FINAL BRACKETS & TEAM SCORES

                (Evanston, Il.): Clarion University's  James Fleming (Jr. West Mifflin) finished third at 157 and Bekzod Abdurakhmonov (Tashkent, Uzbekistan) was fourth at 165 which helped the Golden Eagles to an 11^th place team finish at the prestigious 49^th Annual Midlands Wrestling Championships.

                Held at the Welsh-Ryan Arena, Iowa won the team title with 152 points, Northwestern was second with 105.5 and Oklahoma third with 94.5 points.  Clarion totaled 47.5 points and finished 11^th in team scoring, tied with Rutgers and Central Michigan. Clarion finished ahead of American (14^th), Penn (15^th), Northern Iowa (16^th) and Wisconsin(18^th). Forty three teams participated.

                In Fleming's match for third place on Friday night, he scored a 7-5 win against #5 seed Steven Monk of North Dakota State.  He opened with a first period takedown and earned a three-point near fall with a cradle to go ahead 5-0. Monk rallied back and had the score tied 5-5 in the third when Fleming reversed in the final 40 seconds and won his match 7-5.

                Earlier in the day Fleming, seeded third, lost a tough 5-3 decision in the semifinals to #2 seed Ganbayar Sanjaa of American University. He came in the wrestle backs Friday afternoon to pin Tommy Churchard of Purdue at 1:32 to setup his third place win against Monk.

                Fleming posted a 5-1 record at the Midlands and ran his season record to 15-2. He opened the tournament with a pin at 6:56 over Iowa's Nick Moore, and a second pin at 1:17 over Brennan Cosgrove. He defeated Maryland's John Kyle 7-6 to get to the semi's.

                Abdurakhmonov, seeded 5^th, wrestled #9 seed Ben Jordan (Wisconsin) for third place and  lost a tough 3-1 deciision.  Jordan had a first period takedown, “Bek” escped in the second to make it 2-1, and Jordan escaped in the third for the 3-1 final score.

                 Bekzod posted a 3-1 record on Friday and was 4-2 overall at the Midlands. “Bek” started his day with a 10-4 win over Mike Ottinger of Central Michigan, then won an 11-3 major decision over Iowa's #8 seed Mike Evans. He continued on with a 5-3 a 5-3 win over #10 seed Bubby Graham (Oklahoma) before defeating Jordan for third place.

                Bekzod  opened the tournament with a 7-3 win over #12 seed Lorenzo Thomas of Penn and lost 6-3 in the quarterfinals to #4 seed Andrew Sorenson (Iowa State). He is 17-4 this season.

                Clarion heavyweight Quintas McCorkle (Alexandria, Va.) lost his wrestle back match to Roger Vukobratovich (Purdue) 3-1 on Friday and was eliminated. On Thursday he advanced to the quarterfinals before losing 2-0 to  #3 seed Bobby Telford of Iowa. McCorkle reached the quarterfinals with a huge 4-0 upset win over #6 seed Ernest James of Edinboro. McCorkle opened with a 5-2 win over Anthony DiLonardo of Penn. He is 16-8 this season.

                In other action Thursday at the Midlands -

                Alex Thomas (Jr. Seaford, De.) was seeded #9 at 197 and opened the Midlands with a 7-4 win over Kadeem Samuels of Lehigh, then lost to #8 seed Mario Gonzalez (Illinois) 14-9. He bounced back to pin Alan Yen of Stanford  at 2:17 and then lost by fall to #11 seed Dan Rinaldi of Rutgers at 4:40. Alex is 16-10 this year.

                Tyler Bedelyon (So. Lewistown), unseeded at 141-pounds, finished with a 3-2 record. He opened with a tough 9-7 loss to Pat Greco of Northwestern, then came back in the wrestle backs with a pin over Justin Durham of Cal Bakersfield at 1:30 and then defeated Seth Schaner (E. Michigan) 12-2. He lost late Thursday night  11-6 to  #8 Frank Goodwin of Maryland. Tyler is 10-10 this season.

                CLARION NOTES: Strong Midlands performance for Clarion the last two days (2011) … Fleming was 3^rd this year compared to his 4^th place ending last year at Midlands … Abdurakhmonov was fourth this year and did not place last year … Also competing for the Golden Eagles at Midlands with their overall performance and up to date season records were  Trey Hicks (0-2) at 125; Joe Waltko (1-2) at 133; Cameron Moran (0-2) at 149; Ryan Darch (0-2) at 174 and Steven Cressley (0-2) at 184… Updated records – Hicks (4-11); Waltko (10-9); Moran (7-11); Darch (8-11);