Wrestling | 1/25/2018 10:08:00 AM
LAKELAND, Fla.—The Fire wrestling team is in the Commonwealth of Kentucky for three of its final four duals of the 2017-18 season.
Over the next two days, SEU will face three teams that are ranked in the Top 12 in their respective divisions.
Thursday night, the Fire face NAIA No. 12 Campbellsville, a team that battled back to finish 10
th of 35 squads at the annual Missouri Valley Invite. Charles Sharon highlights the Campbellsville lineup, ranked second at 184. The Fire will counter with either No. 13 Chris Williams (10-5) or No. 17
Jason Davis (12-4). Since the start of 2018, Davis is 5-1, having seen matches at both 184 and 197.
The two Mid-South squads have five common opponents, with the lone difference in result being an SEU win over Embry-Riddle (Ariz.), and Campbellsville suffering a 22-15 loss, dropping five of the last seven matches of the day.
Friday's dual doubleheader will be a difficult grind as the Fire head to Columbia to face ninth-ranked Lindsey Wilson and NJCAA No. 3 Ellsworth College of Iowa.
The Blue Raiders finished fourth in the 35-team field at Missouri Valley, with Cam Tessari and Diorian Coleman winning the 157-pound and 165-pound brackets, respectively. Tessari is the top-ranked 157-pounder in the NAIA, and Coleman is ranked fourth.
At those two eights, the Fire will likely have
Evyn Insalaco, ranked 19
th at 157 with a record of 14-6, and
Matthew Cates, who has won six of his last seven matches, and is the team leader in win percentage (.789) among those with 15 or more matches this year.
Both LWC and SEU have wrestled Life, Grand View, and Embry-Riddle. Both teams went 1-2 against that group with the Fire scoring a win against Embry-Riddle and the Blue Raiders downing Life.
Ellsworth College is among the elite programs at the junior college level, with three wrestlers ranked in the top two. Steven Lawrence (157) and Tim Young (197) are ranked first, with Justin Foley (133) ranked second.
The Fire will return home to conclude the regular season on February 1
st, facing Brewton Parker College.
