Edinboro Match Notes
 
PROBABLE LINEUPS

Edinboro Fighting Scots (3-1, 0-0 EWL)
125 - Kory Mines (8-2, 63-49)  (R-Sr., 5-1, Bedford, Ohio/Maple Heights)
133 -  #1/#1 A.J. Schopp (4-0,111-14) (R-Sr., 0-0,Tyrone, Pa./Tyrone Area)
141 - #2/#2 Mitchell Port (9-0, 105-15) (R-Sr., 5-0, Bellefonte, Pa./Bellefonte Area)
149 - #4/#5 Dave Habat (8-0, 106-24) (R-Sr., 5-0, Parma, Ohio/St. Ignatius)
157 - Kasey Burnett-Davis (5-4, 57-41) (R-Sr., Meadville, Pa./Meadville)
165 - Casey Fuller (6-4,35-36) (R-Jr., 5-1, Hamlin, Pa./Western Wayne)
174 - Zach Towers (3-1, 11-8) (R-So., Meadville, Pa./Meadville)
184 - #13/#12 Vic Avery (7-1, 56-23) (R-Jr., 4-0, Foxboro, Mass./Foxboro)
197 - Vince Pickett (6-4, 49-30) (Jr., 5-1, Galloway, Ohio/Central Crossing)
Hwt. - Warren Bosch (2-4, 18-25) (R-Jr., 1-2, Kings Park, N.Y./Kings Park)
        

HEAD COACH: Tim Flynn (Penn State '87, 187-69-5, 17th year) 
Rankings: InterMat/Amateur Wrestling News

Cleveland State Vikings (1-0, 0-0 EWL)
125 - NR/#19 Ben Willeford (13-3) (R-Sr., Baton Rouge, La./St. Michael the Archangel)
133 - Dan King (14-5) (Jr., Harrisburg, Pa./Susquehanna Twp.)
141 - Mike Carlone (3-2) (R-Jr., Mayfield, Ohio/Mayfield)
149 - Nick Montgomery (1-0) (So., Madison, Ohio/Madison)
157 - Chas Busz (4-7) (Jr., South Whitley, Ind./Whitko)
        Latrell Davis (5-2), (So., Middletown, Ohio/Middletown)
165 - Matt Donohoe (14-7) (R-Sr., Tynsboro, Mass./Tyngsboro)
174 - Gabe Stark (3-3) (So., Warren, Ohio/Howland)
184 - Xavier Dye (5-4) (R-Jr., McClure, Ohio/Patrick Henry)
197 - Kanez Omar (4-6) (Fr., Fort Wayne, Ind./Wayne)
Hwt. #20/#14 Riley Shaw (13-2) (Jr., Washington, Ohio/Washington)


THE MATCH STORIES
• Edinboro returns to action after a layoff of nearly three weeks with its first Eastern Wrestling League match of the 2014-15 season. The Fighting Scots look for a tenth straight win over Cleveland State. Edinboro comes in with a 3-1 record. Ranked 13th in the latest USA Today/NWCA Division I Coaches Poll, the Fighting Scots opened the year with a 25-13 loss to then-14th-ranked Pittsburgh. In their most recent action on November 15, the Fighting Scots swept three opponents in impressive fashion in the EMU Duals. Edinboro defeated Central Michigan 30-3, Northern Illinois 40-3, and wrapped up the day with a 23-16 upset of eighth-ranked Michigan. The Fighting Scots are ranked fifth in the latest InterMat Tournament Rankings.

• The Fighting Scots face a hectic schedule before taking a few days off to enjoy the holiday season. Following Thursday's EWL opener against Cleveland State, Edinboro will look to win its fourth straight PSAC championship two days later on Saturday, December 6. Final exams follow next week, with the week ending with an EWL home match against Clarion on Saturday, December 13. Edinboro will look for a couple early Christmas presents with wins over Cornell and Lehigh in the Grapple at the Garden on Sunday, December 21.

• Edinboro comes off the finest season in school history. The 2013-14 Fighting Scots finished with an 11-3 record, winning the EWL and PSAC Championships. Seven national qualifiers then combined to help Edinboro finish fifth at the NCAA Division I National Championships, the highest finish in school history. Three Fighting Scots earned All-American honors -- A.J. Schopp (133 lbs.) and Mitchell Port (141 lbs.) for the second time and Dave Habat (149 lbs.) for the first time. Port placed third with Schopp and Habat coming in fourth.

• Cleveland State has a 1-0 record after defeating John Carroll 39-9 on November 26. The Vikings have also turned in solid showings while competing in the Clarion Open, Binghamton Open, and Navy Classic. CSU has two wrestlers showing up in the national rankings. Heavyweight Riley Shaw ranks as high as 14th according to Flowrestling and is ranked 20th by InterMat. Ben Willeford is ranked 19th by Flowrestling at 125 lbs.

