LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Only one pit stop remains for the Presbyterian College men's wrestling squad on its road to the Southern Conference Championships to take place over the first weekend in March, finding the final outing of the 2022-23 regular season tomorrow evening in the Derby City. A 7:00 p.m. venture to Bellarmine on Thursday signals part eight of the league schedule, the lone SoCon opponent yet to lock horns with the Blue Hose before each member of the conference converges in Boone for the postseason the next week.

Still a relative newcomer to the league – having picked up their first SoCon victory in the Clinton farewell on Feb. 12 by outlasting Gardner-Webb – Presbyterian is still working out the kinks of their previous shortcomings against the Knights, falling by a single point in the two sides' last bout 12 months ago at Templeton Gymnasium, 19-18.

In fact, the Blue Hose have reached that exact point total in both prior meetings with Bellarmine, hoping to slow down a league adversary that has seen some impressive highs across a bit of a mixed bag sequence of wins/losses.

Claiming a W in four of their five appearances at Knights Hall (Bellarmine's home site), head coach Ned Shuck's crew progressed through their entire slate without a single loss outside of SoCon territory at 11-0. After taking a blowout loss to eventual conference champion Appalachian State less than a week before the Christmas holiday, the Knights embarked on a six-match win streak in dual play that bled into mid-January, battling PC tomorrow with four wins in their last six tries.

Although their previous matchup proved almost all one-sided – a 24-point deflation against Chattanooga on Friday, a team that Presbyterian came eerily close to knocking off at home – Bellarmine has proven a worthy foe with league victories over Davidson, VMI, and The Citadel, of course sprinkled in between their perfect nonconference trek.

The defeat to the Mocs five days ago denoted the Knights' least point total in a conference match (eight) since the aforementioned Appalachian State beatdown back in December in a 39-0 result, a Mountaineer squad that similarly had their way with PC in its last clash.

Needing to regroup in a big way following that lopsided decision to 20^th-ranked App., the Blue Hose and program director Mark Cody will search for a score more akin to the GW thriller on their home turf by a 19-18 clip, the exact same score earned by the Knights when they last featured against PC in the spring of '22.

In what will be the final effort for both sides before the postseason brackets are established for March 4, Presbyterian will hope to finally dispel their recent string of bad luck against Bellarmine and reach a major positive point approaching the SoCon Championships in Appalachian State's yard.

A link to both live video and statistics for tomorrow's dual can be found below, or at the top of this page.
 
PC vs. Bellarmine – Live Video: https://www.buknightssportsnetwork.com/
PC vs. Bellarmine – Live Stats: https://www.trackwrestling.com/seasons/index.jsp?TIM=1677040543940&twSessionId=uvvfiaxspi