Prior to January 16, Clarion had yet to win a dual during the 2025-26 season.

And while the Eagles’ first semester schedule was intentionally tournament-heavy, an 0-3 record entering the New Year still isn’t something any program wants.

Fast forward two-plus weeks, and oh, how much has changed.

Clarion now sits at 6-3 entering Thursday night’s dual against Edinboro — streaming live on FloWrestling at 7:00 p.m. ET) — and will look to extend its winning streak to seven amidst a second-semester turn-of-fortunes.

The turnaround also reflects some of the feelings head coach Keith Ferraro expressed back in October, when he described his team as having had “the best preseason probably since I got the job at Clarion.”

Several months later, the results on the mat are proving to be somewhat prophetic.

“Part of the reason why I thought our preseason was so great was just their attitudes and the way they were approaching training,” Ferraro said.

“Probably the best measure of how good your attitude is, is how you respond when things don’t go your way. And I do think that’s been pretty good for a young team. We started out kind of rough in duals and learned some lessons early on, and the guys just continue to train and stay positive and they’ve responded really well.”

‘Never Stop Wrestling’

A key point of emphasis for the entire Clarion team — through good times and bad — is to never stop wrestling.

And while the notion may sound simple, the 12th-year head coach details how instruction of the lesson is a bit more intricate than you may think.

“It’s to show the other guys on the team what happens when you constantly wrestle and don’t take breaks,” said Ferraro,  a self-described tinkerer, when asked what his ongoing ‘pet project’ is with his 2025-26 team.

“As a coach, I call them micro breaks, because a lot of times if you’re critical of somebody for taking a break while they’re wrestling (it’s like) you’re implying that they laid down (and) took a nap — but you’re not.

“They’re milliseconds, but those moments of relaxation are what cost people scrambles and cost people from scoring.

“The very best high school recruits, they don’t take as many breaks. And the tier of guys that mid-major schools get as recruits, that’s probably the biggest flaw we see coming in. They have a skillset that could win, but they take those momentary breaks at costly times.”

Sophomore 125-pounder Travis Clawson is someone who Ferraro describes as having “figured out the most important part early on.” And with an 18-5 record this season, “you can see the impact it’s having on his success.”

Conditioning — both natural and developed — plays a role in these split-second, difference-making moments. But from Ferraro’s perspective, the required mindset to prevail at the highest level supersedes the physical.

“If you’re wrestling hard, you’re going to be exhausted — your body is going to be physically depleted. But everybody’s tired when they’re wrestling. The difference between the guys who score the points and the guys who lose the scramble is how tough they are when they’re tired.”

Keeping Busy

The same guy who, during his college career, once restored an old Volkswagen bus with zero background knowledge of automobiles — and who built his own LED scoreboards from scratch as a young coach — Ferraro can’t help but add a few undertakings on top of his full-time gig leading the Eagles.

At present, those tasks include writing a dissertation for his Educational Leadership graduate program and probing the market for flipping Teslas whose battery packs have gone bad.

“You’ve got to have a little bit of a hobby, always — even when you’re busy, right?” he said. 

I suppose you do, coach — regardless of how much it contrasts with your day job.

“I realized that old (Tesla) Model X’s and Model S’s were getting ridiculously cheap. So, I’ve been learning about the batteries and how to swap them out. But it’s a little bit high stakes because they’re super high voltage and you can get hurt bad,” said Ferraro with a chuckle. “You’re lucky if it’s just your hair getting singed.”

As for that slightly lower-risk dissertation that he’s working on, the subject is school administrators’ perception of outdoor play and recess.

“I think play is really important when you’re raising kids — like free play and unstructured activity is critical,” he said. “So, that’s what I’m doing it on.”

Names To Watch Down The Stretch

With just four duals left on its schedule, Clarion, like every program, hopes to hit its stride and continue accelerating all the way through the fast-approaching postseason.

Amidst its aforementioned six-dual winning streak, the Eagles certainly appear to be doing just that.

“You just kind of get in the groove of prepping them for weekend competition, and the training kind of takes care of itself,” Ferraro said. “Competition actually sharpens you. You start to see guys really find their spot.”

Nobody is a finished product, of course. However, there are several key names he’ll be counting on with March on the horizon.

One of those (perhaps surprisingly) is true freshman Gabe Lilly.

A Pennsylvania native, Lilly made noise at the Southern Scuffle when he knocked off 2025 bloodround finisher Nick Hamilton of Virginia.

“He (Lilly) came off the mat and I was like, ‘Do you know who that kid was?’” recalled Ferraro.

“And he had no clue. He just went out, wore him out and ran him down and got the win in a real gritty way.”

The young 174-pounder has “exceeded expectations” according to his coach, who follows the praise by emphasizing Lilly’s need to “quit making big mistakes that are costing him.”

Even so, “he’s got the approach that you need to have to be good,” Ferraro said.

Besides Lilly and Clawson — both underclassmen in the program — Clarion could really use stellar swansongs from a pair of seniors.

Neither Joey Fischer nor Alejandro Herrera-Rondon have reached the NCAA Championships in their collegiate careers. And with time running out, it’s a matter of balancing the stress of that closing window with their deep yearning to break through.

“Both of those guys have a feeling that they’ve come up short, and they do have a pressure,” Ferraro said. “They want to succeed. They want to go out with a bang.

“To take a jump in this sport it comes down to a handful of opportunities where the stage is set, and it’s a great opportunity for you to go take one that you hadn’t in the past.

“They’ve got to do that if they’re going to get to the national tournament.”

With a month left until the MAC Championships, the next of those big opportunities draws closer every day for those like Fischer and Herrera-Rondon.

But if they can make every second (and millisecond) count with the time they have left, they just might earn themselves another opportunity — on college wrestling’s grandest stage — before it’s all said and done.

Watch Clarion home duals this season live on Flowrestling.