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Amateur Wrestling Reports

Final X: Rutgers men’s freestyle championship series preview

BY JD RADER, USA WRESTLING | JUNE 04, 2019, 
Final X: Rutgers will feature three men’s freestyle championship series, all of which will be in the second session at 6 p.m. ET.  The six wrestlers who are competing own a total of five Senior World/Olympic medals and six age-level World medals. The Senior medalists are J’den Cox (2x World and 1x Olympic) at 92 kg and Nick Gwiazdowski (2x World) at 125 kg. All of the six age-level World medals won by wrestlers on the Final X: Rutgers card have been gold. The age-level World champions are Gable Steveson (2x Cadet and 1x Junior), Yianni Diakomihalis (2x Cadet), and Zain Retherford (1x Cadet).
Each weight will be a best-of-three showdown with the winner getting to represent Team USA at the World Championships in Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan, September 14-22.
Session Two – 6 p.m.
Bout 5: men’s freestyle 125 kg – World bronze medalist Nick Gwiazdowski (Raleigh, N.C./Titan Mercury WC/Wolfpack RTC) vs. World Team Trials Challenge Tournament champion Gable Steveson (Apple Valley, Minn./Minnesota RTC)
At 125 kg it will be a battle between a veteran with two Senior World bronze medals and a young phenom with three age-level World gold medals. Gwiazdowski has earned his two Senior World medals in his two trips to Worlds. Steveson has earned his three age-level World medals in four trips to Worlds. After finishing the NCAA tournament in third place, Steveson came out and defeated US Open champion and Cadet World champion Adam Coon two matches to none, including a 13-3 tech fall, at the World Team Trials Challenge Tournament.  Rest of the outlook and story at https://www.teamusa.org/USA-Wrestling/Features/2019/June/04/Final-X-Rutgers-MFS-preview?mc_cid=d7768373b1&mc_eid=2ef7cbca4b

June 5, 2019 Posted by | Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Robles bringing his Unstoppable message to Cache Valley

Being born with only one leg didn’t stop Anthony Robles from achieving great heights and championships. He was introduced to the sport of wrestling when he was 14 years old and went on to become a state high school champion, national high school champion, three time All American while at Arizona State and Division 1 Wrestling Champion. Robles is also an author and motivational speaker, and will be sharing his story on Saturday, June 8th at Ridgeline High School. “I was born missing my leg to a single mom who was 16 years old. We both had our challenges going through,” Robles said when he was a guest on 106.9 The Fan’s Full Court Press program. “That’s what I’m going to share with people. I wrestled not just on the mat but off the mat as well. “Whatever you are wrestling with, whatever the challenges are, you can be unstoppable. That’s the message I want to get across. No matter what you face, you have to choose to be unstoppable and you can do it.”

Robles will be participating in a wrestling clinic at Ridgeline High School throughout the day, but will be speaking to the public at 6 p.m. in the high school’s auditorium. He says the message he has to share is for all people, not just wrestlers. If I can change one individual’s life I’ve done my job. “Bullying is bigger than ever now. I feel like that youth age is hard to reach, but if I can change one individual’s life I’ve done my job,” Robles continued. “That’s my goal. Every time I have an event, every time I have a wrestling clinic, if I can reach somebody and even if they forget what I said but remember I had a positive impact on them, and they can remember something that helps them get through a speed bump in their life then I accomplished my goal.”
TDR strongly recommends reading the Rest of this great story at http://www.cachevalleydaily.com/news/archive/2019/06/04/robles-bringing-his-unstoppable-message-to-cache-valley/?mc_cid=d7768373b1&mc_eid=2ef7cbca4b#.XPhmpohKjcs

June 5, 2019 Posted by | Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Wrestling magazines announce 2019 college awards

