Wrestling Recruiting Class Ranked 14th by Intermat
July 12, 2007

EDINBORO, PA – The Edinboro 2007-08 wrestling recruiting class continues to receive plenty of notoriety. After previously being ranked 13th by W.I.N. Magazine, the class assembled by head coach Tim Flynn has now been judged 14th by InterMat.

InterMat rated Ohio State’s recruiting class as the best. Missouri was second, followed by Penn State and Virginia Tech. Minnesota rounded out the top five. A pair of former Edinboro standouts and assistant coaches played a role with two of the schools, as Lou Rosselli serves as an assistant coach at Ohio State, and Tony Robie is in a similar capacity at Virgina Tech.

Here’s what InterMat had to say about Edinboro:

“14. Edinboro — Just six kids, but they’re high quality. Big guns include St. Edward grad Chris Honeycutt, NHSCA senior national runner-up Paul Paddock of New York, Ohio’s Thomas Straughn and New York’s Torsten Gillespie. Chad Sindoni’s a AA state champ from Pennsylvania and has a frame that could see him well above his 152-pound weight class that he wrestled in high school. Honeycutt, Paddock and Straughn all have good motors and should really buy into the system that Tim Flynn has built at Edinboro. Might not be the biggest of schools, but they can win and Flynn has found a group of kids that will help continue the upward momentum of the program.”

Three future Fighting Scots were also recognized in the 2006-07 InterMat Senior Class High School Rankings. Leading the way is Thomas Straughn, who is the top-rated senior in the country at 152 lbs. Straughn finished his senior year with a 43-1 record while winning the Ohio state championship at 152 lbs. for Massillon Perry High School. He was a three-time Ohio state placewinner.

Paul Paddock of Warsaw High School is ranked fourth at 160 lbs. after winning New York state championships as a sophomore and senior. He won the 145 lb. title as a sophomore, then after a second place finish at 160 lbs. as a junior, he won the 160 lb. title as a senior, finishing with a perfect 47-0 record. He then went on to place second at the recent NHSCA Nationals at 160 lbs., losing in the finals to Colt Sponseller, an Ohio State signee, in the finals.

Chris Honeycutt of highly-acclaimed St. Edward High School is the third blue-chip recruit for the Fighting Scots. Honeycutt is rated fifth by InterMat at 189 lbs., where he won the Ohio state championship as a senior in impressive fashion. He swept through the 189 lb. field with falls in three of his four bouts, and a major decision in the other. That left him with a perfect 39-0 record. As a junior Honeycutt placed third at the Ohio state championships. He previously won the Massachusetts state title as a sophomore at North Andover High School after finishing as the runner-up as a freshman.

Edinboro finished ninth at the 2007 National Championships after finishing eighth the previous year. The Fighting Scots finished with a 17-1 record and were ranked sixth in the final USA Today/ InterMat/NWCA Division I Top 25, and won their fifth straight EWL title and ninth in the last ten years.

INTERMAT DIVISION I RECRUITING CLASS RANKINGS

1. Ohio State
2. Missouri
3. Penn State
4. Virginia Tech
5. Minnesota
6. Oklahoma State
7. Michigan
8. Virginia
9. Northern Iowa
10. Kent State
11. Oklahoma
12. Oregon State
13. Lehigh
14. EDINBORO
15. Cornell
16. Old Dominion
17. Lock Haven
18. Nebraska
19. Hofstra
20. Harvard
21. Pennsylvania
22. Michigan State
23. Eastern Michigan
24. Columbia
25. Indiana
26. Iowa State
27. Iowa
28. Bucknell
29. George Mason
30. Northwestern