Mount St. Clare College of the NAIA drops its varsity wrestling program

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Gary Abbott (USA Wrestling)
04/02/2002


Mount St. Clare College has confirmed that it has discontinued its varsity wrestling program, which competes in the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA).    Andy Eberhardt, co-ordinator of men's athletics at Mount St. Clare, confirmed that a decision to drop wrestling had been made two weeks ago. An official announcement of the decision has not yet been released by the university.    Mount St. Clare of Clinton, Iowa, is a four-year, coeducational, liberal arts college which created a new wrestling program just four seasons ago. The team was coached this season by Tony Vaughan, who took over the program from its first coach, Dan Knight.    "We only had five wrestlers this year," said Eberhardt. "We had declining participation. For some reason, we weren't getting the athletes to come to Mount St. Clare for wrestling. We decided that it was not cost-effective."    Eberhardt said that the program had difficulty getting non-scholarship athletes to attend the school or remain with the wrestling team once they had enrolled.    In an email to his fellow NAIA coaches, Vaughan wrote, "I enjoyed being a part of the NAIA and competing against some of the toughest wrestlers in the country.  I really hate to see another program cut down before it had the chance to grow."