ANN ARBOR, Mich. — Six Cliff Keen Wrestling Club wrestlers are slated to compete in the freestyle event hosted by the Nittany Lion Wrestling Club this Saturday (Sept. 19) in State College, Pennsylvania. It will be the first competitive action for all CKWC participants in six months and will mark Alex Dieringer‘s CKWC debut after joining the club this summer.
Wrestling starts at 8 p.m. ET and will stream live on the NLWC’s Rokfin page (rokfin.com/nlwc).
Dieringer, a three-time NCAA champion and Hodge Trophy winner at Oklahoma State, makes up half of the event’s marquee match, in which he will face Penn State’s three-time NCAA champion and Hodge Trophy winner Bo Nickal at 190 pounds.
Malik Amine (74kg) will face former Franklin & Marshall All-American Rick Durso in the event’s opening bout, while Michigan All-American’s Domenic Abounader (196 lbs) and Logan Massa (77kg) will take on a pair of international competitors in Olympic silver medalist Jaime Espinal (Puerto Rico) and two-time world bronze medalist Bekzod Abdurakhmonov (Uzbekistan), respectively.
Massa, who is expected back in the Wolverine lineup this season after taking an Olympic redshirt last year, is one of two current collegiate wrestlers on the card. CKWC’s Youssif Hemida, a two-time heavyweight All-American at Maryland, will face the other in Penn State’s Greg Kerkvliet, a former cadet world champion, at 125kg.
Alec Pantaleo (157 lbs) will take on Penn State alum and three-time NCAA champion Zain Retherford in one of the event’s other highlighted bouts. Pantaleo, a three-time All-American at Michigan, wrestled several close matches during college and will look to break through on the freestyle mat. Retherford is a two-time senior world team member, while Pantaleo has represented the USA at junior and U23 worlds.
Bout Order
74kg – Rick Durso vs Malik Amine
125kg – Nick Nevills vs Jordan Wood
62kg – Jennifer Page vs Desiree Zavala
196lb – Jaime Espinal vs Domenic Abounader
157lb – Zain Retherford vs Alec Pantaleo
79kg – Jason Nolf vs David McFadden
77kg – Vincenzo Joseph vs Dan Vallimont
125kg – Greg Kerkvliet vs Youssif Hemida
77kg – Bekzod Abdurakhmonov vs Logan Massa
62kg – Jane Valencia vs Julia Salata
59kg – Thomas Gilman vs Darian Cruz
99kg – Kyle Snyder vs Michael Macchiavello
190lb – Bo Nickal vs Alex Dieringer