• NCAA DII Nationals Brackets
• UW Parkside Qualifies 7 for Nationals

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  Wednesday, March 10, 2010

  NCAA II National Wrestling Championship Schedule, Bracket Updates, and Webcasting
  
  On Friday, March 12th, the 48th Annual NCAAII National Championships will be hosted at the University of Nebraska-Omaha. The first round which consists of 80 matches conducted on six matches will start at 11AM, and will take approximately 2 ½ hours to complete. Following this round the competitors will have about a four hour break. They return for a Grand March at 5:30, and the quarterfinals will begin at 6:00PM. They will be conducted on three mats, while the other three mats will be conducting the first round of the consolation bracket. In the first round of the consolations, the losers of the afternoon matches will be paired up. This round of consolation matches, and the quarter-final matches which are being run simultaneously will also take about 2 ½ hours. The winners of the quarter-final matches will automatically advance to the Saturday morning semi-finals matches. The will be assured of earning All-American honors and placing no lower than sixth place. The losers of the quarter-finals will wrestle one more match on Friday evening. They will be paired up with the winners from the first round consolation matches. This is called the All-American round, because the winner of this match is assured All-American status, and can place no lower than eighth . At approximately 9:30PM, the first day of the tournament will be over, and eight wrestlers in each weight class will have earned All-American status. For the other eight wrestlers in each weight class their season is finished. For the seniors, it is the end of their career. For the underclassmen, their next season begins immediately.
  
  On Saturday, March 13th, the eighty remaining wrestlers will weigh in at 9AM. At 10AM, the twenty semi-final matches and the twenty third- round consolation (also called the quarter-final consolations) matches will be run at the same time. By approximately noon, the twenty national finalists will be determined. At this time, the two losers from each weight class in the semi-finals ,will be paired up against the two winners from each weight class in the consolation quarter-finals. This round is called the consolation semi-finals. There will be a total of 20 matches conducted on four mats and will take approximately one hour. The winners from this round will advance to the third place match, and the losers will compete for fifth place. The two wrestlers who lost in the earlier consolation quarter-finals matches will face off for seventh place. At this time, there will be a very short break in the action, while one of the mats is removed from the competition floor, and three mats are arranged to conduct the three medal matches at each weight class. From approximately 1:15-3:15PM, there will be three matches at each weight class to determine the third and fourth place finishers, the fifth and six place finishers, and the seventh and eighth place finishers. At the conclusion of these matches, the arena will be cleared, and the tournament workers will remove all but one mat. They also will construct in the center of the floor, an elevated stage approximately 60’by60’ and about 3’ high. On this stage, the remaining mat will be placed, and it will be used that evening to determine the ten new NCAAII Wrestling Champions for 2010.
  
  At approximately 7:30PM, all eighty of the new All-Americans will participate in the Parade of All-Americans. They will circle the arena, and end up on the mat , where they will be introduced to the fans. Following the National Anthem, the stage is set for the championship matches. At 8PM the 125 pounders will start the action. The individual award ceremony for each weight class will take place after the preceding weight class. The team award ceremony will be after the 285 Pound weight class, which should be around 10:30PM.
  
  Following the results of this tournament will be as easy as turning on your computer. Most major tournaments update their brackets as the tournament is in progress. Shortly after the conclusion of each match, the results will be posted, and the brackets will be kept current. A very new trend in wrestling is to web cast matches live on the internet. When we competed in the NWCA National Duals this past January, a couple of our matches (St. Cloud State Univ. and Upper Iowa) were shown live. In the Midwest Regional a couple of weeks ago, the University of Nebraska at Omaha streamed all their matches live on their website. During the meet we wrestled five of their wrestlers, including three in the championship finals, so those matches were all available for viewing free of cost on their website omavs.com. Their commentator was a little biased, but they did a good job covering the matches. The NCAA plans to try and webcast every match in every round live at our national tournament. I think they will have a camera on each mat. They have two experienced commentators lined up to call the action. I am not sure now that will work with six matches taking place at the same time. This is the first time that our fans who are not at the tournament, will have a chance to watch our wrestlers in action live. I expect the NCAA will do a good job, they always do. The trick is to have your computer on, and at the proper website at the times that the matches are actually taking place. That is why I went into so much detail concerning the time schedule of the meet. If you have questions, feel free to text me at 262-496-6905, and I will try to get back to you when time permits. The website that will have a link to the tournament is ncaa.com. Click on Division II Wrestling. It should be able to link you to the action. For further information, I am pretty sure that the UNO wrestling website will also be very helpful.
  
  I have very much appreciated the positive responses that I have received from the readers of my UW-Parkside Wrestling Updates. As the head coach, I am very proud that a lot of former wrestlers, fans and friends of the program are interested in how our team is doing. Our wrestlers have worked very hard to make this possibly the best team that UW-Parkside has ever put on the mat. It is only human nature that the team will ultimately be judged by their success this weekend. Regardless of this week ends results, our coaches know this has been a very special team. Go Rangers.

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  Thursday, March 4, 2010

  UW-Parkside Wrestling Super Two Regional Recap and NCAA II National Tournament Preview
  
  On Sunday, February 28th the UW-Parkside Wrestling Team enjoyed possibly the best day in the 40 year history of the program. The Rangers earned runner-up honors in the NCAAII Super Two Regional. Placing second was not the biggest story, as they have accomplished that feat on seven previous occasions, most recently in 2007. What made the day so special was the fact that they won five championships and they challenged the University of Nebraska at Omaha (UNO) for the team championship. UNO has been the most dominant NCAAII team ,for most of the past decade. They have won four of the last six national team titles. Last year they scored almost as many points at the NCAAII Nationals as the second and third place teams combined. This year, they are just as good. In every previous meet that they have competed against NCAAII competition, only once have they lost or been out placed in more than two matches by their opponent in a competition. When they wrestled a dual with #2 ranked Newberry College they lost two matches (and one of those was their backup). When they wrestled a dual with #3 ranked Augustana College, they lost two match ( one of those was also a backup). They wrestled two duals against #5 ranked St. Cloud State University. In the first dual they lost two matches, in the second dual they lost three matches, but one of those loses was to one of their backups. In the regional tournament they brought all their top wrestlers, there were no backups in their lineup. We went head to head with UNO in five matches and won three of them (Craig Becker, Dillon Bera and Luke Rynish). Those were all championship finals matches. In two other weight classes, the UNO wrestler lost in the semi-finals, and in the championship final match, our wrestlers (Cody Zimmerman and Luke Haag) defeated the wrestler who had beaten them. In a sixth match, our wrestler (Matt Gille) lost in overtime, in the semifinals, to a wrestler from the University of Central Oklahoma, who lost an overtime match in the championship finals to a UNO wrestler. In the team scoring race, UNO had 166 points, to our 138 points. We both had five champs and two third place finishers. The difference was that they had three additioal second place finishers, and we had additional two fifth place finishers. The University of Central Oklahoma, a team which has won ten national titles in the past twenty years, finished in third place with 111 points.
  
  The Rangers set two new team records with their performance. Winning five individual regional titles was by far the most significant. On two previous occasions UWP wrestlers won three regional titles. In 1994 Trevor Hasenjager, Steve Kimpel and Darin Tiedt won titles, and in 2008 Cody Zimmerman, Kyle Becker and Corey VanGroll won titles. The 138 points scored in this year’s meet is a new record. The previous record was set in 2003 with 121 points. The seven qualifiers was not a new record. In 1995 and in 2002, those teams qualified eight wrestlers both years.
  
  At 125 pounds, junior Cody Zimmerman qualified for nationals for the third time in his career. He was a champion as a freshman, runner-up as a sophomore and now, a champion again as a junior. He received a bye the first round, won a 3-1 decision in the semis and then was paired with the number one seed in the finals. His opponent was Alex Johns, an outstanding freshman from the University of Indianapolis. Johns had defeated Cody 5-3 in the finals of the Wheaton Invitational four weeks ago. This time the match was even closer, 3-2 OT, but in Cody’s favor. Cody’s season record is now 31-5.
  
  At 133 pounds, senior Brandon Kircher did not qualify for the nationals, but his performance was an inspiration for the team. He was awarded the sixth seed. That paired him up with Jan Ulinski, the # 3 seed from the University of Findlay in the first round. In the first match of the day for the Rangers, Brandon scored a 10-4 upset win, and set the tone for the day for his team. After two close losses to the second and third place finishers, Brandon again had had to wrestle Ulinski for the fourth place spot and a chance to advance to the nationals. In another very exciting match, this time Brandon came up just short losing 8-6 in OT. All told Brandon wrestled Ulinski four times this season. In their first match Brandon was tech falled. In their second match Brandon recorded a pin. Brandon ended his senior season with a 25-22 record. His leadership skills, strong work ethic and competitive nature will be missed, but his example will leave a lasting mark on our program.
  
  At 141 pounds, sophomore Mike Migawa lost 5-2 in the semi-finals to Mario Morgan from UNO. Morgan won the championship and Mike wrestled back to place fifth. Mike lost his chance to wrestle back for fourth place, when the number three seeded wrestler was upset by an unseeded opponent in the third and fourth place bout. Mike finished his season with a 25-16 record. He is very disappointed that he won’t be competing at the nationals, but he proved this year that he will be a very important part of the Ranger team for the next two seasons.
  
  At 149 pounds, senior Craig Becker qualified for nationals for the fourth time in his career. He entered the tournament as the number one ranked wrestler in the NCAAII and finished the meet in the same position. He started his day with a major decision in his first match and a pin in the semi-finals. In the championship match he faced the number three ranked wrestler in the country, Esai Dominguez from UNO. We have a great deal of respect for Esai, as he defeated Craig in last year’s nationals for third place. This time the match belonged to Craig, as he racked up an early 9-2 lead and coasted to a 12-7 victory. His three point nearfall in the first period left many spectators scratching their heads. I had a few calls from people watching the match live on UNO’s web cast wanting to know what we called that move. It is a secret for now. Craig takes a 34-2 record into the national tournament.
  
