original date 12/18
Edinboro wrestles today at the Reno Tournament of Champions.
It could be the Scots’ last competition this season without Paul Donahoe.
Donahoe, a former NCAA champion at Nebraska, is expected to join the team for the Southern Scuffle in Greensboro, N.C., on Dec. 29-30, coach Tim Flynn said Wednesday.
Flynn said Donahoe has been reinstated by the NCAA after he was dismissed by the Cornhuskers for posing nude on an Internet site. He sat out the fall semester while regaining his eligibility.
Donahoe won the 125-pound national title in 2007 and was third last year.
“Whenever you get a guy who every dual meet you feel like he can get you bonus points and every tournament you feel like he can get to the finals, that’s a pretty good feeling, “Flynn said by phone from Reno, Nev., where Edinboro competes in a 27-team field today.
“It’s good for the team because they will be able to see how hard he competes. He does the right things, from training to warm-ups to competing on the mat.”
Donahoe will compete at 125 pounds, where junior Kyle Fluke has gone 8-7 as a first-time starter. Fluke is coming off a 6-2 decision over Ohio State’s 16th-ranked Nikko Triggas on Sunday.
The No. 17 Scots are among three ranked teams entered at Reno, along with No. 13 Oklahoma State, last year’s tournament runner-up, and No. 14 Boise State.
That makes Edinboro one of the favorites for the team title, but the Scots will be without eighth-ranked heavyweight Joe Fendone, who didn’t make the trip.
“He wasn’t feeling well when we got to the airport in Cleveland, “Flynn said. “So we sent him back home.”
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