia in the Disney Duals. The grapplers will then trek to the Penn State Open in State College, Penn. in early December. “Indiana and Columbia are two teams that I do not believe that we have ever wrestled before. Again, we are competing against two tough conferences in the Big Ten and the EIWA. The Penn State Open is another tough tournament with the opportunity to see wrestlers that will prepare us for the Southern Conference Championships and the NCAA Championships.”

After the conference-opening dual in Charleston against Davidson in mid-December, the Cadets will take part in the annual Southern Scuffle in Greensboro, N.C. to wrap up the 2010 year. Last season, the event featured six teams that finished the season ranked in the Top 25.

“There will be several Top 15 and Top 25 teams at the Southern Scuffle. Our guys will have multiple opportunities to compete against nationally ranked wrestlers. We should have a lot of experience under our belt before we head into January.”

To open 2011, the grapplers will hit the road for a pair of duals with Appalachian State and Duke before heading to the Lone Star Duals in Arlington, Texas to face Pac-10 foe Stanford along with Northern Colorado and Utah Valley out of the Western Wrestling Conference and conclude with national power Nebraska out of the Big XII, who finished 13th at the NCAA Championships a year ago. “This is an opportunity to wrestle against four teams that we do not normally see. All four are returning some high quality wrestlers. The opportunity to wrestle Nebraska in a dual will be a great experience.”

The Bulldogs will return to Charleston for a pair of duals with Campbell and UNCG before ending January with a couple of road SoCon duals at VMI and defending regular-season champions Chattanooga. The Citadel will then host the 17th annual All-Academy Championships in early February, marking the first time the event has come to Charleston since 2005.

Ending the regular season schedule for the Bulldogs is a pair of road duals at ACC opponents, NC State and North Carolina, and completing the season by hosting Gardner-Webb at McAlister Field House. In total, the Bulldogs will face opponents from seven different major Division I conferences in the ACC, Big Ten, Big XII, CAA, EIWA, Pac-10 and WWC in addition to their normal SoCon slate.

“I am very pleased with how this schedule turned out. We are giving our wrestlers every opportunity to put themselves in position to qualify for a spot in the SoCon Tournament and for the NCAA Championships.“

The 2011 SoCon Championships will take part in Boone, N.C. on March 5 and the NCAA Championships will be in Philadelphia from March 17-20, 2011.

For more information on Bulldog Wrestling, visit the official website of The Citadel Athletics at
www.CitadelSports.com.