The Tournament Begins This Week for the Hornets

Well Hornet fans the regular season is over and it is time for a new season: The 2009 MEAC Tournament in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. What better place to play in but at the Lawrence Joel Veterans Memorial Coliseum aka "The Joel."

Now people wonder who usually plays at "The Joel," well it is home to the Wake Forest Demon-Deacons where the CIAA Tournament was held from 1994-1999. It's the place where the NCAA Tournament was held three times and the same the court where the Harlem Globetrotters performed for the fans.

Wait...what I am talking about? I'm here to talk about the Hornets not the history who performs "The Joel."

The Hornet men have a short time to prepared because 10th DSU will played 7th seed Hampton in the first round of the tournament. The winner of that game will play number two seed South Carolina State on Wednesday in the quarterfinals.

As for the lady hornets they are the number three seed but they have a lot of time to prepared as they await the winner of 6th seed Hampton and and 9th seed Norfolk State in quarterfinals on Thursday.

I understand that Raleigh has given the Hornets nightmares when the Hornet men lose three straight heartbreak games:

• Championship game 2006 Hampton,


• Championship game 2007 Florida A&M,


• Semi-finals 2008 Morgan State
  

It also gave lady hornets some good memories like 2007 when they won the MEAC Tournament against Morgan State and dance their way into the NCAA Tournament as a 15th seed.

However there are nightmares that the lady hornets will never forget:

• 2006 Losing to Coppin State in the championship game

• 2008 Losing to the same team in the semi-final
  

Maybe Winston-Salem will be a fresh start to both the men and lady hornets basketball and who know they can pull a Coppin State mircale from last year.

Like I always anything can happen in the MEAC because the MEAC Tournament is open season.

Cathell Earning a Birth to the National Championship

Congratulations to Matt Cathell for capturing his second straight NCAA East Regional wrestling title in the 149 pound division. He is also placed a birth at the national championship in St. Louis (March 19-21).

During the East regional, in the which the Hornets finished 4th in the team standings, Cathell made record times in three of his competitions in under two minutes.

In the the first match, Matt need just 50 seconds to defeat Jacob Villaret of Wagner University to advance to the semi-finals. During the semis, he pinned Campbell University's Matt King with a time of 109 seconds. In the championship round Matt made hornet wrestling history by defeating Frank Gayeski of Liberty University with a time of 95 seconds.

Matt is still undefeated at 16-0 where he will become the first ever hornet wrestler to compete in back-to-back national championships since Francky Francois accomplishments in 1997 and 1998.

Last year in the 2008 NCAA Nationals, Cathell, who was a freshman, has a 1-2 record including a loss to Indiana University's Kurt Kinser.

Good luck Matt in the NCAA Nationals and represent Delaware State proud with hornet pride.