By George Fladeland

The KU men’s wrestling team was back in action against Seton Hill on Jan. 17. The heavily favored Golden Bears found themselves behind 13-9 after seven bouts. KU was able to mount the comeback with three clutch wins to defeat Seton Hill University 24-13. Saturday’s meet was the first PSAC dual meet since Friday, Nov. 21 against Pitt-Johnstown for the Golden Bears.

Andre Petroski started the Golden Bears’ comeback. beating Cristian Bosco at 184 pounds. Petroski earned a takedown for a quick 2-0 lead, and earned another takedown for a score of 4-2. For his final four points, Petroski was able to pull off a reversal and finish Bosco off with a takedown. The 8-1 rally helped the Golden Bears claw back into the meet. Trent Clifford’s 5-4 decision and Brandon Clark’s 7-6 decision helped bolster the KU comeback as well.

Clifford was able to earn a takedown in two minutes to get on the board for the first two points of his bout with Colin Dees. For the second round, Clifford started on the bottom and was able to pull a reverse making the score 4-0. Clifford let Dees escape the bottom for the third round with 1:30 to go. Dees roared back for the takedown to limit the score 4-3. Clifford got back up to increase his lead to 5-3 but Dees was awarded for stalling to give Clifford the 5-4 decision.

Joe Esposito was able to bring the crowd to its feet with a groundshaking takedown of SHU’s Ty Lydic and defeated Matt Martoccio for a 7-4 decision in the 149 pound and 3-2 in the 157 pound. Esposito was able to pullout back-to-back victories against his Seton Hill opponents. The defending national champ Ziad Haddad pinned SHU’s Alex Soutiere in 30 seconds for 6 points to complete the comeback victory for the Golden Bears.

The Golden Bears will go back to the mat on Jan. 24 against American International at 7:30 p.m. in Keystone Arena.