Wilmington Star News All-Area Wrestling: Laney’s Willis becomes king of pins in historic senior season
Cael Willis was the runner-up for the NCHSAA 170-pound state championship.
Cael Willis set his sights on the New Hanover County pin record after his freshman season. Every year since then, Willis knew the exact number he needed to break the record. He became a pin-hunter, and that mentality turned Willis into one of the best wrestlers in area history. Willis officially got pin 109 to achieve his three-year goal on Jan. 16, but he accomplished so much more during his senior season. Willis had the best finish of any local wrestler at the N.C. High School Athletic Association State Championships as the runner-up in the 170-pound weight class, and he guided a young Laney team to another runner-up finish in the NCHSAA 4A Dual Team State Championship. Rest of the story and list of wrestlers recognized at https://www.starnewsonline.com/sports/20190321/all-area-wrestling-laneys-willis-becomes-king-of-pins-in-historic-senior-season
Laney’s Willis falls in wrestling state championship match
Bucs’ senior finishes as runner-up in 170-pound weight class.
Cael Willis had one of the best careers of any local wrestler. On Saturday, he came just short of winning a state title. The Laney senior fell 6-2 against Broughton’s Kaleb Wright in the 4A 170-pound final at the N.C. High School Athletic Association State Championships. It was a slight upset, as Willis had beaten Wright twice in the season, including last weekend at the 4A East Regional.
Outside of Willis, four local wrestlers finished in third place and two were fifth. Ashley’s Jack Dillon (106) knocked off Pinecrest’s Matthew Roland to earn a third-place finish in the 4A classification. In the same weight class, Laney’s Mark Samuel came in fifth place after beating Mooresville’s Samson Sokolski in his final match of the tournament. Rest of the story at
https://www.starnewsonline.com/sports/20190216/laneys-willis-falls-in-wrestling-state-championship-match
Why Shouldn’t All Girls Have the Opportunity to Benefit From Wrestling?
By Earl Smith
This is a guest column from Shannyn Gillespie
As a former U.S. Olympic Education Center (Marquette, MI) women’s wrestling coach, the author’s charge was to ready & develop female wrestlers for the U.S. Olympic Training Center (Colorado Springs, CO), Jr. World Championships, & the World University Championships. This task was challenging largely because, at the time in 2005, there were only 2 sanctioned high school girls wrestling state championships to recruit from (most recruits were noticed at junior national championships). Fourteen years later, there are 6 sanctioned high school girls wrestling state championships…
To be certain, female wrestling worldwide and in the USA is slowly growing (around 17,000 US high school female participants) even though there are a low number of sanctioned high school girls wrestling state championships (6 as of 2019; 7 to add for 2020) or female only wrestling leagues (38+ college teams included in WCWA & NAIA). Despite this inequity, many females do wrestle and thrive in the sport. This article lists some of those successful female wrestlers who are also pioneers. These pioneers have added their perspective on how and why females deserve their own wrestling leagues plus girls-only wrestling state championships in the USA. Before we dive into the below questions and some veteran female wrestlers opinions, here’s a timeline of the last 30 years of some female wrestling league firsts:
1987 – Sr. World Championships
1988 – Jr. World Champ. (U20)
1988 – Cadet World Champ. (U17) Rest of the story and list at https://news.theopenmat.com/womens-wrestling/why-shouldnt-all-girls-have-the-opportunity-to-benefit-from-wrestling/72509?mc_cid=6106e1abe5&mc_eid=2ef7cbca4b
TDR Top 12 Wooden Plaques
The annual TDR Top 12 Team award plaque have been mailed and should be arriving at 24 of the 28 schools next week. Keep an eyes out for these packages.
Lejeune’s Vrachnos wins wrestling state title
Senior captured 1-A 152-pound crown
GREENSBORO – This was a dominating performance by Lejeune’s George Vrachnos, coach Jim Gardiner said. Vrachnos defeated Mount Airy’s Austin Tumbarello 10-4 on Saturday night in the 152-pound NCHSAA 1-A wrestling final at the Greensboro Coliseum. “He dominated everybody he wrestled,” Gardiner said. “He’s one of those wrestlers that when he’s on, he’s on. It’s kind of surreal.” Vrachnos led 5-0 after the first period and 8-0 after the second period. The senior finished the season 45-7 while Tumbarello ended 27-6. “It feels great that my hard work paid off,” Vrachnos said. “Coming to practice every day, I wrestled my heart out and trained harder so when I had an actual match, it was almost nothing at all.” And Vrachnos showed that in the final with his lopsided victory. “I know he was from the West, but I had never seen him before,” Rest of the story at https://www.jdnews.com/sports/20190216/lejeunes-vrachnos-wins-wrestling-state-title
Check out renovated Dan Gable Museum without leaving home
By Mark Palmer, InterMat Senior Writer
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. Rest of the story and video 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 