  At 157pounds, Dillon Bera, one of UW-Parkside’s two super freshmen (the other being Matt Gille), became only the third Ranger wrestler to win a regional title as a freshman. Dan Winter was a regional champion in 1979 and Cody Zimmerman was a regional champion in 2008. Dillon won his first two matches by scores of 5-0 and 7-2. That set up his finals match with the top seeded George Ivanov, from UNO. Ivanov controlled the first two periods, leading 4-2 and owning riding time. In the third period, respecting Bera’s ability in the top position, Ivanov chose to start the period in the neutral position. Midway through the third period, Dillon scored a takedown to make the score 4-4. I am thinking he is going to be content to ride Ivanov out, burn his riding time advantage, and take the match into overtime. Dillon thought otherwise, he wanted to possibly risk losing control ,and push for nearfall points, and end the match in regulation. He traded a three point nearfall, for a two point reversal, while burning his opponents riding time advantage in the process, and won 7-6. Dillon will take a 29-10 record to the nationals.
  
  At 165 pounds, Matt Gille wrestled well enough to qualify for nationals. He didn’t show the brilliance that has put him into the finals of the last seven tournaments that he has competed in. In fact, he barely escaped the first round. Wrestling an opponent with a 2-15 record, he needed a last second throw he win 4-3 and make the semi-finals. In the semis he couldn’t get his offense going and lost a 3-2 overtime tie breaker to a solid wrestler from the University of Central Oklahoma. The UCO wrestler narrowly lost in overtime, to a UNO wrestler in the championship finals. In the wrestlebacks, Matt struggled to win in the consolation semis, beating a wrestler with a 15-21 record by a 6-5 score. In the match for third place, Matt looked like the wrestler we have seen all year, beating his opponent 11-3, and securing his spot at the national tournament. Matt takes a 40-9 record to the nationals. His 40 wins as a freshman, is second only to the 42 wins that Luke Rynish had last year as a freshman.
  
  At 174 pounds, Luke Rynish qualified for nationals for the second time, this time winning the championship. His first two matches were won in convincing style, a major decision and a pin. His finals opponent was Aaron Denson from UNO. Denson was the top seed, as he placed second in last year’s national championship. Similar to Bera’s match the UNO wrestler controlled the first two periods and took a 3-0 lead into the third period. As is often the case, Luke owned the third period. He started the period with an escape and then a takedown to tie the match. Not content to try and ride his opponent out for the riding time point, and take a chance of giving up an escape, he chose to let Denson escape. It didn’t take long for him score a second takedown in the period, and then solidify his riding time point. A meaningless escape by Denson made the final score 6-5. Luke takes a 35-10 record to the national tournament.
  
  At 184 pounds, senior Lucas Haag qualified for nationals for the third time, this time winning the championship. His first two matches were both won by major decisions. In the finals we expected Lucas to face Austin Boehm from UNO, a former national runner-up. That didn’t happen as Boehm was upset in his semi-final match by Jeff Havelka from Findlay. Lucas had no trouble beating Havelka 5-0. Lucas will take a record of 43-9 to the nationals. His 43 wins is the second most by any NCAAII wrestler. Only Cody Garcia, UNO’s 133 pounder has more victories with 45.
  
  At 197 pounds, junior Jon Treml ( also known as the Big Cat) qualified for nationals for his second time. Jon entered the tournament as the fourth seed. His first match was an 8-4 decision over the fifth seed. He then lost by a technical fall to the first seed Jacob Marrs from UNO. There may have been some payback involved in this match, as Jon had previously pinned Marrs in the 2007 NCAAII Nationals. In Jon’s two consolation matches he recorded a 49 second pin. and then beat the third seeded wrestler Dan Stevenson from Findlay by an 8-4 score to claim third place. Jon will take a 28-15 record to the national tournament.
  
  At 285 pounds, freshman James Malechek ended his season by not qualifying for the nationals. James started the tournament with a first round match against Dustin Finn the number two seed from the University of Central Oklahoma. Finn has twice been the NCAAII national runner-up. James lost to Finn by a very respectable score of 3-0. In James only consolation match, he lost to another nationally ranked opponent, Lynn Panko, from the University of Indianapolis, by a score of 4-1. James finished his season with a record of 17-25 record. From the start of the season to the finish , he demonstrated progress in every match he competed in. Despite often being outweighed by his opponent by 30 or 40 pounds, James only went to his back six times during the season and was only pinned twice. He put his opponents on their back fifteen times, while recording five pins. James has a great work ethic, and he will be an important part of our team the next three years.
  
  Following the tournament, the coaches voted on several awards. Craig Becker was the runner-up to UNO’s fine 133 pounder Cody Garcia for the regions Wrestler of the Year Award. Garcia has a 45-0 record this year and will be competing for his third national championship. Dillon Bera was the runner-up to UNO’s outstanding freshman 285 pounder Elijah Madison for the Freshman of the Year Award. Madison has been ranked first or second in the nation for most of the season. I was selected as the Regional Coach of the Year Award Winner. I was very honored to receive this award from my coaching peers, but as I told them, I considered this award to be a team award. Our wrestlers have worked hard all year and made our coaches look good. Even more important, my assistant coaches, Mike Lopez and especially Gregg Lewis have dedicated themselves to the success of our team, and deserve an equal amount of credit for their efforts.
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  On March 12 and 13th the Rangers will be competing in the NCAAII National Championships for the 32nd time. Previously they also competed in the NAIA Nationals 31 times, so this will be their 63rd national tournament appearance. In those tournaments they earned All-American honors a total of 120 times and have won 13 individual national championships. The highest finish for the Rangers at a national tournament was in 1974 when they placed third in the NAiA Nationals. That year they scored 65 points, which was a record until 2002 when that team scored 102.5 points at the NAIA Nationals. The 1974 team also put three wrestlers into the finals (Bill West, Ken Martin and Randy Skarda), and came away with two champs (West and Skarda). The highest finish for the Rangers in the NCAAII Nationals was a sixth place in 1990 when the tournament was hosted by UWP. That team scored 37.5 points with two finalist (Ted Price and Dennis DuChene). They both placed second. The most All-Americans that UWP has had in one season is nine. That was in 2002, the last year that the Rangers were dual affiliated, and competed in both the NCAAII and the NAIA National Tournaments in the same year. That year they had five All-Americans in the NAIA’s and four in the NCAAII’s. The five AA’s at that years NAIA’s is the most they have ever had in one tournament, and the four AA’s at that years NCAAII is the most they have ever had in the NCAAII Nationals. If this year’s team has a strong performance at the nationals, several of these records could be eclipsed.
  
  Going into the NCAAII National Tournament the Rangers are ranked as the number four team in the country. Quite frankly, based on our regional results, I think we possibly deserve to be ranked even higher. We are the only NCAAII team that has been able to go toe to toe with UNO and have each team win five matches in a meet. UNO and ourselves are the only two teams that will be taking five regional champs to the national tournament. In fact, only two other teams will be taking more than two regional champs to the nationals. Augustana College(SD) has four regional champs and Upper Iowa will be taking three regional champs to the nationals. Applying a 20-17.5-15-12.5-10-7.5-5-2.5 point scale to the national rankings and the wrestlers ranked 1 through 8, the Rangers would finish in second place 45 points behind UNO, but 17.5 points ahead of St. Cloud State and Adam State College who would be tied for third. Using this scale, Fort Hays State would place fifth. Interestingly, in the coaches team rankings, Adam State is ranked 15th and Fort Hays is ranked 13th. They will probably both be hailed as over achievers when the tournament is complete.
  
  If tournament winners ,or even place winners could be picked by rankings or polls, there would be no need to wrestle the tournament. Obviously, that is not the case. Fans and the media like rankings so they will know who the favorites are suppose to be. But as every coach and wrestler will tell you, rankings are on paper and it is what happens on the mat that counts. That said, it will be the team and the wrestlers that come to the meet with the proper mindset, and catches a few breaks in the close matches that will come out on top.
  
  The NCAAII Tournament is the only major college tournament that does not seed their brackets. Instead they use a matrix where the four regional champions are each placed in separate quartiles with a 2nd , a 3rd, and a 4th place finishers from the other three regions. This eliminates a lot of politics that would occur in a seeding meeting and it makes it possible to release the pairings the day following the regional tournaments. Unfortunately, you can sometimes pair the two best wrestlers in a weight class on the same side of the bracket, and thus have them face each other in the semi-finals instead of the championship finals. This said, I will try to analyze our teams national tournament pairings. We tell our wrestlers that it doesn’t matter who they draw for opponents, if they plan to win a championship, they are going to have to beat the best opponents sooner or later. Sometimes it is easier to pull an upset in an earlier match, as opposed to the later rounds. Also, if you lose an early round match in what appeared to be a bad draw, the draw can look can look much better when you start coming back through the consolation brackets.
  
  At 125 pounds, Cody Zimmerman ( who is ranked #5)has his first match with the fourth place finisher from the East Region. If he wins that match, he will most likely face #2 Seth Wright, a Division I transfer wrestling at New Mexico Highlands. He is the second place finisher from the West Region. The top three nationally ranked wrestlers are all from the West Region. Wright has been ranked #1 much of the season. If Cody wins that match, he would most likely wrestle #3 Thomas Edgemon from Fort Hays State. Edgemon placed third in the tough West Region, he placed second in last year’s nationals. Cody has wrestled him twice. He beat him in a dual meet last year, and lost to him at the nationals. The top ranked wrestler in this weight class is Arsenia Barksdale from Adam State College. He is the West Regional champion as well as last year’s National champion. If Cody wins his first three matches, Barksdale would be his most likely finals opponent. He has lost to him three times in his career, most recently by a score of 7-5.
  
