BALTIMORE, Md. (Jan. 31, 2024) -- The grueling January schedule continues for the Morgan State wrestling team this weekend as it travels to the Nation's Capital for a pair of duals against American and Drexel inside Bender Arena. The Bears and Dragons dual is set for Sunday, Feb. 4th at 11 a.m. (EST), while American and Morgan will meet at 3 p.m. (EST).
Morgan's duals at American will be streamed live on ESPN+ - here.
SCOUTING DREXEL
• Matt Azevedo, the Mert and Joanne Hill Head Coach of Wrestling, is in his 13th season as head coach of Drexel Wrestling after joining the Dragons in April 2011 following successful coaching stints at Cornell and Cal Poly. Azevedo has led the program's resurgence and ushered in a new era of Drexel Wrestling in the EIWA. The 2020 inductee into the California Wrestling Hall of Fame is the eighth head coach in the school's history and replaced Jack Childs, who retired after 35 seasons at Drexel.
• Desmond Pleasant, Dom Findora and Tyler Williams won their bouts but the Dragons fell to Bucknell, 24-10 last Sunday afternoon in the DAC. Drexel dropped to 1-3 in the EIWA.
• Sophomore standout Jordan Soriano recorded two wins at 141 pounds in duals this week to lead the Drexel wrestling team to its first EIWA victory of the year. The sophomore was one of six Dragons that won their individual matches as the Dragons defeated Princeton, 20-15 on Jan. 19. The Westbury, NY native is now 12-5 overall and 8-0 in duals.
• Desmond Pleasant claimed an 8th place spot on the podium to lead the Dragons at the Southern Scuffle on the first two days of the new year. The redshirt sophomore from Piscataway (N.J.) is currently 11-13 overall and is 3-6 in duals. His two brothers, Damon and Deon, are also members of the Dragons squad.
SCOUTING AMERICAN
• American is 5-10 on the season following a 36-6 home victory on Jan. 18th versus Virginia. Wrestling down at his new weight class of 149 pounds, Jack Nies got a win for the Eagles, as did Lucas White who wrestled up a weight class at 184 pounds.
The Eagles are looking to get back in the win column after dropping seven of their last eight duals. American's last win was a 36-8 victory at CSU Bakersfield on Jan. 14.
• Three Eagles earned spots in the first release of NCAA Coaches' Rankings announced on January 22. Junior Jack Maida (12-1) is 26th at 125 pounds, junior Maximilian Leete (11-6) is 31st at 133 pounds, and grad student Will Jarrell (12-9) is 33rd at heavyweight.
• American is coming off a historic turnaround season in which the Eagles finished 8-12 in dual meets in 2022-23 and racked up seven more wins than in a 1-12 finish the year before.
• The Eagles have four captains in 2023-24. Jarrell is serving in the role for third year in a row, graduate student Connor Bourne is a captain for a second straight year, and AU has two new captains in Maida and redshirt junior Jack Nies.
NOTABLES
• Leading the return of NCAA Division I, Varsity-level men's wrestling to Maryland's largest Historically Black College or University (HBCU), Morgan State University announced the hiring of Kenny Monday as the Athletics Department's new men's wrestling coach, effective Aug. 24, 2022. Monday, the first Black wrestler in history to win an Olympic gold medal, is a National Wrestling Hall of Fame inductee, three-time Olympian and former NCAA All-American standout, who brings a championship-level coaching pedigree and an expansive yet impressive resume to a Bears' wrestling program looking to restart after a 25-year hiatus. Monday comes to Morgan after serving as the director of wrestling and head wrestling coach at Spire Academy, since 2021.
• Morgan was wrestling in its first competition in 25 years after the program was reinstated this season to make it the only HBCU with a Division I wrestling program.
• In October 2021, the University announced its plans to revive the men's wrestling program at Morgan with the support a $2.7-million gift from HBCU Wrestling (HBCUW), a new initiative reestablishing wrestling programs on HBCU campuses. The gift, which is among the largest received from a private donor to the University, provides funding for the program and supports up to nine full scholarships annually.
• Senior 165-pounder Jacob Marsh and freshman 174-pounder Cortilius Vann etched their names in program history as they both earned huge wins on December 10, 2023 when the Bears hosted No. 22 Maryland. The competition marked just the third dual match in over 25 years hosted by Morgan.
• Jacob Marsh, a transfer from Princeton, leads the Bears with a 11-11 overall record and has a 6-9 record in duals. Marsh represented Team USA at the U23 World Championships in Serbia in 2021.
• Morgan freshman Kingsley Menifee has an 8-7 winning record and won his first two matches at the Bobby Kaufman Open before falling to Bucknell's Mikey Bartush by a decision.
• Makhare Rogers scored a 7-3 decision over West Virginia's Gahrett Dickerson at 133 pounds. With the win, Rogers improved to 1-2 overall and 1-0 in duals.
Season tickets and individual match tickets are now on sale for the 2023-24 Morgan State wrestling season - Click here
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ABOUT MORGAN
Morgan State University, founded in 1867, is a Carnegie-classified doctoral research institution offering more than 100 academic programs leading to degrees from the baccalaureate to the doctorate. As Maryland's Preeminent Public Urban Research University, Morgan serves a multiethnic and multiracial student body and seeks to ensure that the doors of higher education are opened as wide as possible to as many as possible. For more information about Morgan State University, visit www.morgan.edu.
