Takedown Report

Amateur Wrestling Reports

Fargo champ epitomizes the Beat the Streets mission

Angel Garcia has world-changing plans.  He wants to wrestle in college and maybe beyond if his Greco-Roman skills can take him around the globe. He intends to major in environmental science and he’d like to take on some big-picture, far-reaching goals.  “Change the world,” the high school senior from Philadelphia’s Mariana Bracetti Academy Charter School said. “Come up with different ways to make a better living for everyone. It’s time for people to think about people and not just themselves.”

This is Garcia today — driven and determined, considerate and kind, a shining example for the benefits of wrestling, a poster boy for the Beat the Streets program and now a national champion.  His life trajectory has taken a sharp turn in a different direction since he first took up the sport a little more than five years ago.  Prior to wrestling, Garcia watched friends deal drugs and get sucked in by the rough streets on Philadelphia’s north side.  “I saw a lot of people dying and I saw a lot of people going through a lot of things and I didn’t want to be like them,” Garcia said.  His life might have been headed down a perilous path, too, until a teacher watched Garcia slam another student after a hallway argument and suggested that aggression would be better suited for a wrestling mat.  Garcia listened and gave wrestling a chance. He saw the sport as “a new path and new way, a brand new beginning.” He started attending Beat the Streets practices and found himself drawn to the positive influences and structure the program provided and the grit and purpose he developed as a wrestler.  Rest of the story at https://www.trackwrestling.com/PortalPost.jsp?TIM=1566529947463&twSessionId=glnvanbvzl&postId=1678933132&mc_cid=652fd4c019&mc_eid=2ef7cbca4b

August 23, 2019 Posted by | Uncategorized | Leave a comment

A Major BOOM for Ohio State Wrestling in Seth Shumate, No. 4 Wrestler in 2022

Ohio State head wrestling Tom Ryan received some big news on Wednesday. Seth Shumate, a sophomore from Dublin Coffman High School verbally committed to Ohio State. This is a huge victory for OSU on the recruiting front. Shumate is currently ranked as the 4th overall wrestler in the class of 2022. As a freshman in high school Shumate finished his season 50-1, capping off his year by winning the Division 1 State Title at 195 pounds.

Shumate has also burst onto the national scene. This summer Shumate became a double National Champion at the United States Marine Corps Cadet Freestyle and Greco-Roman Nationals in Fargo, North Dakota. In the Freestyle tournament held from July 13th-15th, Shumate won his first three matches by more than ten points and appeared to struggle very little with his last two opponents on his way to winning the freestyle national title at 195 pounds.  Rest of the story at https://theozone.net/2019/08/seth-shumate-no-4-wrestler-2022-commits-ohio-state/?mc_cid=652fd4c019&mc_eid=2ef7cbca4b

August 23, 2019 Posted by | Uncategorized | Leave a comment

How will Bulldogs’ Hokit juggle wrestling and NFL aspirations? He shares his plan

Clearly, Josh Hokit is not going to take a redshirt season. The plan to sit out 2019 and transition to linebacker went away with injuries in the Fresno State Bulldogs’ running backs group to Jordan Mims, Romello Harris and freshman Peyton Dixon. Hokit last week moved back to running back and on Thursday as the Bulldogs started game prep for the Aug. 31 season-opener at USC he was getting plenty of work there with the No. 1 and No. 2 offenses. But what of the plan to wrestle as a heavyweight in the spring, then come back for a senior season of football in 2020 and take a shot at playing football beyond college? Rest of the story at https://www.fresnobee.com/sports/college/mountain-west/fresno-state/article234271647.html?mc_cid=652fd4c019&mc_eid=2ef7cbca4b

August 23, 2019 Posted by | Uncategorized | Leave a comment

In Lombardi’s ‘perfect 4-3,’ Henry Jordan was ‘key to it all’

Runner-up in the heavyweight class of the 1957 NCAA Wrestling Tournament, Henry Jordan relied on many of the same tools and techniques he used in his other sport to become one of the most dominating defensive tackles of his era. Blessed with the gifts it takes to be an elite college wrestler, he had lightning quickness, rare balance, and an uncanny knack for being able to pounce on an opponent and gain instant leverage. Jordan provided consistent and relentless pressure as an inside pass rusher as the Packers won five NFL championships under Vince Lombardi. Although he played before sacks were recorded as an official statistic, there were games where Jordan was so dominant observers couldn’t help but keep their own tallies. In the 1967 NFL Western Conference championship against the 11-1-2 Los Angeles Rams, arguably the most talented team in the league that year, Jordan was unofficially credited with 3½ sacks against future Pro Football Hall of Fame guard Tom Mack as the Packers pulled a 28-7 upset.  Rest of the story at
https://www.packers.com/news/in-lombardi-s-perfect-4-3-henry-jordan-was-key-to-it-all?mc_cid=652fd4c019&mc_eid=2ef7cbca4b

August 23, 2019 Posted by | Uncategorized | Leave a comment

The dream college wrestling matchups we’d like to see this season — at every weight

The bright lights. The big stage. Two athletes, two schools and one trophy per weight. This is the scene waiting for twenty athletes at 2020 NCAA finals this year in March, but the excitement of the college wrestling season isn’t limited to that one tournament.
WRESTLERS TO WATCH: These are the 25 college wrestlers you need to know heading into the 2019-2020 season
Rivalries will be reignited in just a few months as the athletes begin their early season duals against conference and non-conference foes. While most teams have not finalized their schedules for the 2019-2020 year, these are ten of the best college wrestling matches we hope to see this season. 

125 pounds: Spencer Lee vs. Sebastian Rivera 

When the 2018-2019 wrestling season started, Iowa’s Spencer Lee held firmly onto the No. 1 ranking at 125 pounds. He had won the 2018 NCAA championship, earned Big Ten Freshman of the Year honors the previous year and was the pre-season favorite to earn the title again. He looked unbeatable. Enter Sebastian Rivera. The Northwestern then-sophomore lightweight plowed through the 125-pound bracket at the Midlands Tournament in December and topped Lee in the finals 7-3 to deliver the Hawkeye his first loss since the 2018 Big Ten tournament. After finishing sixth in the national tournament the year before, Rivera was the new man to watch at 125 pounds, and he was on a mission to take that title away from Lee. The two athletes did not wrestle each other at the Iowa-Northwestern dual, but they met again at the 2019 Big Ten tournament with Rivera taking the W again over Lee for the second time that season. Rivera won the conference title and claimed the No. 1 seed at the NCAA tournament. His chase for gold, however, ended after Virginia’s Jack Mueller took him down in the national semifinals. The man later beat Mueller? Lee. Iowa’s 2018 champ picked up another individual title and stayed perfect on the national stage. Rivera should have a number of chances to pick up more wins against Lee, but what he really wants is a chance to top the Hawkeye in late March. 

133 pounds: Nick Suriano vs. Daton Fix 

Defending NCAA champion Nick Suriano and 2019 senior World Team member Daton Fix have only wrested each other twice so far in college, but both times they’ve gone to battle, these two lightweights have put on a show. Fix topped Suriano 3-2 in a second tie-breaker during their first contest in January of 2019, but Suriano reversed the outcome at the national tournament. The Rutgers then-junior made school history when he beat Fix 4-2 in sudden victory to earn the first individual national title for his program. Rest of the story and video at
https://www.ncaa.com/news/wrestling/article/2019-08-16/dream-college-wrestling-matchups-wed-see-season-every-weight?mc_cid=652fd4c019&mc_eid=2ef7cbca4b

August 23, 2019 Posted by | Uncategorized | Leave a comment