  At 149 pounds, Craig Becker ( who is ranked #1) has his first match with the East Regional fourth place finisher. If he wins that match his most likely opponent is #7 Thomas Hepburn from the University of Nebraska-Kearney. Craig defeated Hepburn 10-2 in our dual with UNK in January. A victory in that match, would most likely bring about a rubber match with Mitch Smith from West Liberty State College. Smith is the East Region champ and is ranked #2 in the country. Smith started his collegiate wrestling career wrestling at Hofstra University, a top notch NCAAI team. He and Becker have split in two matches this year. Smith won the first match by a defensive fall in the finals of the Midwest Classic. A week later Becker came back to take a 3-1 decision at the National Dual Meet Tournament. If Craig should reach the finals, it could be another rematch, with his most likely opponent being #3 Esai Dominguez from UNO. Craig has won two out of three matches with Dominguez.
  
  At 157 pounds, Dillon Bera (who is ranked #3) has his first match with the West Regions fourth place finisher. If he wins that match, his opponent would either be #8 Jon Jackson from Anderson College, or more likely Jon Sundgren from St. Cloud State University. Sundgren has been rated most of the season. He owns a 9-5 decision over Bera in January. If Dillon can get through the quarter-finals, his opponent would most likely be the #1 ranked wrestler Joey Deaguero, the West Region champion from Adam State College. Dillon and Deaguero have never meet, but they do have one common opponent, Michael Lybarger from Findlay. Deaguero lost to Lybarger in an overtime match at the Midwest Classic. Bera has beaten Lybarger twice, 4-0 and 7-2. If Bera could win his first three matches, there are at least three wrestlers on the opposite side of the bracket that could be his opponent in the finals. They include,#2 Danny Grater from Fort Hays State, #5 Marcus Edgington from Augustana College, or possibly a rematch with UNO’s George Ivanov who is ranked #4.
  
  At 165 pounds, Matt Gille will get reacquainted with a familiar foe in his first match. His opponent will be #4 Tad Merritt, the North Region runner-up from St. Cloud State University. In two previous matches, Matt has lost by eight points both times. Merritt placed third, as a freshman, in last year’s national tournament. He won two out of three matches last year against UWP All-American Corey VanGroll. If Matt gets by Merritt, the road gets even steeper. His opponent would most likely be #5 Victor Carazo, the West Regional champ from Grand Canyon University. Luke Rynish lost to Carazo by a score of 7-6 at the Midwest Classic, when Carazo was wrestling at 174 pounds. If Matt can find a way to win his first two matches, his path becomes exponentially more difficult. In all likely hood his semi-finals opponent would be #1 Josh Shields the two time defending National Champion from Mercyhurst College(PA). Shields also owns victories in the 2008 and 2009 NCAAII National tournament over the previously mentioned Corey VanGroll. Whoever comes out of this meat grinder side of the bracket will most likely face #2 Travis Eggers from Upper Iowa. Travis is the North Region champion. This year he has beaten Matt Gille twice, both times by a fall. Those are the only two times Matt has been pinned in his college career.
  
  At 174 pounds, Luke Rynish (who is ranked #4), appears to have a very favorable draw. He is especially excited about his first match. As fate would have it, he is paired up with the fourth place finisher from the East Region, Chris Chenoweth, Newberry College. Luke wrestled Chenoweth in early January, in the quarter-finals of the Midwest Classic. In that match ,he was leading by a score of 8-3 midway into the second period. While he was pushing to score a pin with an arm bar, Luke, according to the official, lifted Chenoweth’s arm too far off his back, and he was penalized for using an illegal move. To me it was a very marginal call that very few officials would make. The intended result was to stop the move and award Chenoweth one point. However the Newberry coach told his wrestler that he was too injured to continue wrestling, thus causing Luke to have to default the match to Chenoweth. Chenoweth made a remarkable recovery and was fine by the time of his next match. Fortunately, Luke and his teammates scored enough points in that tournament to still win the meet, beating the #2 nationally ranked Newberry College by 9.5 points. As they say, payback can be fun. If Luke wins the rematch, his opponent could either be the second place finisher from the West Region, Cody Vasconcellos from Chadron State, or #7 Jarret Hall from MSU-Moorhead ,the third place finisher from the North Region. If Luke wins his first two matches, his most likely semi-finals opponent would be #3 JJ Davis from the University of North Carolina-Pembroke. Luke and JJ have never competed against each other, but they do have one common opponent, Victor Carazo, from Grand Canyon University. Carazo defeated Luke by a 7-6 score, and he pinned JJ in the first period. If Luke can make it to the finals, his opponent would most likely be #1 Marty Usman, the West Regional champion and last year’s national runner-up. Luke has wrestled Usman three times in his career, twice last year and once this year. He has lost all three bouts, but the scores have been respectable. This year’s match was 5-2.
  
  At 184 pounds, Lucas Haag (who is ranked #3) landed on the more challenging side of the bracket. If he can win his first round match against the fourth place finisher from the West Region, his most likely opponent would be #7 Robert Blanton, the third place finisher in the East Region from Newberry College. Blanton spent much of the earlier part of the season ranked #1. Haag and Blanton have wrestled each other twice, Haag won the first time and Blanton has won the most recent match by a score of 6-2. If Lucas can win his first two matches, his most probable semi-finals opponent would be the West Region champion and the top rated Charlie Phiper from Western State College. Pipher defeated Lucas the only time they have wrestled, two years ago. On the opposite side of the bracket, Lucas has defeated three of the four ranked wrestlers. The one we haven’t seen is the East Region champion, #4 Tim Darling from Kutztown University(PA). Knowing the vulnerabilities of the three wrestlers that Lucas has defeated, my pick on that side of the bracket to make the finals is Darling.
  
  At 197 pounds, Jon Treml is in one of the most competitive weight classes in the tournament. His first round match is against the North Region’s runner-up #5 Lucas Munkelwitz from St. Cloud State University. In our dual with SCSU, Jon lost to Lucas by a score of 12-2. If Jon can pull an upset, his most likely opponent will be #4 Donovan McMahill, the West Region champion from Western State College(CO). If Jon doesn’t spring the upset in the first round, he would have a great opportunity to go through the back door (wrestlebacks) and earn All-American honors. If he has to take the back door approach, his first opponent in all likely hood would be the fourth place finisher from the East Region, Scott Snyder from Kutztown University. If he would win that match, his next opponent would most likely be #8 Shane Nolan from the University of North Carolina-Pembroke. He placed second in the East Region. The winner of that match would be guaranteed All-American honors. The matches after that would get tougher as he continues to win, but the potential is to come all the way back to third place. The goal is to stay on the winners side of the bracket as long as possible, but if a loss does occur, a wrestler has to have the mindset that they are still going to earn All-American honors, and contribute valuable team points to their team’s trophy chase.
  
  For a wrestler, looking beyond their first match can be a very big mistake. The upcoming match is the one they need to focus on, if not, that is when upsets occur. For coaches, it can be valuable too look at the entire bracket and see who their wrestler may potentially have to compete against. Hopefully they can gather a scouting report, and try to formulate a plan to help their wrestler compete more effectively. For fans it is human nature to glance down the bracket and try to figure out who their guys next opponent is. That said, the winner in most cases will be the wrestler who has trained the hardest, sacrificed the most, and deep down he knows he has done everything humanly possible to put himself in the best possible situation to be a winner.

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Wednesday, March 3, 2010

NCAA Division II wrestling rankings

mkirk@uco.edu
Wednesday, March 3 (For Immediate Release)

EDMOND, Okla. -- Nebraska-Omaha will be the overwhelming favorite to capture its second straight NCAA Division II national championship next week after the Mavericks were the unanimous first-place pick in the final NCAA Division II Wrestling Coaches Association poll of the season.

UNO received all eight first-place votes in balloting of coaches from around the country to finish with 160 points in the rankings. The Mavericks have been No. 1 in 15 straight polls the past two years, having topped the rankings in every poll in 2008-09 and again this season.

Nebraska-Omaha won the Super Region II title and qualified all 10 individuals for the NCAA Division II Wrestling Championships, which the
Mavericks will host on March 12-13.

Super Regional I champion Newberry (S.C.) stayed No. 2 in the poll, while Super Regional III winner Augustana (S.D.) moved from fifth to
third and Wisconsin-Parkside stayed fourth.

Rounding out the top 10 is St. Cloud State (Minn.), Super Regional IV champion Western State (Colo.), Pittsburgh-Johnstown (Pa.), Gannon
(Pa.), Nebraska-Kearney and Upper Iowa.

The top 20 poll, with points and the teams’ last ranking following by the top-eight rankings at each weight:

Rank / School / (State) / Points / Last Ranking
1. Nebraska-Omaha  (NE) 160 1st
2. Newberry (S.C.) 152 2nd
3. Augustana (S.D.) 136 5th
4. Wisconsin-Parkside (WI) 131 4th
5. St. Cloud State (Minn.) 115 10th
6. Western State (Colo.) 113 T11th
7. Pittsburgh-Johnstown (Pa.) 111 6th
8. Gannon (Pa.) 106 8th
9. Nebraska-Kearney (NE) 102 7th
10. Upper Iowa (IA) 98 3rd
11. Central Oklahoma (OK) 78 13th
12. Minnesota State (MN) 76 9th
13. Fort Hays State (Kan.) 57 14th
14. Findlay (Ohio) 48 16th
15. Adams State (Colo.) 43 15th
16. San Francisco State (Calif.) 39 18th
17. North Carolina-Pembroke (NC) 38 T11th
18. Grand Canyon (Ariz.) 27 20th
19. Minnesota State-Moorhead (MN) 19 NR
20. Kutztown (Pa.) 16 19th
Others receiving votes: Ashland (Ohio), Central Missouri, Chadron State (Neb.), West Liberty (W.Va.).

