Wrestling Unveils 2019-2020 Schedule
10/2/2019 4:56:00 PM | Wrestling
KENT, OHIO- Golden Flashes wrestling head coach Jim Andrassy is excited to release the 2019-20 wrestling schedule.
This season, the Mid-American Conference will add seven affiliate members in: Bloomsburg, Clarion, Edinboro, Lock Haven, Rider, George Mason and Cleveland State.
"We are very excited to have 7 new members to the MAC," Coach Andrassy said. "It is awesome to be a part of at 15-team conference, that will make us the 2nd largest conference in the country!"
Among the newcomers to the MAC, Kent State will welcome in Edinboro as part of the Kent State duals to start the year. The team will head to Cleveland State for their open meet in December before hosting the Vikings in conference play and Kent State will travel to Clarion to close the regular season.
The 2019-20 season starts with the Kent State duals on November 2nd as the Golden Flashes welcome in Edinboro, Mercyhurst Northeast and Ashland. Historically, Edinboro owns a 3-2 record against Kent State but the Golden Flashes won their dual last year, besting the Fighting Scots 26-18. Kent State dominated the lone previous match-up with the Mercyhurst NE Saints, blanking them 52-0 in 2017. Ashland defeated Kent State at last years KSU Duals, winning the Golden Flashes final dual of the weekend, 21-14.
The first road meet of the season sends the Golden Flashes to the Mountaineer Invitational hosted by Appalachian State. App State has won the Southern Conference regular season each of the last four years.
Kent State returns home the following weekend to host Michigan State and Oklahoma as part of the Kent State Tri-Meet. Kent State edged Michigan State last year 18-17 and have split their two previous meetings. This will be the first meet against the Sooners who return four NCAA qualifiers to a team that finished fourth in the Big-12. The following weekend, Kent State competes in the Navy Classic and will look to improve upon their 8th out of 17 team finish last season.
December starts with the Cliff Keen Las Vegas Invitation, a 48-team, two-day event held at the Westgate Las Vegas resort. The team returns to the Buckeye State to participate in the Cleveland State Open where Andrew McNally will look to defend his title. Kent State will look to avenge a loss to Northern Illinois as they take on the Huskies in the MAC lid-lifter on December 18th. They close out the calendar year when they make the short trip from DeKalb to Madison to take on Wisconsin on the 19th, it will be the first meeting between the teams since 2013.
The conference slate gets really rolling just after the start of the new year. Kent State will host Southern Illinois-Edwardsville on January 7th, Ohio on January 17th, Missouri on the 19th and Cleveland State on February 1st. Road MAC contests have Kent State at Buffalo on January 26th, Central Michigan on February 9th, and Clarion on February 14th. The only non-conference weekend in 2020 is the Virginia Duals on January 10th and 11th.
Northern Illinois hosts the 2020 Mid-American Conference championships on March 6th and 7th while the NCAA tournament will be held in Minneapolis from March 19th – 21st.
"The coaching staff believes we have the right student athletes in place to be very successful in the MAC, we just need to learn fast and get as much experience as we can for the young members of the team to be successful," Andrassy added. "With youth, you have a lot of excitement and a lot of mistakes so it's our hope to minimize the mistakes and learn on the job at a high level!"
Kent State is coming off a 7-15 season and 1-6 in the MAC. The Golden Flashes are bringing back a pair of NCAA qualifiers in Andrew McNally at 184 and Tim Rooney at 133. McNally is coming off a 33-9 season that saw him go 16-4 in duals and 6-1 in conference. Rooney went 24-15 on the season and closed incredibly strong, going 3-1 in the MAC tournament to finish third and earn the NCAA invite.
Players Mentioned
