Takedown Report

History, opportunity to guide Clemsen at Maryland

By Richard Mann, InterMat Senior Writer
The Big Ten Conference houses some of the most storied wrestling programs in the history of the sport. When Maryland joined the conference in 2014, the Terps wrestling team was not on par with some other conference members, but the program appeared to be on an upswing. Some thought the conference change would help the team compete against the perennial powers. However, the bottom quickly fell out and the losses began to mount. To an outside observer, the situation appears to be a complete rebuild. However, the next program leader will have the opportunity to be guided by both history and opportunity. In 1954, Ernie Fischer became the first wrestling All-American in University of Maryland history. He made the NCAA finals at 167 pounds but came up short against Joe Solomon of Pittsburgh. Two years later the Baltimore native represented the U.S. at the 1956 Olympics in Melbourne. He went 1-2 with his losses coming against eventual silver medalist Ibrahim Zengin of Turkey and gold medalist Mitsuo Ikeda of Japan. Fischer, who was inducted into the Maryland Athletics Hall of Fame in 1989, passed away this past April. He was 88 years old. At the most recent Olympics in 2016, the U.S. finished with two gold medalists: Kyle Snyder and Helen Maroulis. Like Fisher, both Snyder and Maroulis are Maryland natives. However, neither wrestled collegiately for the Terps. While Maroulis’ situation speaks to need for a rapid proliferation of NCAA wrestling opportunities for women, the fact that Snyder did not wrestle for the biggest college in his home state remains a sore spot for some local wrestling enthusiasts. Rest of the story at http://intermatwrestle.com/articles/21972?mc_cid=f84a8f4615&mc_eid=2ef7cbca4b

May 31, 2019 - Posted by The TakeDown Report | Uncategorized