Wrestling | 3/1/2023 12:31:00 PM

CLEVELAND, Ohio – The Mid-American Conference (MAC) announced the tournament pre-seeds for the upcoming 2023 MAC Wrestling Championships beginning on March 3. The Bloomsburg wrestling team earned three pre-seeds ahead of this year's tournament.
 
George Mason is set to host the MAC Championships on Friday and Saturday, March 3 and 4. Action gets underway on Friday at 12:00 pm and the consolation quarterfinals will begin on Saturday at 11:30 am.
 
Senior Cole Rhone (Benton, Pa./Benton Area) highlights the pre-tournament selection with a #2 seed at 133 pounds. Redshirt senior Josh Mason (New Ringgold, Pa./Blue Mountain) looks to make back-to-back trips to the NCAA Tournament as is seeded #4 at 141 pounds. Redshirt junior Shane Noonan (Hazleton, Pa./Hazleton Area) is seeded #7 at 285 pounds.
 
All three wrestlers earned a tournament pre-seed ahead of last year's tournament as well.
 
Rhone enters the tournament ranked #33 in the latest RPI rankings and has a 17-9 record this year. He is 10-4 in duals and has 11 bonus point wins – 7 falls, 2 tech falls, and 2 major decisions. His is 39-20 for his career and was an NCAA Tournament qualifier during the 2020-21 season. Rhone has back-to-back 15+ win seasons after going 16-7 last year and finishing fifth at the MAC championships.
 
Mason finished second overall at the MAC championships last year and earned a spot in the NCAA Tournament. This year, he is 20-13 overall and 9-6 in duals. Mason has 10 bonus point wins, including eight pins and two major decisions. He is currently fifth all-time at BU with 36 pins in his career and has two 10+ pin seasons with the Huskies. He is the fifth Husky to post multiple 10+ pin seasons for Bloomsburg and looks to join Shorty Hitchcock and Mike Dessino with three 10+ pin seasons. Mason is 64-36 all time at BU with 43 total bonus point wins.
 
Noonan comes into the MAC championships seeded #7 at 285 after another strong season for the Huskies. Noonan is 18-11 on the year and 9-7 in dual meets. He finished the regular season with 11 bonus point wins – including a career-best 10 falls this year. He closed out the year with back-to-back pins against Jacob Cover of Kent State and Nicholas Lodato of Edinboro. Noonan put together the 20^th 10+ pin season at Bloomsburg with his 10 falls so far this year. He is 36-21 in his career at Bloomsburg with 19 career bonus point wins.
 

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Last week, the NCAA released the qualifier allocations for the 2023 NCAA Division I Men's Wrestling Championships and the MAC was awarded 23 qualifying spots.
 
MAC Allocations (23):
125: 2
133: 1
141: 2
149: 5
157: 4
165: 1
174: 4
184: 2
197: 1
285: 1