Defending national champion Kurt Angle will not be in the lineup as the wrestling team hosts Clarion at 7:30 tonight in Rec Hall.

Angle, currently ranked No. 2 at heavyweight, sprained his knee. He will return for the EWL Tournament next week.

Jeff Prescott, who sat out over the weekend because of the flu, will be back in the lineup tonight. He will wrestle at 126, in place of Bob Truby, who may be coming down with the flu. Freshman John Evans will compete at 118.

"We've got to do right now what we have to for the EWL Tournament," Coach Rich Lorenzo said of the decision to keep Truby out of the lineup. . . . "We just don't want to play with that at this state of the game because (Truby) has high aspriations for the national tournament."

Penn State defeated Clarion, 20-12, earlier this season in the finals of the Penn State-Domino Duals. Three of tonight's bouts could be rematches: 167, 177 and 190 pounds.

In the last meeting, Dave Hart pinned Clarion's Justin Kuzemka at 1:32, Matt White pinned Dan Payne at 4:22 and Joe Rozanc major decisioned Fred Koberlein, 18-4.

Because the EWL has no tiebreaker system for the dual-meet season, Penn State and West Virginia will be declared co-champions if both finish with 6-1 records. Penn State closes its dual-meet season against Bloomsburg on Friday in Rec Hall; West Virginia faces Pitt and Edinboro this week.

The only other split title was in 1986, when Penn State and Clarion, who tied during the season, shared the title.

This year will be only the second time in the EWL's 15 years that the dual meet champion will have a loss; Penn State won the title with a loss in 1978.