NCAA Division II Individual Rankings

Wednesday, February 24, 2010

UW-Parkside Wrestling Assistant Coaches

On Sunday, February 28th our team swings back into action at the NCAA II Midwest Regional ( also known as the Super Two Regional ). The University of Central Missouri, located in Warrensburg, MO will be the tournament host. We will be joined by eight other schools, including the University of Nebraska at Omaha, the University of Central Oklahoma, the University of Central Missouri, Truman State University (MO), the University of Indianapolis, the University of Findlay (OH), Ashland College (OH) and Newman University (KS). The University of Nebraska at Omaha is the favorite to win the regional and probably qualify all ten of their wrestlers to the NCAA II Nationals, which will be held on Friday and Saturday, March 12 and 13 on their campus. They have won the NCAA II National Championships three out of the last four years, and their team this year is perhaps their strongest ever. In each weight class the top four finishers will advance to the nationals. Because there is no seeding at the national tournament, the higher a wrestler finishes at the regional, the better his draw will be at the nationals. Results of the regional will be available on the UCM wrestling web site. They will be updating the brackets throughout the day.

In this last update, prior to the regional, I would like to write about the role that our assistant coaches play in the success of our team. On this year’s team we have two very quality assistants, Gregg Lewis and Mike Lopez. They are both extremely knowledgeable and 100% committed to the success of our team.

Gregg Lewis has been a part of our team for the past 15 years. In my forty years as the head coach at UW-Parkside, I have had over twenty young men serve as my assistants. None have been with the team for even half the years that Gregg has. I have had many great assistants, but none have worked harder, been more loyal and dedicated , or cared more about our team members than Gregg has. Gregg had an All-American wrestling career at the University of Wisconsin-LaCrosse, and also served as a graduate assistant in their program while he earned his master’s degree. Shortly thereafter he contacted me about joining our coaching staff. Almost fifteen years later and he is still with us. In that time period, he married his wife Amy, and they have two great children, Gabe and Chloe. He also is very successful in his career in pharmaceutical sales. His responsibilities with the team include planning and directing most of the practices, teaching technique, conditioning and strengthening, motivating our athletes, as well as serving as a great role model for our team. Over the years we have had very few guys on our team that could compete with him in our practice matches. He is a big reason for our success.

Mike Lopez joined our coaching staff three years ago. Mike had a very successful collegiate wrestling career at Luther College. He earned All-American honors twice, and he was the 2006 NCAA III National Champion at 133 pounds. He is a perfect complement to Coach Lewis. He is able to work with the lighter wrestlers. He is also an outstanding technical wrestler, with some great takedowns, setups, finishes and counters. He has taught some techniques to our wrestlers that have really improved our chances of success. Mike is only a few years older than the guys on the team, so he provides a wonderful workout partner for many of them. Mike competed in and finished, an Iron Man Triathlon last fall, so obviously he keeps himself in great shape. Mike also adds an element of toughness to our team. His attitude is, that even if he doesn’t win, he wants his opponent to know that he was in the battle of his life. Mike works for an accounting firm in Kenosha, and recently bought a home and a rental property in Kenosha, so he plans to be around for a long time.

Gregg and Mike are two of the best assistants that have ever been associated with our program, but over the years I have been very fortunate to have some great young men help with the team. With the exception of Gregg and Mike, just about every other assistant coach was a former UW-Parkside wrestler. Most of them were All-Americans, and several were National Champions. After UW-Parkside, most of them went on to coach elsewhere, either at the high school level, or in a few cases at the college level. The most notable exception of a non alumnus helping coach our team was Tony Azarian. Tony was a Racine business man who had been an All-American wrestler at UW-Whitewater. From 1988, until his unfortunate death in 2001, he served as a volunteer coach. He was instrumental in helping to develop many of our upper weights such as Ted Price, Mark Hemauer, Darin Tiedt, Jim Bezotte, Miles Weaver, Steve Kimpel, Myles Muckerheide, Ryan Fitzgerald and Jeremie Ott into All-American wrestlers. He was also a very generous and gracious person who was a dear friend in many ways.

Most recently, Jeremie Ott, Roger Spear and Ken Schmidt have been assistant coaches at UW-Parkside. They all played a role in coaching some of our current team members. I remind them, that the success that our team is now enjoying, is due in part to the contributions they made to the development of our team. All three of them had outstanding wrestling careers at UW-Parkside, and have given back some of that knowledge they acquired.

At least six of my former assistants are now enjoying very successful careers as high school coaches. Joel Dutton has really developed Kenosha Tremper High School into a top program in Wisconsin, and he has produced some outstanding wrestlers. Ted Price, at Muskego High School is probably one of the best coaches in Wisconsin. He has put out some great wrestlers, and his team is a frequent participant in the team state meet. Mark Hemauer has been very successful at Deforest High School. He coaches at a school that has had a proud tradition in wrestling, and he has maintained that tradition. Brad Shefchik is the head coach at Bayport High School. One of his former wrestlers, Ryan Woods, is on our team, and should challenge for All-American honors next year. It is just a matter of time before Brad’s team becomes one of the better teams in Wisconsin. Tom Richie is a high school head coach in western Wisconsin. His father Jim is a Hall of Fame coach, and he was very instrumental in my career. In the one year that Tom helped me coach, I saw that the apple had not fallen very far from the tree. He will have success. Rob Jankowski is the head coach at San Luis High School in Arizona. He has had success, despite the fact that he is coaching many young men who are relative beginners in the sport. Many of his wrestlers live in Mexico and walk across the Rio Grande bridge every day to get to school. He is making a difference in their lives.

Steve Skarda, Luke Goral, Boone Smith, Craig DeGreef and Corey Schefchik also helped coach the team. After their competitive careers were finished at UW-Parkside, they served as student assistant coaches while they finished their undergraduate degrees. Each of them made a unique contribution to the team. Next year I am very much looking forward to having Craig Becker be a part of our coaching staff, as he will be completing the requirements for his degree. He is possibly the most skilled wrestler that I have ever had the pleasure to coach. He has the perfect temperament to be a coach, and he will make a great workout partner for the guys on the team.

Some people probably think I have a good memory, remembering who has served as an assistant coach over the years. I wish I could take the credit, but we have a 16x20 picture hanging in our wrestling room of each team from the past forty years. It is easy to look at the pictures and see who is wearing a coaching shirt. With the exception of Gregg Lewis and Tony Azarian, five individuals show up in several pictures each. All five of them have played a huge role in the success of our team. All five of them would be very high on my list of best friends. Four of them have been inducted into the UW-Parkside Athletic Hall of Fame.

Ken Martin, is possibly the best wrestler that I ever coached. He was UW-Parkside’s first All-American in any sport, and also our schools first National Champion in any sport. He was the first collegiate wrestler in the state of Wisconsin to become a four time All-American. After his brilliant wrestling career, he served as an assistant for four years. Much of the success that I have had as a coach, I attribute to the contributions that Ken made to our program both as a wrestler and as a coach.

A case could also be made that Bob Gruner, might be the best wrestler to ever compete for UW-Parkside. Bill West and Ted Price would be in that discussion also. Regardless, Bob Gruner was one of the most talented coaches that I ever had the pleasure to work with. To this day, I don’t think I have ever coached a wrestler that worked harder to develop his skills and his level of conditioning. He competed against some of the best wrestlers in the country and attended several national training camps. As a result, he acquired a great base of knowledge and experience. He was very analytical and innovative in his style of coaching. I think I learned more from him, than he learned from me.

Dan Winter had a great wrestling career at UW-Parkside. He earned All-American honors seven times, due to the fact that we were dual affiliated with both the NAIA and the NCAA II and were able to compete in two national tournaments a year. After Dan finished his eligibility, he continued to help me coach for three or four years. He was perhaps the smoothest, coolest wrestler to ever wear a UW-Parkside singlet. He showed great technique and was very respected by our team members. After UWP he had a successful high school coaching career, and he still helps out at the club level.

Todd Yde helped with our program as a volunteer assistant for six years. He shared the knowledge he acquired while earning three All-American awards at UW-Parkside. He was an outstanding technician and a great competitor. He was fortunate in that he trained with and learned a lot from Bob Gruner. Following his time at UWP, Todd served as the head coach at UW-Oshkosh, with considerable success, for six years. He is now a detective with the Racine Police Department.

My fifth long time assistant was Paul Roth. Paul wrestled for UW-Parkside as a 450 pound heavyweight ( that was the era when heavyweights had no limits), and had an outstanding career. He still holds the team record with 25 pins in one season. For several years Paul served the team in whatever capacity he could. He was not a great teacher of skills, but he was very generous with his time. He helped the team, and more specifically me with tournaments, camps, recruiting, fund raising or anything that I needed help with. UW-Parkside Wrestling lost a great friend, as did I, when Paul died at the young age of 35. His contribution to the program will never be forgotten.

Most of these assistant coaches have worked for little or no pay. To them, giving back to the sport that they love, is their reward. Working out with a college wrestling team, is their idea of recreation or having fun. However the demands of being at practice every day, and using vacation days to attend tournaments can be very demanding. Also ,the time away from their families can be a strain. The gas required to drive to the university every day for practice can be expensive. The university has no money in their budget for assistant wrestling coaches. Therefore, any financial assistance that is given to our assistant coaches is from money that the team raises in their various different fundraising projects. Our assistants don’t do what they do for money. Seeing one of their wrestlers on top of an award stand, especially at a national tournament is a feeling they will never forget. That said, we do want our assistants to know that what they contribute to the betterment of the team is greatly appreciated.

Friday, February 19, 2010

UW-Parkside Wrestling Recruiting

This update will not be about specific recruits that the University of Wisconsin-Parkside is trying to add to next year’s team. NCAA rules prohibit a coach from publically commenting on specific recruits until they have been officially signed to a national letter of intent. We did not sign anyone during the early signing period in November. The next opportunity to do so will be in early April.