• Edinboro's lineup features five returning national qualifiers, along with a sixth in Clarion transfer Austin Matthews. Leading the way are All-Americans Mitchell Port, A.J. Schopp, and Dave Habat. Port earned All-American honors for the second time at 141 lbs. with a third place finish, while Schopp is also a two-time All-American after coming in fourth last year at 133 lbs. Habat earned his first All- American certificate with a fourth place finish at 149 lbs. Kory Mines made his first appearance at Nationals last year at 125 lbs. Matthews earned a trip to Nationals for the first time while wrestling at Clarion. He competed at 157 lbs.

• In addition, Edinboro's lineup has seven nationally-ranked wrestlers, including the WrestlingReport.com rankings which ranks 33 wrestlers per weight class. Five Fighting Scots are ranked in the top ten of their respective weight classes. A.J. Schopp is the consensus number one at 133 lbs., while Mitchell Port is second at 141 lbs. Dave Habat is ranked as high as fourth at 149 lbs. Newcomer Austin Matthews, a transfer from Clarion, is ranked as high as fourth by TheOpenMat.com at 157 lbs. Vic Avery is also a top-ten wrestler, ranked as high as ninth by WIN and The Open Mat.com. Kory Mines fell out of most of the rankings after his setback against Pitt, but the redshirt senior has now climbed back in in two polls. He is ranked 20th at 125 lbs. by Amateur Wrestling News and 22nd by WrestlingReport.com. Vince Pickett is ranked 29th at 197 lbs. by WrestlingReport.com.

• Head coach Tim Flynn has always liked to challenge his squad, and this year is no exception. The Pittsburgh match is the first of a very difficult dual schedule for the Fighting Scots. Using the USA Today/NWCA Division I Coaches Poll, Edinboro will face six teams in the top 25, including two of the top seven squads. Edinboro already faced Pittsburgh, with the Panthers currently ranked 11th. On November 15 the Fighting Scots competed in the EWL Duals and upset a Michigan team that was eighth at the time and now ranked 16th. The Grapple at the Garden on December 21 finds the Scots facing a grueling day. They wrestle third-ranked Cornell in their first match, then meet tenth-ranked Lehigh. Ohio State, currently ranked seventh, will visit McComb Fieldhouse for a first round match in the NWCA Cliff Keen National Duals on February 15. 22nd-ranked Rider is also still ahead on the schedule. In addition, Edinboro will once again compete in the 2015 Virginia Duals. The field has yet to be announced but it always features several nationally-ranked squads. Throw in matches against Kent State, Central Michigan, Northern Illinois, and West Virginia, plus the other four EWL opponents, and the Scots will be battle-tested by March.

THE CLEVELAND STATE SERIES
EDINBORO LEADS 23-8
The Fighting Scots have won the last nine meetings with the Vikings, including a 39-4 triumph a year ago at CSU's Woodling Gymnasium. The last Cleveland State win occurred in 2004-05 when the Vikings prevailed 22-20. Since then Edinboro has won by an average of 29 points.

THE COACHES
EDINBORO -- Tim Flynn (Penn State '86) is in his 18th season as the helm of the Fighting Scots. He has elevated the Edinboro program to one of the best in the country, compiling a 187-69-5 record. Edinboro has had 12 top-20 finishes and four in the top ten at the NCAA Division I National Championships during his tenure. He has produced three national champions and 33 All-Americans. All told, Flynn has been named the EWL Coach of the Year six times and the PSAC Coach of the Year 12 times. last year Flynn captured nearly every Coach of the Year award, including being named the NWCA NCAA Division I Coach of the Year, WIN's Dan Gable Coach of the Year, and was InterMat's Co-Coach of the Year along with Minnesota's J Robinson.

CLEVELAND STATE -- Ben Stehura (Lock Haven '00) is in his seventh season as the head coach of the Vikings after serving five years as the Limestone College head coach. Stehura joined CSU in 2008 after building a successful program at Limestone in Gaffney, S.C. The first head coach in Limestone's history, Stehura took the team from three wins his first year to 13 in 2007-2008.

SCOUTING CLEVELAND STATE
Head coach Ben Stehura is rebuilding the Vikings program and has several dangerous pieces in place. Cleveland State has four wrestlers with ten-or-more wins already, and also have two wrestlers ranked by InterMat for the first time since November 2005. Heavyweight Riley Shaw is ranked 20th by InterMat and as high as 14th by Flowrestling. He comes in with a 13-2 record and has twice defeated nationally-ranked Joe Stolfi of Bucknell. The junior has earned trips to the NCAA Division I National Championships each of his first two years after finishing third at the EWL Championships both years. Riley, a former two-time Ohio state champion, finished first at the Clarion Open, was second at the Navy Classic, and third at the Binghamton Open. Redshirt senior Ben Willeford is ranked 19th by