Austin O’Connor expects ‘target on back’ after All-American season for North Carolina
With the opportunity to win a national title no longer a reality, Austin O’Connor could have allowed the disappointment of defeat to dictate his remarkable season. That’s not what champions do. They don’t sulk or wallow in self-pity. They persevere and regain their focus. And that’s precisely what O’Connor did on March 25 at the NCAA Tournament for wrestling in Pittsburgh.
A 2017 St. Rita graduate and redshirt freshman for North Carolina, O’Connor regrouped from his loss in the semifinals to Ohio State’s Micah Jordan by winning his next two matches at 149 pounds and earning a third-place finish. O’Connor (34-6) also made a statement, becoming just the seventh freshman All-American for North Carolina and the highest freshman finisher in program history. “There’s a sense of celebration,” O’Connor said. “Shrugging off that (semifinals) loss and being able to beat a kid (Duke’s Mitch Finesilver) twice who I was 1-3 going into the tourney against was huge.” After losing to Jordan, O’Connor then beat Missouri’s Brock Mauller to set up the third-place match against Finesilver. It was the sixth time the two competed against each other this season. Rest of the story and details at https://www.chicagotribune.com/suburbs/daily-southtown/sports/ct-sta-spt-pat-disabato-column-st-0331-story.html?mc_cid=9fa730503d&mc_eid=2ef7cbca4b
Aaron Bancroft of Fike High School to be awarded the Lee Carroll Award
Junior State Champion Aaron Bancroft has been named to receive the 21st Lee Carroll Award for excellence as the best underclassman wrestler in the northern Tri-River area for the 2018-2019 season. The time and date of the presentation of the trophy has yet to be determined but will be announced later.
Check out renovated Dan Gable Museum without leaving home
TDR EDitor’s Notes ; Sounds like a great way to check out this museum before packing up the car and going over.
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Eager to see the totally renovated National Wrestling Hall of Fame Dan Gable Museum … but not able to make the trip to Waterloo, Iowa right now? Now you can take a look inside the facility which just reopened last week after having been closed since last September for a $1.4 million makeover … thanks to your choice of videos available online.
The long …
For an in-depth look inside the new-look Dan Gable Museum, take a look at the video on Trackwrestling.com, featuring your own personal 17-minute tour conducted by museum director Kyle Klingman and Trackwrestling’s Andy Hamilton. The tour starts just inside the front door, with a new lobby mural featuring images of Dan Gable, Helen Maroulis (first U.S. woman wrestler to win Olympic gold), Dremiel Byers (described as one of the “most prolific” U.S. Greco-Roman grapplers) and Kurt Angle (1996 U.S. Olympic freestyle gold medalist who is about to conclude a 20-year pro wrestling career). “It really sets the tone for the museum,” said Klingman, who then demonstrated one of the museum’s new electronic kiosks which lets visitors access profiles of honorees on easy-to-use touch screens. Another high point of the Trackwrestling video tour is a visit to the Dan Gable area, with displays highlighting his stellar high school, college and Olympic wrestling careers … as well as his success as head coach at the University of Iowa.
Klingman then takes viewers into the new theater which allows visitors to watch their choice of films from NCAA wrestling championships going back to 1937 … using a touch-screen to instantly access specific matches. The Trackwrestling video tour concludes in the Dan Gable Learning Center, the bigger-and-better wrestling practice/training room … providing more opportunities for young wrestlers to practice and receive instruction. “We want the museum to be a symbol of excellence and a source of pride in the community,” Dan Gable said in the museum’s press release announcing its recent reopening. “These improvements will make the museum more modern and appealing and a place you want to go, but more importantly, they will give us the ability to impact more young lives and make a big difference in their future.” Rest of the story and details at https://intermatwrestle.com/articles/21770
TDR blog
After 20 seasons of publicizing wrestling The TakeDown Report’s (TDR) focus has changed to the collecting of college coaching records from North America since 1903. We will continue to recognize and reward successful wrestlers in eastern North Carolina (east of Raleigh & Fayetteville), assist with schools in starting or re-starting a team and this blog. Join us on our FaceBook Page – “The TakeDown Report” for photos and news. Please send results, stories, links and news to pass along. E-mail us at takedownreport@gmail.com
Martin Fleming, Editor
Takedown Report
Takedown Report 