This update will concern itself more with the recruiting process and also the UW-Parkside general philosophy concerning recruiting. A very popular statement in athletics is that “recruiting is the lifeblood of a program.” I definitely agree with that statement, but I would take it one step farther and say “recruiting the right type of an athlete for your team, is the lifeblood of a program.” The question then becomes, who is the right type of athlete for your program?

Every college wrestling coach can make a list of who they believe to be the best high school wrestlers in their state. They can use state rankings, state tournament placings, results of major tournaments such as the Cheesehead, the Clash, Oshkosh on the Water, the Pulaski Invitational, and many others. They can further evaluate by watching actual matches on various internet web sites of the best wrestlers in the state.

Before the wrestling season starts, I usually have a list of who I think are the most talented 50 or 60 seniors in the state of Wisconsin. I also have lists of top seniors from other states – mainly Illinois. As the season progresses, new names are added and a few get deleted.

The difficult part is trying to decide which of these 50 or 60 wrestlers would be a good fit for our program. My forty years of recruiting and coaching experience tells me that approximately half of these wrestlers will either not attend college, or not go to a college with a wrestling program. It also tells me that almost half of the remaining wrestlers will decide not to compete in the sport of wrestling at the college level. That means that in an average year, maybe only 15 or 20 of the most talented high school wrestlers from the state of Wisconsin will continue in the sport of wrestling at the collegiate level. Research has also shown me that almost half of these wresters won’t stay with the sport for the next four or five years. This high attrition is caused by many factors such as, loss of interest, poor grades, lack of success, injuries, girlfriends, or a desire to concentrate on other things. Every year at the completion of the season, I will look at my recruiting lists from five years earlier and see how many wrestlers stayed with the sport for their entire college career and had some success. Often it is less than ten wrestlers who had the type of collegiate career that their high school success seemed to indicate they were capable of.

There are several characteristics that we look for in trying to determine who would be a good fit for our program. The most obvious is academics. In order for a recruit to benefit our team, he has to be able to stay eligible and progress toward a degree. If not, he may only be a part of the team for a short amount of time. Good teams should have several seniors each year.

Tied very closely with strong academics is a strong work ethic. If we can recruit a wrestler that is self-motivated and has a strong work ethic, I think we can coach him to be an All-American level wrestler. A wrestler with a strong work ethic will train year-round developing his skills, developing his strength and improving his conditioning. He will also do whatever it takes to stay eligible and progress toward a degree.

Another important characteristic is strong character. In a college setting there are many temptations that can ruin an athletic career. Things such as alcohol, drugs, academic fraud, skipping classes, dishonesty and poor time management skills all lead to disaster for a wrestler.

A fourth characteristic that we look for is how well a young man will fit in with our current team members. I think a large part of our team’s success has been that our team members are good friends, not only in the wrestling room, but also outside of the wrestling room. Most of our team members have a wrestler or wrestlers for roommates. They eat their meals together, have classes together, study together, and do things socially together. We have no cliques on our team. The under classmen are friends with the upper classmen. We do not allow any forms of hazing, or making the under classmen do menial tasks. Alumni, and especially recent graduates come back to campus and get to know the current team members. They become lifetime friends. When a recruit and his family visit our campus, every team member makes it a point to spend some time with the recruit. He is evaluating us, but we are also evaluating how we think he will fit into our team family.

Deciding which recruits have all the characteristics you are looking for is not easy. Every recruit is not going to grade out as an A in each category. If he doesn’t have at least a high passing grade in each category, hopefully an A in a couple of categories, he probably won’t survive the ups and downs of a four or five year collegiate wrestling career. I make my evaluations through my recruiting conversations with the young man and often times his parents. I like to talk to his coaches and sometimes his teachers. I also like to talk to other coachers that are familiar with the young man and whose opinions I value. I also value the feedback I get concerning the recruit from our current team members.

If the coaching staff and team members think that a recruit would be a good addition to our program that is just the first step. Our job then becomes to convince the young man that we would be a good fit for him. I try to impress upon our recruits that it will be a decision that will not only impact the next four or five years of his life, but the next forty or fifty. The recruits that we really want to attract to our team, are also very much in demand by several other good wrestling teams. Our job is to convince them, that we would be their best choice.

Our school and our wrestling program have many strong selling points. The team has had a proud tradition in wrestling for the past forty years. Very few teams nationally have had as much success as UW-Parkside. In the past forty seasons, Ranger wrestlers have earned wrestling All-American honors 120 times, Academic All-American honors 75 times, and have won 13 individual National Championships. Team wise, the Rangers have placed in the top ten at a National Tournament 21 times, and they have been among the top ten in the academic competition eight out of the last 17 years. Three wrestlers have earned NCAA II Post Graduate Scholarship recognition.

Our University also has many selling points. We are part of the very prestigious University of Wisconsin System. It has an extremely high academic reputation, and the system has the fourth highest enrollment in the country. Our Parkside campus has some very excellent academic programs. We are particularly strong in the Business, Pre-Health, Computers, Criminal Justice, Sports Fitness, Sports Management, Teacher Education, and many other outstanding programs. Our university is one of the most beautiful campus’ in the state of Wisconsin. It is located on over 700 acres of land. We recently celebrated our University’s 40th anniversary, so all of our facilities are relatively new. Our athletic facilities and our wrestling facility is comparable to any in the state of Wisconsin. Many new additions to buildings are taking place on our campus, including the student union, dorms, and Communication Arts/Theatre Building. We are very well located near Lake Michigan, between Kenosha and Racine, the fourth and fifth largest cities in Wisconsin. We are just 30 minutes south of Milwaukee and an hour north of Chicago.

Probably one of our biggest selling points is that we are the only NCAA II school in the state of Wisconsin. There are several advantages related to that fact. NCAA II schools permit the practice of redshirting, whereas NCAA III schools prohibit the practice. What redshirting means is that you have five years of school to use your four years of wrestling eligibility. Most athletes who red shirt usually don’t use their first of eligibility during their first year on the team. They can practice with the team and compete unattached in several open tournaments. This way they save all four years of eligibility for their next four years in school. Athletically it makes sense, because most freshmen don’t have the strength or experience to earn a varsity spot on a strong team. Academically it makes sense because a student can spread his education out over five years, and can also pick up a second major, a minor or possibly an extra certification or internship in their field of study. NCAA III schools do not allow this practice because the vast majority of them are private schools that cost approximately three times what a state supported school does. If a wrestler is on an NCAA III team’s roster, he uses a year’s eligibility whether he competes or not.

Another selling point of being in a NCAA II school is that we can offer a student an athletic scholarship. Let me preface this by saying that scholarships in the sport of wrestling are pretty scarce. NCAA I wrestling teams are allowed to offer 9.9 full ride scholarships and NCAA II wrestling teams are allowed to award 9.0 full ride scholarships. NCAA III athletes are only eligible to receive aid based on need or possibly academics, but not athletic aid. A full ride scholarship consists of tuition, housing, food, and books. At a state school such as UW-Parkside that would amount to approximately $12,000. Some NCAA I, and most NCAA II schools do not have the funding to offer the maximum number of scholarships that they are allowed. For a school such as UW-Parkside, it would cost over $100,000 a year to fully fund nine full scholarships, and even more if some of them were for out-of-state residents. Most NCAA II teams are probably in the 4-5 scholarship range. Most of the top NCAA I teams are close to the maximum. When you consider that an NCAA II team that redshirts many of their freshman, they have wrestlers spread out over five classes. If you are able to spread your scholarship money out evenly over those five classes, each class would receive approximately one fifth of a team’s scholarship money. Most teams like to bring in at least ten wrestlers in their incoming freshman class. If a team divided their available scholarship money up evenly among their incoming recruits and they had one to two scholarships available, that would mean that each recruit would receive between a 10% to 20% scholarship. In fact, most schools will give the high school All-Americans and multiple state champions a higher percentage, and the rest little or nothing. Another common practice is to pull money from the upper classmen that have not produced to the coach’s expectations, and award it to the new recruits. This is permissible, as NCAA rules prohibit schools from offering a scholarship for more than one year at a time.

Our scholarship policy is to try and reward our upperclassmen the most. Many of our freshmen come in as walk-ons, and as soon as they demonstrate a high degree of the four characteristics that I mentioned earlier, we put them on a scholarship. Their scholarship will get larger as they prove their value to our team. During the course of a four or five year career, a wrestler with a strong work ethic, good character, leadership skills, good academics, and a strong showing in our competitions could receive between $20,000-30,000 in scholarship money. The result is that they usually graduate with a greatly reduced amount of student loans. We do award some scholarships to incoming freshman. Many of them have spent a lot of time and money getting to the level that they are at, and a scholarship gives them and their parents an opportunity to somewhat reap the rewards of their efforts and expenses. Our goal is to never be forced to take a scholarship away from an upper class wrestler unless it is for a serious violation of team or university rules, or for academic deficiencies.

Another selling point for wrestling at the NCAA II level is that the competition is at a little higher level than at non-scholarship programs. All of the NCAA II schools that we compete against have athletes on scholarships. Some have near the maximum and others a lot less. As a result we see some tough competition. Several of the NCAA III non-scholarship schools we compete against also have some very good wrestlers. Some of those teams would do very well at the NCAA II level.

We feel that wrestling at an NCAA II school such as UW-Parkside is very challenging. We compete at a high level and we have a coaching staff that will develop a highly skilled and motivated athlete into a very competitive wrestler. We feel that any wrestler that is offered a wrestling scholarship or earns a wrestling scholarship at UW-Parkside has the ability and the potential to become an NCAA II All-American and possibly an NCAA II National Champion.

(Thursday, February 11, 2010)

UW-Parkside Wrestling Academic Update

The UW-Parkside Wrestling team’s next competition is not until Sunday, February 28th when we compete in the NCAA II Super Two Regional’s. This update is to inform you about another aspect of the team. Now is a good time to do so, because when we start competing, this information will become secondary, even though in the long run, it might be more important than the wins and losses. I am referring to the academic achievements of our team members.

