BUIES CREEK, N.C. - After closing out the regular season Feb. 22
with a loss to UNC Greensboro, Campbell will travel to Liberty for
Sunday's NCAA East Regional Championship, which is slated for a
2:30 p.m. start at the Vines Center.
Campbell will square off with Liberty, Sacred Heart, Millersville,
and Gardner-Webb in the tournament.
Ten individual automatic-qualifying bids to the NCAA Championships
at stake - the champion of each weight class will participate in
the NCAA Championships in Philadelphia on March 17-19.
Campbell concluded its 2010-11 regular with a 4-18 record. Senior
Parker Burns leads the squad with 15 wins overall at heavyweight,
and has tallied four pins. Burns, a native of Everett, Wash., won
the individual crown at 197 pounds last year to become Campbell's
first NCAA qualifier since 2002.
Campbell dropped duals with Liberty, Gardner-Webb, and Millersville
earlier this year, and defeated Sacred Heart 33-9.
Gardner-Webb finished the campaign 6-15-1 in duals. Alex Medved
(157 pounds) leads the Runnin' Bulldogs with 26 wins this year.
Richie Spicel (141) has 21 wins and Travis Porter (197) has 22
victories on the season.
GWU has finished second in the team competition three of the last
four years.
Liberty (14-7) has won the East Regional team title each of the
last four years and has claimed 20 of the 40 individual NCAA bids.
Chad Porter (165) has 19 wins and eight by fall this year for the
Flames. Robert Jillard (125) has 18 victories and TJ Mitchell
(133) has 17 wins for LU.
Millersville went 2-10 in dual competition in the 2010-11
campaign. Shane Smith (174) led the Marauders with 26 wins, 18 by
fall. The Marauders's Brandon Bernalli has 13 wins at 165
pounds.
Sacred Heart (1-17) is competing in the East Regional for the first
time after competing in the Colonial Athletic Association in
previous years. Anthony Priore (157) has 14 wins, and Jon
Rizzitello (165) has 13 victories.
Teams will weigh in at 12:30 on Sunday before the first round of
competition starts at 2:30. The championship round will start at
6:30.
