LANCASTER, Pa. – The Presbyterian College men's wrestling team and program director Mark Cody will embark on quite the rigorous two-day stretch to account for their first pair of events on the 2023 calendar, traversing north to Franklin & Marshall for the squad's last weekend away from Southern Conference action on the season. Approaching the campaign's halfway point, the Blue Hose will take part in their second straight triple threat on Thursday afternoon against the Diplomats and fellow visitors Brown from the Ivy League, transitioning to the hectic F&M Open at the same site less than 24 hours later.

In what will mark the first PC bout since December 21 – a Templeton Center three-way between undefeated George Mason and Duke – coach Cody and co. will stay on the mats for back-to-back series with F&M and Brown tomorrow, facing the Bears at 1:30 and the Diplomats immediately thereafter for the team's seventh and eighth duals of the season. On Friday, the Blue Hose will enter the F&M Open for the first time since the school's debut year as a competitive unit in 2019, one of 29 visitors in the crowded brackets of 500+ wrestlers.

While Presbyterian was unable to steer a victory away from either George Mason or Duke two weeks ago, the tri-meet wasn't without multiple high notes in the first of four home dates on the schedule. PC ended the affair just one match away from potentially the biggest W in the program's young history during the evening's main event with the Blue Devils, narrowly falling to the ACC representative 23-19.

A 12-0 Presbyterian run gifted the home side their first lead of the Duke dual exactly halfway through, where both units traded falls from there until the Durham guests squeezed out the result in a war of attrition. Zach Wells (174), Cordel Duhart (184), Malcolm Wiley (197), Dominic Chavez (125), and Trenton Donahue (141) all ended the high-profile match with their hands raised, with Wiley's 2:59 pin granting the sophomore a Wrestler of the Week nod from the SoCon.

Wiley, Chavez, and Duhart have been steadily climbing the totem pole as of late, adding up for 14 wins out of the last 18 matches to feature that trio. PC's underclassman-heavy lineup continues to show progress through the non-conference portion of the campaign, a sequence that will end over the next two days in the Keystone State.

The Davidson Wildcats will also be apart of Thursday's dual approach, although the Blue Hose will refrain from a rematch against their league counterpart after already having faced them on December 16 in North Carolina. The Citadel and VMI will serve as PC's next two SoCon opponents, this time in Clinton, over another tri-dual on January 22 once the F&M excursion wraps up.

Sharing a common opponent with the Blue Hose (Duke), Franklin & Marshall took a one-point loss in that neutral environment at 19-18, bouncing back for a 33-13 win in their last dual setting nearly one month ago over Ursinus. Since that point, the Diplomats have impressed in the tournament format by posting a 2^nd-place team finish at the Wilkes Open before coming in 24^th out of 45 teams at the 58^th annual Ken Kraft Midlands Championships in Chicago last weekend.

Meanwhile, Brown has primarily rode their schedule in multi-team events, having only faced off one-on-one against two nationally-ranked teams (#20 Pittsburgh and #25 Michigan State) in the first half of December. The Bears also submitted themselves in the deep pool of competitors at the Midlands Championships last Friday, coming in 26^th – two spots behind Franklin & Marshall.

A yearly tradition since 2013, the David H. Lehman F&M Open saw the Army Black Knights take the overall team prize by running away with 165 total points last season, followed in the top five by Air Force, Virginia, Navy Prep, and Lock Haven. Princeton, Harvard, Maryland, and Virginia Tech have all put together at least seven individual champions in the nine-year history of the event, the Tigers claiming the most with nine on 16 finalist entries. Friday's brackets will get started at 9:00 a.m.

Live video and stat links for both Thursday's triple threat and Friday's tournament can be found below, or at the top of this page.
 
PC vs. Brown/Franklin & Marshall Live Video - https://www.centennialconference.tv/

PC vs. Brown/Franklin & Marshall Live Stats - https://www.trackwrestling.com/tw/seasons/index.jsp?TIM=1672855836511&twSessionId=qqrlrquxzv

F&M Open Live Video - https://www.flowrestling.org/signup?
redirect=/live/47486&utm_campaign=379932franklinandmars&utm_medium=partner&utm_source=website&utm_content=website&rtid=379932&coverage_id=7976734

F&M Open Live Stats - https://arena.flowrestling.org/