Boiling Springs, N.C. - With a first year head coach in Daniel Elliott leading the Gardner-Webb wrestling program, the Runnin' Bulldog grapplers had a strong year in 2012-13, highlighted by GWU picking up its first-ever Southern Conference Wrestling Champion and seeing a wrestler return to the NCAA Division I National Championships for the first time since 2011.

"This season has been an interesting year for my first as a head coach," stated Coach Elliott. "We returned to the NCAA tournament after failing to qualify anyone in the previous year for the first time in GWU's Division I history. We put three wrestlers into the Southern Conference finals, which was three more than last year. While our dual record wasn't the greatest, we know that we have definitely made some major improvements this year. We placed wrestlers in every single tournament we competed in and had numerous guys with more than 20 wins on the year all while starting four true freshmen throughout the year. There has been a culture change within the program and it shows with three freshmen, which redshirted this season, recording over 20 wins on the year, which is a first for our program, and I feel really shows where we are heading. We have signed four top guys early who ended up having great seasons. While we could have had better results this year, there is a positive feeling in the room and everyone is excited about the future of the program."

The Runnin' Bulldogs had six wrestlers, both attached and unattached, total 20 wins or more on the season, while freshman Gray Jones earned a spot on the SoCon All-Freshman Team. As a team, GWU finished fourth overall at the Southern Conference Championships and had one first-place finish in Hunter Gamble, two second-place finishes in Alex and Ryan Medved, and a total of five other grapplers compete in the third-place match overall in their respective weight classes.

GWU's Gamble capped off a solid freshman campaign, as he swept through the 174 pound bracket at the 2013 Southern Conference Wrestling Championships to take first-place overall and not only become the first Southern Conference Champion on the mat for Gardner-Webb, but also earned a spot as an automatic qualifier at the 2013 NCAA National Championships.

At the Championships, Gamble became only the third GWU wrestler in the Runnin' Bulldogs' Division I history, joining Eddie McCray (2007) and Josh Pniewski (2006), to record a win in the Championship Bracket with a 5-3 decision over No. 9 Nathaniel Brown of Lehigh in the first round.

Gamble, who was one of four true freshmen in the GWU lineup for most of the season, along with Cortez Starkes, Tyler Ziegler and Jones, totaled 24 wins overall on the season, which was second overall on the team.

While a slew of newcomers in addition to Gamble and Jones having strong seasons, such as Austin Trott, Ryan Mosley and Kyle Ash, who all wrestled unattached and redshirted in 2012-13, tallying 26, 21 and 21 total wins respectively on the year, a handful of grapplers wrapped up their careers at GWU in 2012-13.

Redshirt-seniors Alex Medved, Ryan Medved, Travis Porter, Justin Guthrie and Blake Salyer all finished their careers on the mat at Gardner-Webb in 2012-13, arguably leaving the program in better shape than it was when the pentad arrived back in 2008-09.

Alex Medved recorded a team-high 27 wins on the year, which not only was a career-best in a single season for the 157 pounder, but it also gave him 97 career wins overall during his time at GWU, while his twin brother Ryan, bounced back from a season-ending knee injury in 2011-12 to tally 13 wins on the year and take second-place overall at 149 pounds at the conference championship meet.

Porter finished his career out at GWU with 20 wins overall on the year, giving him 76 career victories as a Runnin' Bulldog, while both Guthrie, who was a preseason All-Conference selection at 165 pounds, and Salyer capped off their respective careers with double digit wins for the year.

"This senior group will always hold a special part in my heart as they were the first guys I had any part of recruiting at Gardner-Webb," Elliott continued. "They were part of a six-man recruiting class and having five guys finish the grind of a collegiate wrestling career shows a testament to their desire for success. Seeing these guys improve and grow over the past five years has been a great experience for me, and it hurt to see them fall short at the wrestling goals they had set out for themselves. These guys have laid the foundation for future Runnin' Bulldog wrestlers and have set a great example for our young class now. Gardner-Webb's future success on the wrestling mat will be because of the foundation and commitment that these guys instilled in the program. I am proud of their accomplishments and it was a great honor to coach these men."

After starting the season off at The Citadel Open and the Hokie Open in early November, the Runnin' Bulldogs hosted its first annual Movember Duals on November 10th, where Gardner-Webb suffered a loss to No. 16 Virginia and defeated George Mason to go to 1-1 overall in dual match action.

With a handful of wrestlers placing at both the Wolfpack Open and the King College Open over the next two weeks, Coach Elliott's squad returned to dual match action in a huge way, defeating Belmont Abbey 35-8 at home on November 19th.

The Runnin' Bulldogs then suffered three straight dual match losses at the Hoosier Duals, which included a 24-21 Southern Conference loss to Southern Illinois - Edwardsville, and a fourth loss at Appalachian State in the month of December to fall to 2-5 overall in dual match action and 0-2 in Southern Conference competition.

Following participation at the Cleveland State Open and the Brute Invitational to close out the month of December, Gardner-Webb jump-started the 2013 calendar year with home bouts versus N.C. State, Davidson and VMI, going 2-1 overall during that span to improve to 4-6 in dual match action and 2-2 in the SoCon.

Following back-to-back losses at Campbell and versus Chattanooga in dual match action, the Runnin' Bulldogs stepped back into tournament competition at the Newberry Open on February 2nd, before dropping its last five dual bouts to Duke, The Citadel, Northern Illinois, Ohio and Cleveland State to finish the year at 4-13 overall and 2-5 in the Southern Conference.

"It is hard to say that this year's dual season was a great success by focusing on the results. Our record was not any better than it has been in years past, but if we look deeper, it is obvious that the team is growing and improving," Elliott commented. "We suffered several close losses this year that could have easily had a different outcome. We split 5-5 in several duals, but unfortunately gave up some bonus points that we were not able to overcome. The improvement was there, just not in our results. We will continue to examine and evaluate our performances to be sure we keep improving each and every time we take the mat."

The future looks bright for Coach Elliott and the Gardner-Webb wrestling program, as in addition to a highly touted group of early signees in Phillip Anderson, Christopher Vassar, George Weber and Brett Stein, GWU will return a number of starters in Starkes, redshirt-sophomore Robbie Golde, sophomore Davante Andujar, and both Gamble and Jones. On top of that, the Runnin' Bulldogs also return grapplers Trott, Ash, Ziegler, Mosley, Alex White, Justin Stanley, Josh Burns, Joseph Evans, Matt Kowalski, Miguel Gordon, Aaron Rabin, Zach Bennett, Boyce Cornwell and Justin Kozera, who all gained valuable experience on the mat in 2012-13 and will provide Coach Elliott and his staff an immense number of options as the program moves forward.

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