It’s been a couple months since the college wrestling mats were rolled up and put away for the season. Even though it’s the offseason, now is an unbeatable time for three national wrestling magazines — WIN (Wrestling Insider Newsmagazine), Wrestling USA and Amateur Wrestling News — to reveal their award winners for the 2018-2019 season. 
WIN 2019 special award winners
In terms of wrestling awards, WIN magazine may be best known for its Dan Hodge Trophy, given each year to the nation’s top college wrestler a week or so after the conclusion of wrestling season. (This year’s honoree: Bo Nickal of Penn State.) The May 29, 2019 issue of WIN unveiled its choices for its annual collegiate awards beyond the Hodge, including:
Dan Gable Coach of the Year: Rutgers’ Scott Goodale: Goodale, head coach at Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, since 2007, was honored with year’s award for guiding the Scarlet Knights to their first top ten finish at the NCAA championships… and for coaching the program’s first national champions in Nick Suriano at 133 pounds, and Anthony Ashnault at 149.  “We needed a year like this. Top guys growing up wanting to wrestle at a top-brand school,” the 47-year-old Goodale told WIN Editor Mike Finn. “The elite schools are brand names so it’s been super, super hard to get those guys to believe in what we’re trying to do. I like to think, from a wrestling standpoint, we are making Rutgers a brand name.”
WIN first presented its Coach of the Year award in 1997.
Schalles Award: Penn State’s Bo Nickal: Nickal, who concluded his college mat career with his third NCAA title, the 2019 Hodge Trophy and 2019 InterMat Wrestler of the Year honors, also managed to be the nation’s top pinner for the second straight season… making the Nittany Lion fall guy a natural choice to receive an award named in honor of Wade Schalles, one of the all-time top collegiate pinners in his time at Clarion in the early 1970s. 
“Being in the Penn State room and having the amazing partner and coaches that I have, I’ve seen ten times the in practice every situation I’ve been in during a match,” according to Nickal, who also won the Schalles Award in 2018. Rest of the story and photos at https://intermatwrestle.com/articles/21994

June 5, 2019 Posted by | Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Rosewood’s mat magician pins obstacles like he does opponents

By Jared Fialko, WRAL Sports multimedia journalist
Putting in the work tends to frighten some athletes off, but not Timothy Decatur. He fully embraces the grind. “Whenever I want something I get it, I don’t stop until I get it,” says Rosewood senior Timothy Decatur. “If I want to be the best at something, I won’t stop until I’m the best at it.” Win-loss-wise, he’s exactly that. A back-to-back WRAL Invitational Wrestling Tournament Champ, Rosewood’s mat-magician capped his high school career with a 57-1 record and a third individual state title, in the process, becoming the NCHSAA’s all-time leader in victories.

“In all the years I’ve been around sports and wrestling, I’ve never had a kid that’s had the drive and the determination to not just improve but excel in his sport,” says Hal Kilpatrick, Rosewood high school wrestling coach. That one loss, by the way, came when Decatur was bumped up two classes above his natural weight. What the 132 pounder achieves: unprecedented. How he does so: inspirational. Doctors declared Timothy legally blind in his left eye at age six, and diagnosed him on the Autism spectrum. “It doesn’t stop me from being who I can be,” Timothy persists. “I’m not going to let that stop me, nothing’s going to stop me.” “His whole life he’s been doing everything I can do, most of the time better than me,” smiles Decatur’s brother Christian. What some view as his weakness, Timothy says is his strength. Rest of the story at https://www.highschoolot.com/rosewood-s-mat-magician-pins-obstacles-like-he-does-opponents/18208199/

June 5, 2019 Posted by | Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Additional injury time given for head, neck injuries in high school wrestling

INDIANAPOLIS — In an ongoing effort to minimize the risk of injury in high school wrestling, additional time will be given to evaluate head and neck injuries when an appropriate health-care professional is present at a match. In addition to the 1½ minutes of injury time allotted for each wrestler, an appropriate health-care professional will have a maximum of five minutes to evaluate injuries to the head and neck involving the cervical column and/or nervous systems. At that point, the wrestler would have to continue or default the match. This revision in injury time in Rule 8-2-4 is one of 17 rules changes recommended by the National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS) Wrestling Rules Committee at its April 3-5 meeting in Indianapolis. All recommendations were subsequently approved by the NFHS Board of Directors.

A second injury to the head and neck involving cervical column and/or central nervous system in the same match shall require the wrestler to default the match. If an appropriate health-care professional is not present, all injuries to the head and neck would be covered by the same timeframe as other injuries. In the case of a wrestler exhibiting signs of a concussion, the individual would be removed from the match and could not return to competition in the absence of an appropriate health-care professional. Rest of the story at https://www.highschoolot.com/additional-injury-time-given-for-head-neck-injuries-in-high-school-wrestling/18347594/

June 5, 2019 Posted by | Uncategorized | Leave a comment