Historically, our team has earned many academic honors. In 1983 the NAIA National Wrestling Coaches Association instituted an Academic All-American Award for individuals that displayed a high level of wrestling skills and achieved a high grade point average. In 1986 the NCAA II Wrestling Coaches Association also instituted an award with the same criteria. Due to copy right laws the NAIA renamed their award the Scholar Athlete Award and the NCAA II renamed their award the All-Academic Team Award. In 1994 the NCAA II Wrestling Coaches Association also instituted an award for the team which has the highest grade point average. The grade point average used for the competing teams, is the cumulative GPA average for the wrestlers that a school enters in their qualifying tournament. The UW-Parkside Wrestling Team has earned a total of 67 Academic All-American Awards in either the NAIA or NCAA II. They have been in the top ten in the team competition a total of seven times, including each of the past three years . They are only one of seven NCAA II schools to win the Academic National Championship. The 1993-94 team posted a 3.20 GPA to win the inaugural title.

Probably, the most prestigious award that an NCAA student athletic can earn is the NCAA Postgraduate Award. A very limited number are awarded each year to NCAA athletes in all sports, that demonstrate a very high degree of athletic achievement and academic achievement. In UW-Parkside’s thirty plus years as a member of the NCAA, only four Ranger student-athletes have been selected for this award. Three of them have been members of the UW-Parkside wrestling team. In 1990, Ted Price, a three time All-American and Wrestling National Champion became the initial UWP winner of this award. In 1996, Myles Muckerheide, a three time wrestling All-American, as well as a four time Academic All-American, was selected as an alternate for the post graduate scholarship. In 1997, Wendy Wolff, an All-American softball player, became the first non wrestler to win the award. In 2006, Brad Becker, a three time All-American and wrestling National Champion, became the third UWP wrestler to win this prestigious scholarship.

This year’s team has not only excelled on the mat, but they have also done very well in the classroom. Eight members of the team have been nominated for the All-Academic Team award, and they all will receive the prestigious award. Two team members, Lucas Haag and Cody Zimmerman will be receiving the award for the third time. What makes their recognition even more significant, is the fact they are both in very rigorous pre-health majors. Lucas Haag has already been accepted to two pharmacy schools, and Cody Zimmerman is taking course to prepare him for a career as a physician’s assistant. Luke Rynish will earn this award for the second time. He is preparing to be a math teacher. Five wrestlers, four of which are freshman will earn the award for the first time. They are Dillon Bera, Matt Gille, James Malechek, Arik Yde and Vince Depp. For a freshman to qualify for the award, he would have had to red-shirt his first year in school, because the award requires a minimum of three semesters of grades to be considered . All four of the freshman, plus Cody Zimmerman and Luke Rynish have the possibility of earning the Academic All-American award four times in their career. The only UWP wrestler to ever win this NCAA II award four times was Andy Mueller (1999-2002). Myles Muckerheide (1993-1996), Jack Danner (1986-1988) and Mark Dubey (1986-1988) were also four time Academic All-Americans, combining NAIA and NCAA II awards. In the past three years there have been 19 NCAA II wrestlers nationwide that have earned Academic All-American honors four times. In the next three years, there is a possibility that six UW-Parkside wrestlers could earn this distinction.

The Rangers will be a strong challenger in the overall team competition for the Academic National Championship. Based on the team they are projected (barring injuries) to enter in the regional qualifying tournament, their team average GPA will be 3.3003. That is the highest GPA the Rangers have ever entered in this competition. In the past four years, that would have placed third twice and fourth twice. In the last several years, the two most dominant teams in this competition have been Truman State University (Missouri) and Colorado School of Mines.

 

UW-Parkside wins three individual titles

February 8, 2010

UW-Eau Claire Invitational Results

The UW-Parkside Wrestling team competed in their final regular season competition on Saturday, February 6th. This was their sixth consecutive weekend with a major competition on the schedule. In consideration of that fact, the coaches decided to enter only the wrestlers on the team that were 100% healthy and who they felt could benefit from one more competition, before the team enters into post-season competition. As a result the team only entered eight wrestlers, four of whom have been varsity starters and four who have been in back up roles. Six varsity starters, including Craig Becker, Cody Zimmerman, Mike Migawa, Dillon Bera, Jon Treml and Brandon Kircher were given the weekend off to heal injuries, catch up on school work and get refreshed before starting the stretch run to the post season.

As a result, the Rangers knew going into the meet that because they were only entering wrestlers in five weights and would not score in the other five weights, they would not be in contention for team honors. Despite the fact they only entered half a team, they still finished a very respectable third place behind two of the very best NCAA III teams in the country. Augsburg, the # 1 ranked NCAA III team finished first with 221 points, UW-LaCrosse the #5 NCAA III team finished second with 149.5 points and UW-Parkside, the #5 NCAA II team was close behind in third with 126 points. Ten other teams including St. John’s University, Luther College, UW-Whitewater and UW-Oshkosh rounded out the scoring. Augsburg College claimed five individual champions, UW-Parkside had three and UW-LaCrosse had two.

The Rangers first champion was 165 pounder Matt Gille. Matt went 4-0, scoring a tech fall and three major decisions while outscoring his opponents by a combined score of 48-3. His championship match was a 13-1 decision over Beau Hansen from Augsburg. His season record is now 37-8. His 37 wins is the second most ever by a UWP freshman. He is five wins behind the record 42 wins that Luke Rynish had last year as a freshman.

Parkside’s second champion was 174 pounder Luke Rynish. Luke also went 4-0 with two first period pins and two regular decisions. His championship match was a 3-1 sudden victory overtime win over UW-Oshkosh’s Sam Engelland. This was the third time this season, and fourth time in his career that Rynish has beaten Engelland. Luke raised his season record to 32-10.

Parkside’s third champion was 184 pounder Lucas Haag. He two posted a 4-0 record with a pin, a major decision and two regular decision wins. His championship match was a 7-2 decision over Brad Baus from Augsburg. Lucas’ season record is now 40-9.

Other place winners for UW-Parkside were Ryan Woods at 174 pounds, Arik Yde at 141, Curtis Hines at 184 pounds and James Malechek at 285.

Woods placed third going 3-1, Yde placed fifth going 4-1, Hines placed fifth going 3-1 and Malechek placed fifth going 5-1. Woods season record is 18-10, Yde’s season record is now 19-12, Hines season record is 12-13 and Malechek’s season record is now 17-23.

Statistically the eight Rangers were very dominant. They won 28 out of 34 matches . They had 49 takedowns to 19 for their opponents, 67 back points to 3 for their opponents, 8 pins to 1 for their opponents,6 major decisions to 1 for their opponents, and 2 tech falls to 0 for their opponents. In attendance at the meet was super fan Lou Bohan, who came up from his home in Texas to see the meet, and plans to attend both the Super Two Regional in Warrensburg, Missouri and the NCAA II Nationals in Omaha, Nebraska.

The UW-Parkside Rangers now have a three week break until their next competition, which is the regional qualifier for the National Tournament. There are nine teams in our regional, and the top four wrestlers in each weight class will qualify for the nationals. The next three weeks will see the Parkside coaching staff work on improving the teams level of conditioning, refining and improving technique and getting the team in the best frame of mind to compete.

For more team info please go to parksiderangers.com

January 31, 2010

Parkside wins 68th Annual Wheaton College Invitational

The UWP Wrestling team had another outstanding performance this weekend in winning the 68th Annual Wheaton College Invitational. The tournament featured 30 teams with 256 competitors. The meet consisted of nine hours of wrestling on Friday and almost seven hours of wrestling on Saturday. Six mats were used almost continuously throughout the meet. The 30 teams represented colleges and universities from eight states including Illinois Wisconsin, Indiana, Ohio, Michigan, Missouri, Pennsylvania and New Jersey. The Rangers scored 175.5 points, outdistancing runnerup Heidelberg University from Ohio who scored 108.5 points. UW-LaCrosse was third with 92 points. Parkside’s 175.5 points was the third most points ever scored in the 68 year history of the meet. Only UW-LaCrosse who scored 189.5 points in 2001 and 178 points in 2005 has ever scored more points. All ten Ranger wrestlers placed 7th or higher. It is believed to be the first time in the history of the meet that a team had all ten of their wrestlers place. On two other occasions UWP has had 9 place winners in the meet. In 1993 they won the championship with 9 placers, and in 2006 they placed third with 9 placers. This is the 6th time that the Rangers have won this meet, and the 23rd time in 29 appearances that they have finished fourth or higher. Four teams have won more team titles in the meet than UWP. They include Drake University who won 10 titles, Augustana College (IL) who has won 8 titles, and Marquette University and Wheaton College who both won 7 titles.

The Rangers got off to a torrid start on Friday, winning 26 matches while losing just two. That saw them advance eight wrestlers into the semifinals, while the other two stayed alive in the consolation bracket by each going 2-1. Saturday morning, the team picked up about where it left off the night before, with seven of the eight semi finalists advancing to the finals, and both of the guys in the consolation bracket also advancing. At this point, the Rangers had wrapped up the team title, and the only question was how many individual championships could they bring home. Going into the finals, it looked like the Rangers were wrestling a dual meet against an all-star team comprised of wrestlers from the other 29 schools in attendance at the meet. The seven finalists wrestled some great matches, but came up on the losing end of six of the matches.

