Hempstead, NY – After a 24-day hiatus from competition, the Hofstra Wrestling team returns to action this Wednesday, January 1 when they travel to the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga to compete in the 34-team Southern Scuffle at McKenzie Arena.

The two-day, team-scoring, double-elimination tournament begins at 9 a.m. on New Year's Day with day two competition on Thursday (Jan. 2) also beginning at 9 a.m. The 11th-annual Southern Scuffle, presented by Defense Soap and Flips Wrestling, has quickly grown into a premier, national in-season collegiate tournament. The Scuffle is in its third year at UTC after eight tournaments in Greensboro, North Carolina. This is Hofstra's sixth appearance at the Southern Scuffle after trips from 2007-08 through 2011-12.

Four Hofstra wrestlers are placed in the top 12 seeds in this year's Scuffle, announced today. Senior Luke Vaith is placed eighth at 141 pounds, red-shirt freshman Jamel Hudson is seeded 10th at 133 pounds, graduate-student Joe Booth is placed 11th at 165 pounds and junior Cody Ruggirello is seeded 12th at 149 pounds.

The Southern Scuffle has 10 of the top-25 teams in the current InterMat team rankings scheduled to compete.   Highlighting the field is defending NCAA Champion and top-ranked Penn State. second-ranked Minnesota, fourth-ranked Oklahoma State, seventh-ranked Cornell, 12th-ranked Iowa State, 13th-ranked Missouri, 17th-ranked Virginia, 18th-ranked Pittsburgh, 21st-ranked Oregon State and 22nd-ranked Stanford.

In addition, a total of 13 teams which placed in the top 25 of last year's NCAA Championship in Des Moines last March will be in action this week including Central Michigan (18th), The Citadel (20th), North Carolina (22nd) and Kent State (24th). Other teams participating include the host Mocs of UTC, Air Force, American, Appalachian State, Arizona State, Army, Boston, Bucknell, Campbell, Cleveland State, Drexel, Duke, Navy, North Carolina State, Northern Colorado, Ohio, Old Dominion, Penn, South Dakota State and Hofstra.

Only four different teams have won the Southern Scuffle, including Cornell (2008, 2009 & 2010 (tie), Minnesota (2004, 2005 & 2007), Missouri (2003 & 2006) and Penn State (2010 (tie), 2012 & 2013). There are eight former Scuffle Individual Champions in the field, including Cornell's Mike Nevinger (141), Minnesota's Chris Dardanes (133-2012) and Tony Nelson (285-2012), Oklahoma State's Jon Morrison (133) and Chris Perry (174) and Penn State's David Taylor (165-2012, 157-2010), Nico Megaludis (125) and Ed Ruth (184, 174-2010 & 2012).

In addition, there will be four NCAA Champions in the field, including Minnesota's Tony Nelson (285), Oklahoma State's Chris Perry (174) and Penn State's Ed Ruth (184) and David Taylor (165), and five top-ranked wrestlers in the field, according to the latest Intermat individual rankings in Minnesota's Nick Dardanes (149), Scott Schiller (197) and Tony Nelson (285) and Penn State's David Taylor (165) and Ed Ruth (184).

In Hofstra's last appearance in the Southern Scuffle during the 2011-12 season, the Pride placed ninth with 58 points. In that tournament, then-seniors Ben Clymer and P.J. Gillespie each placed fourth at 184 and 165, respectively, and then- junior Steve Bonanno finished sixth at 125 pounds.

Currently, Hofstra, which is 4-4 in dual matches including a 2-1 mark in the EIWA, has five wrestlers ranked in the four individual polls this week. Leading the Pride is Luke Vaith, who is 16-3 on the season at 141 pounds. He is ranked eighth by Amateur Wrestling News, 11th by the Wrestling Report (TWR), 13th by InterMat and 15th by WIN Magazine. Joe Booth, who is also 16-3 on the year at 165, is ranked 17th by InterMat and WIN and 19th by AWN and TWR. Jamel Hudson, who is 12-4 at 133, is ranked 19th by AWN and 23rd by TWR. Senior Jamie Franco, 12-4 at 125, is ranked 21st by TWR while Cody Ruggirello, who is 11-5 at 149, is ranked 24th by TWR.

UTC and Flowrestling.org have partnered to bring extensive live coverage of the 2014 Southern Scuffle. The broadcast is available to all Flo Pro subscribers. Links to sign up for the live stream are available on the wrestling schedule page on GoMocs.com. Live scoring of each match, along with constantly updated brackets will be available on TrackWrestling.com throughout the tournament. Links for TrackWrestling.com's coverage are on GoMocs.com's wrestling schedule page.