Hempstead, NY - The Hofstra Pride Wrestling staff and the seven wrestlers who will compete in the 2011 NCAA Division I Wrestling Championships, that begins on Thursday, March 17 at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia, departed for the City of Brotherly Love Tuesday afternoon to get their first glimpse of the venue and get their final workouts in before the national tournament begins at 11 a.m. tomorrow.

The seven wrestlers this year marks the 11 ^th time in school history that seven or more grapplers will be competing in the NCAA Championships. The school mark for Hofstra competitors in the national championships is nine, set in 2005 under former coach Tom Ryan. The Pride placed 17^th as a team that year with one All-American. One year later, Ryan took eight wrestlers to the NCAA Championships and placed 11^th as a team with three All-Americans.

In Tom Shifflet 's first season with the Pride in 2007, Hofstra sent seven wrestlers to nationals with a school record four wrestlers earning All-America honors and the team posting a best-ever seventh-place finish with 60.5 points. The seven NCAA qualifiers this year mark the fourth time during Tom Shifflet 's five-year tenure that seven or more Pride wrestlers have qualified for the NCAA Championships.

Vince Varela (Rio Rancho, NM) was the last Pride wrestler to get a bid, receiving an at-large bid at 141 pounds last Wednesday to join teammates: seniors Lou Ruggirello at 133 and Ryan Patrovich at 174; juniors P.J. Gillespie at 165 and Ben Clymer at 184; and sophomores Steve Bonanno at 125 and Paul Snyder at 285. Varela, who placed second at the 2011 CAA Championships, will make his first NCAA Championship appearance with a 20-13 record. He will face Oregon State's Michael Mangrum in the first round of the national tournament Thursday in Philadelphia.

With the release of the Championship brackets, the field of 330 knows who their first round opponent. Among the seven Hofstra wrestlers, only two, Bonanno and Patrovich, have squared off against their opponents previously this season. At 125 pounds, Bonanno (Wantagh, NY), who is 23-11 on the year, will face Utah Valley's Ben Kjar in the first round. The two met in the seventh-place match at the Cliff Keen-Las Vegas Invitational with Kjar posting a 3-1 sudden victory win. At 133, Ruggirello (Walden, NY), who is 28-3 in 2010-11 and the fifth seed in the NCAAs, will face Chattanooga's Demetrius Johnson. At 165, Gillespie (Long Beach, NY), who is 25-7 this year, will face the sixth seed Dallas Bailey from Oklahoma State.

At 174 pounds, Patrovich (Bohemia, NY), who is 15-5, will face Purdue's Luke Manuel in the first round. The two wrestlers met in a dual match at Edinboro University in November with Manual winning, 4-2. At 184 pounds, Clymer (Germansville, PA), who is 21-8, will face the sixth-seed Ryan Loder from Northern Iowa. At 285 pounds, Snyder (Greensburg, PA), who is 25-14, will face the 12th-seed Eric Bugenhagen from Wisconsin.

The 2011 NCAA Division I Wrestling Championships will be held from Thursday through Saturday, March 17-19 at the Wells Fargo Sports Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

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