At 125 pounds, junior Cody Zimmerman lost to Alex Johnson of the University of Indianapolis by a score of 5-3. After a scoreless first period, Cody got granby rolled to his back for 4 points and couldn’t come back from that deficit. This match was particularly disappointing, considering that Cody had beaten Johns 7-1 earlier in the season. Since Indy is in our DII regional there may well be a rematch in the near future, and Cody will be on guard for a granby. Cody’s season record is now 29-5 and he has bumped his career record to 105-28. That places him 22nd on the UWP career win list and 3rd for number of wins for a junior. With over a season to go, he has a possibility to overtake Dennis DuChene’s all-time career record of 146 wins. Cody is ranked #5 among NCAA II wrestlers.

At 133 pounds, senior Brandon Kircher went 3-2 and placed fourth. One of his victory’s was an exciting 7-5 overtime win against Kyle Wacholder from UW-Whitewater. Wacholder had beat Brandon in our dual meet eight days earlier.

At 141 pounds, Mike Migawa continues to show that he is coming of age. The sophomore went 4-1 in the tournament placing second. On Friday he scored two pins and a major decision. In his semi final match he received an injury default win over the number one seed from Olivet College. That set up a finals match against Austin Bautista from UW-Whitewater. Bautista is the #1 rated wrestler in his NCAA III weight class. Migawa had recently lost an overtime match to Bautista in our dual meet, so confidence was high that he could challenge Bautista for this title. Migawa battled to the end but dropped a 5-3 decision. His season record is now 23-14.

At 149 pounds, senior Craig Becker showed why he is the #1 ranked NCAA II wrestler in the country. On Friday he had a 15-2 decision, a 17-2 technical fall as well as a pin. Saturday got a lot tougher with a 2-0 decision in the semis and a 7-3 OT victory in the finals. Craig season record is now 31-2. His career record is 121-28 which is good for 10th place on the UWP all-time career win list . He received many votes for the tournament’s outstanding wrestler award.

At 157 pounds, freshman Dillon Bera showed a lot of poise. He advanced to the finals by beating Luke Miller the #2 rated NCAA III wrestler from Ohio Northern in the semis by a score of 10-6. Earlier in the season he defeated the #2 NCAA II ranked wrestler by a 10-2 score. In the championship match he faced a wrestler who had 3 pins and a tech fall getting to the finals. , He caught Dillon early with a 5 point takedown cradle , but Dillon fought out of it to make the final score 5-2. Dillon’s season record is 26-10.

At 165 pounds, UWP’s second freshman finalist, Matt Gille took the mat. He reached the finals will three wins on Friday and a one minute 43 second pin in the semis over the number one seeded wrestler in his weight class. His opponent in the finals was a little too much for him, earning an 8-3 decision. Matt’s season record is 33-8. He is nine victories away from Luke Rynish’s record of 42 wins by a freshman .

At 174 lbs, sophomore Luke Rynish scored a lot of points on Friday. He recorded a 17-2 tech fall, a 12-3 major decision and a pin in 1:11 . In the semis he defeated a rapidly improving Sam Engelland from UW-Oshkosh for the third time in his career be a score of 3-1. In the championship match he was paired up with another Wisconsin wrestler, Mike Schmitz. In previous matches Luke held a 2-1 edge over Schmitz . This time Schmitz got an early takedown and made it stand up for a 4-3 victory. Luke is currently ranked #7 among NCAA II wrestlers and should move up in the next NCAA II poll ,having recently beaten the number four wrestler. Luke is 28-10 on the season, and recorded his 70th career victory against 26 losses.

At 184 lbs, senior Lucas Haag just keeps on winning. He raised his season record to 36-9 by placing second. In his semifinal match against Ben Adams from John Carroll University (Cleveland, Ohio) he needed a last second reversal to reach the finals. His finals opponent was Ben Youel from North Central College. Youel was going for his fourth Wheaton crown, and Luke had been in his weight class the past three years. A victory here would have been sweet revenge, but it wasn’t meant to be. A first period takedown by Youel, and an official who didn’t want to make a gutsy stall call ,resulted in a 3-2 victory for Youel and the Wheaton College Invitational’s first four time champion in many years. Luke lost to Youel 7-4 in last year’s final match. Haag’s career record is now 129-60, good for fifth place on the UWP All-Time career win list. He is rated #3 in the NCAA II.

At 197 lbs., junior Jon Treml went 4-2 in the tournament and finished in seventh place. Jon is wrestling very well and probably should have placed much higher. He lost an overtime match in the quarterfinals to UW-Whitewater’s Adam Latella. Jon had defeated Adam a week earlier in our dual with UWW. Prior to his quarterfinal match he recorded two pins in :36 and :41 seconds. In Jon’s second consolation match he quickly took his UW-LaCrosse opponent down, and in his haste to record another quick fall, the official felt he touched his own back to the mat for a second, and called a pin on Jon . I very rarely complain to the officials, as their job is tough enough, and they are trying to do the best they can to be fair. This guy just made a mistake, and probably wished afterwards that he hadn’t been so hasty. Jon handled the situation with a lot of class. After that he could only place as high as seventh and that is what he did. His season record is 25-14.

At 285 lbs., we witnessed a wrestler coming of age in this tournament. Freshman James Malechek has had a very rough season up to this point. His lack of college wrestling experience, and the fact that he is a little undersized compared to most collegiate heavyweights left him with an 8-19 record entering the tournament. Combine that with the fact that the 285 pound weight class was the most talented weight class in the tournament, with 5 or 6 nationally ranked competitors, and things didn’t look very promising for James. After a first round loss to a respectable, but beatable opponent James was really depressed. Making matters worse, his teammates were in the process of winning 23 out of 24 matches. Following a little pep talk by his coach, James reeled of four straight wins and put himself in a position to finish sixth in this very difficult weight class. His season record is now 12-22 and he has a new sense of confidence.

With our dual season over and a final record of 10-2 in the books, and both of the traditional Invitational Tournaments that we compete in, behind us, our season is winding down . For the first time in our team history, we won both of our Invitational tournaments. On January 2nd and 3rd we captured the team title at the Midwest Classic in Indianapolis, and this past weekend, four weeks later, we captured the team title in a near record breaking performance at the Wheaton College Invitational. These are perhaps the two most prestigious and longest running smaller colleges tournaments in the country. They annually attract a high number of nationally ranked teams to compete in these two meets. The Midwest Classic consists of primarily NCAA II teams, but several NCAA III and NAIA schools also compete there. The Wheaton College Invitational consists of primarily NCAA III schools, but also several NCAA II schools, and over the years several NCAA I schools. While not too many teams compete in both tournaments on an annual basis, some do. We have competed in both tournaments every year for the past 29 years. We are the first and only school to win both tournaments in the same year. Next Saturday we will take a partial squad to a tournament at UW-Eau Claire. This is the last competition on our schedule until our NCAA II qualifying tournament the Midwest Regional which is going to be held at the University of Central Missouri, in Warrensburg, Missouri on Sunday, February 28th. The main job now facing our coaching staff is to try and keep our team competing at a high level . The process is known as peeking. It is very difficult to keep everyone at a high level for an extended period of time. The purpose of this weekend’s meet is to shorten the period between competitions for our wrestlers in an effort to keep them sharp.

One of the reasons that our team has enjoyed so much success this year is that we have managed to stay relatively healthy. At several weights we have no backups, so any injury or illness would result in forfeits or vacant weight classes. This season is possibly only the second or third time that we have gone through an entire season without any forfeits in duals or any vacant weight classes at Invitational tournaments. Our guys have trained hard to get in the best condition possible, so hopefully they can avoid injuries. We recommend that they get their flu vaccinations to prevent contagious illness. But mostly we have been very lucky. If any of our fans or alumni are interested in attending our regional (Warrensburg, Missouri) or national tournament (Omaha, Nebraska) feel free to contact me concerning tickets or lodging.

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Monday, January 25, 2010

Parkside wraps up dual season at University of Central Missouri Dual Jamboree in Warrensburg, Missouri

We ended our dual meet season on Sunday at the University of Central Missouri Dual Jamboree in Warrensburg, Missouri with four very impressive victories. Our first match was a 29-6 victory over #15 Findlay University. Highlights of that match included a pin by Brandon Kircher at 133 in 3:59 over Jan Ulinski. Ulinski is rated 3rd in our regional and had beaten Brandon twice earlier in the season. Another highlight was Dillon Bera’s victory at 157 over Michael Lyberger by a 4-0 score. Lyberger is rated #1 in our regional. A third highlight was Luke Rynish’s victory at 174 over Justin Shannon by a 4-3 score. Shannon is ranked #2 in our region and #4 in the country.

Our second match was a 28-9 victory over the University of Central Missouri. Highlights included Dillon Bera’s 16-6 victory over All-American Denis Ryzhov, Mike Migawa’s 3-2 loss to All-American Cory Bloodgood and Craig Becker’s pin over Jesse Whitson. Our third match was a 31-6 victory over Northern State University from South Dakota. Brandon Kircher and Craig Becker both recorded their second pins of the day. Our fourth match was a 38-9 victory over Newman University from Kansas. Craig Becker notched his third pin of the day, Luke Rynish also added a pin and Dillon Bera posted a 16-0 technical fall.

For the day, Cody Zimmerman, Craig Becker, Dillon Bera and Matt Gille were 4-0. Luke Rynish and Lucas Haag were 3-0 and Jon Treml was 3-1. Ryan Woods was 1-0, Brandon Kircher was 2-2, Mike Migawa 1-2, James Malechek 1-3, and Curtis Hines and Arik Yde 0-1. The team was 30-10, outscoring our opponents 126-30. Statistically we had 49 takedown and gave up 23, we had 9 reversals and gave up 3, we had 47 back points and gave up 5. We had 6 pins, 4 major decisions and 1 technical fall and gave up none.

Lucas Haag leads the team in wins with a 33-8 record. He is followed by Matt Gille with a 29-7 record, Cody Zimmerman at 26-4, Craig Becker at 26-2, Luke Rynish at 24-9, Dillon Bera at 23-9, Jon Treml at 21-12, Brandon Kircher at 20-17, Mike Migawa at 19-13, Arik Yde at 15-11, Ryan Woods at 12-7, Curtis Hines at 9-10 and James Malechek at 8-19. Career wise, Luke Haag has a record o 126-59. His 126 wins moves him into 5th place on the UWP All-time win list behind only Dennis DuChene , Mark Hemauer, Ted Price and Mike Muckerheide. Craig Becker’s career record is 116-38, which ties him for 12th place with Dan Dempsey. Cody Zimmerman joined the UWP Century Club for wins this past weekend. He became the 27th member when he raised his career win-lost record to 102-27. Cody became only the third member to join the club as a junior. Ted price had 116 wins as a junior and Dennis DuChene had 113 wins as a junior.

Our final dual meet record was 10-2. This is the best record we have had since the 2001-2002 season when we went 12-1. That team featured Joey Charles, Rob Jankowski, Matt Jacobs, Brad Russell, Craig Klawitter, Ken Schmidt, Dan Dempsey, Ken Filas, Andy Mueller, Paul Schlottke, Rick Schmoll, Rory Herring, Luke Goral and Ryan Deprey. With the dual meet portion of our schedule completed, we have two Invitational Tournaments remaining before our regional’s and nationals. This Friday and Saturday we will compete in the 68th annual Wheaton College Invitational against approximately 25-30 teams. On Friday the wrestling will run from 1pm-9pm, and on Saturday it will run from 9am to approx 3pm. We will be trying to defend the title we won last year. The following weekend we will take a partial squad to the UW-Eau Claire invite. Following that, we will have three weeks to try and get our team ready to peak for our regional tournament.

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Friday, January 22, 2010

Rangers defeat UW Whitewater

Tonight our team had another outstanding performance. We went to UW-Whitewater and returned home with the Sake Bottle Trophy and a 25-9 victory. For those of you who don’t know, the Sake Bottle is a traveling trophy between the two schools. In 1975, Coach Jim Koch and the long time UW-Whitewater Coach Willie Myers took a team of NAIA National Champions on a cultural exchange trip to Japan and Korea. It was the first ever wrestling foreign tour for the NAIA (National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics) and the first time an American wrestling team had ever visited Korea. Coach Koch was the Team Leader and Coach Myer was the Team Coach. UW-Parkside wrestler Bill West was on the team and UW-Whitewater wrestler Gary Zizzo was on the team. Following one of the competitions in Japan, coaches Myer and Koch were invited to a meal at the home of Mr. Hatta, the president of the Japanese Wrestling Federation. He was considered the father of Japanese Wrestling. Following the meal, Mr. Hatta gave the Americans the ceremonial empty Sake Bottle from the meal. Coach Myer and Koch decided to take the bottle back to America and make a travelling trophy out of it, to be presented to the winner of the annual dual between the two schools. Tonight marks the 18th time the Rangers have won the trophy. The Warhawks have won the trophy four times. In tonight’s match UWP won seven bouts and lost three. The wins included a technical fall( Becker) and two major decisions (Rynish and Bera). The losses were an overtime and a 2 and a 3 point decision. By far the most exciting match of the evening was the 141 pound overtime match between UW Whitewater’s Austin Batista and UWP’s Mike Migawa. Batista is a 2 time NCAA III All-American senior with a 22-2 record and currently ranked #1 in the NCAA III. Migawa is a sophomore with an 18-11 record and ranked #4 in our region. Mike has probably been our most impressive wrestler of late. Two weeks ago in the National Duals he beat the then ranked #2 wrestler in the NCAA II, and also the now ranked #7 wrestler while going 4-1 in the meet. Tonight, Mike lost 5-3 in the sudden victory overtime period, but not before earning the respect of the UWW team and crowd. Overall the Rangers outscored the Warhawks 79-28 with 17 takedowns, 4 reversals, 6 nearfalls, 2 penalty points and 6 riding time points, to 8 takedowns, and 2 riding time points for UWW. The Rangers had 11 escapes to 10 for the Warhawks. Most importantly everyone stayed healthy. Several parents were present and two alumni ,Ken Schmidt and Jack Danner were present. Saturday morning the team will take off for Warrensburg, Missouri for four dual meets on Sunday. Probably the most challenging match for the Rangers will be there first match at 10AM versus the University of Findlay. Findlay is in our Region ( ranked #15 in the NCAA II) and every match will affect the seeding in our Super Two Regional. The same could also be said about our second match at 11;30 versus Central Missouri( ranked #20 in the NCAA II) as they are also in our Region. The other two match will be against Northern State from South Dakota and Chadron State of Nebraska. Our schedule becomes a little more manageable next week. We will compete in probably my favorite meet of the year, the Wheaton Invitational at Wheaton College. The meet starts at 2PM on Friday, January 29th and continues again on Saturday at 10AM. There are usually 25-30 teams, mostly NCAA III, but with that number of schools there are several quality opponents in each weight class. We are the defending champions, and possibly our main competition will come from instate rival UW-LaCrosse. UWL has been rated much of the year at #1 in the NCAA III, but have dropped a few spots since taking a loss at their National Dual Meet Tournament. The Rangers have never won the Midwest Classic (we won this meet 3 weeks ago) and the Wheaton Invitational in the same year. Ten years ago in 2000 (Rob Jankowski, Brad Russell, Ken Schmidt, Dan Dempsey, Brad Schefchik, Andy Mueller, Rory Herring, Dan Ott, Luke Goral, Ryan Deprey and Joey Charles) we were runner-up in both tournaments, and in 1983 ( Mike Nee, Mike Vania, Matt Kluge, Mike Winter, Mike Muckerheide, Tyrone Harris, Todd Yde, Ted Keyes, Brian Irek and Paul Roth) we won the Midwest Classic and placed 2nd in the Wheaton Invitational. This could be our chance. Until later. Sincerely, Coach Koch

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Thursday, January 21, 2010

Parkside competes in six duals in one week

Dear UWP wrestling alumni and fans, A short note to keep you up to date on now the first of our six duals this week went. We defeated UW-Stevens Point by a 23-12 score, raising our dual record to 5-2. We won 6 matches and lost 4. Two of our loses were in overtime. Our six wins included a pin (Zimmerman) and two majors (Rynish and Migawa). Statistically we were pretty dominant with 18 takedowns to 3 for Point. We also had 3 nearfalls to their 0. I think we were a little sluggish in that our guys had to stay close to weight, because we have to make scratch weight again tomorrow for our makeup dual with UW-Whitewater. Of all the WIAC Conference schools, UW-Stevens Point has historically been our toughest opponent. Our overall record with them is only 12-9-2. Our record with other WIAC schools is 30-4 vs. UW-Oshkosh, 16-4 vs. UW-Whitewater and 23-10-1 vs. UW-LaCrosse. Thursday evening we will put the Sake Bottle Trophy on the line versus UW-Whitewater. It has only been out of our possession for one year (1998-99) since 1978. My goal is to bring it home with us tomorrow evening. The meet starts at UW-Whitewater at 7PM. Tonight was seniors, parents and alumni night. We honored three seniors Brandon Kircher, Craig Becker and Lucas Haag. All three have made a huge contribution to our team the past four years. They have all been four year starters. Brandon Kircher was a National Qualifier as a freshman wrestling at 125 pounds. The past 3 seasons he has sacrificed some of his personal success to help the team by wrestling at 133 pounds, as Cody Zimmerman now wrestles at 125 pounds. Craig Becker has had a great career. He has earned both All-American and Academic-All-American honors. He is currently ranked #1 in the country with a 21-2 record. He has won 111 career matches which is #15 all-time. He is the 3rd of 3 All-American Becker brothers. There has been at least one, and for two years three, Beckers in our lineup for the past nine years. Lucas Haag has had a great career at UW-Parkside. He is currently ranked #3 in the country with a 29-8 record. He has been a two time Academic All-American and has won 122 career matches making him the sixth winningest wrestler in UWP history. Brandon will graduate this spring with a degree in Criminal Justice, Lucas has been accepted for admission into two pharmacy programs, and Craig will return next fall to UWP to finish his degree and help coach the 2010-11 team. We also honored the parents of our team members with 12 sets of parents present. Finally we honored several of our alumni wrestlers. During the intermission approximately 25 alumni where introduced and their accomplishments were recognized by a nice sized home crowd. It was very nice to see our new chancellor, Dr. Debbie Ford in attendance at this evenings meet. She is a big fan of all UW-Parkside’s sports teams. A reception was held after the meet for the alumni and parents. If you weren’t there, make plans to be their next season when we honor our parents and former wrestlers. Sincerely, Coach Jim Koch

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Tuesday, January 19, 2010

This coming Wednesday, January 20th,the Rangers are hosting our only home dual of the season at 7PM. We are wrestling UW-Stevens Point. They have a very fine squad and have been ranked in the top 10 of the NCAA III most of the season. As you are possibly aware, we are also having a very fine season. We are currently ranked #6 in the latest NCAA II rankings. We recently finished 6th in the NWCA National Dual Meet Tournament. We are billing this dual meet with Stevens Point as alumni, senior and parents night. After the competition we plan to have a short reception in the upstairs conference room, with refreshments for all of the honorees. I certainly hope that will try to make it to the meet. I know that many of our former wrestlers will probably enjoy seeing former teammates as much as seeing the match. Our team is wrestling very well and I think you will be proud of their efforts. If you could reply back to me so I will have an idea of who might be in attendance it would be very helpful. I hope to see you on the 20th. We also have a dual meet the very next day at 7PM at UW-Whitewater. That is the 22nd Annual Sake Bottle match. We lead the series 17-4. This match was originally scheduled for December 16th, but due to semester test conflicts it was rescheduled, thus the back to back meets.

Head coach: Jim Koch
E-mail: koch@uwp.edu
office: 262-595-2267
home: 262-552-8670
FAX: 262-595-2225

Sports Information: 262-595-2045
Athletic Office: 262-595-2245

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