Takedown Report

Amateur Wrestling Reports

24th College News, Notes and Results

St. Cloud State University Closing In on Own Record
ST. CLOUD — The St. Cloud State University wrestling team is close to breaking their own national record. The Huskies are currently riding a 52 match dual meet winning streak. The last time they lost a dual meet was nearly three years ago in January of 2017. The current national record for consecutive dual meets wins in Division II is held by St. Cloud State when they won 54 matches in a row from about 2011 through about 2015. Associate Head Coach Brady Wilson says the success of the program starts with the kids. “I think at St. Cloud State our coaching staff have just been blessed to coach great student athletes. They’ve been very consistent in the classroom and on the wrestling mat.”
Augsburg holds the Division III consecutive wins record with 65 from 1988 through 1992, and Oklahoma State has the Division I record winning 76 in a row from 1937 through 1951. SCSU won the national championship in 2015 and 2016, they were the national runners-up in 2011, 2012, 2013, and 2017. The Huskies are ranked #1 in the nation right now. Read More: SCSU Wrestlers Closing In On Own National Record | Rest of the story at https://wjon.com/scsu-wrestlers-closing-in-on-own-national-record/?mc_cid=2dd9bef4fd&mc_eid=2ef7cbca4b

No. 1 Iowa looks to wrestle ‘free and loose’ in search of bonus points
By Mike Finn
The majority of Iowa’s top-ranked wrestling team returns from last season, including all six All-Americans from a team that finished fourth in the 2019 NCAA Division I Wrestling Championships. But there is something different and more aggressive about the 2019-20 Hawkeyes, who have outscored its first three dual foes — including highly-ranked Iowa State (29-6) and Wisconsin (32-3) — by a 100-6 margin and have scored bonus points in 40 percent of the 30 matches in those three duals. The scoring leader of these Hawkeyes is junior and two-time NCAA champion Spencer Lee, who has recorded two technical falls and a major decision at 125 pounds. Meanwhile, senior Michael Kemerer, a two-time All-American at 157 pounds, who sat out last year because of injury, has tallied a pin, technical fall and major decision in his first three matches at his new weight of 174 pounds.

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The season-opening scoring surge by the Hawkeyes has also seen several Hawkeyes defeat higher-ranked wrestlers: Pat Lugo’s 4-2 victory over Iowa State’s Jarrett Degen at 149 and Nelson Brands’ upset of ISU’s Samuel Colbray at 184; and a trio of big victories against Wisconsin by 133-pound All-American Austin DeSanto over top-ranked Seth Gross, 165-pound All-American Alex Marinelli over UW’s Evan Wick, and redshirt freshman Tony Cassioppi’s win over Trent Hillger at heavyweight. Brands, who is looking to capture the school’s first NCAA title since 2010 this March, knows that bonus points are especially important at the national tournament. Last year, Penn State out-scored No. 2 Ohio State by a 137.5-96.5 margin in claiming a fourth-straight team title and out-scored the Buckeyes by a 27-16.5 margin in bonus points. Rest of the story at https://www.win-magazine.com/2019/12/no-1-iowa-looks-to-wrestle-free-and-loose-in-search-of-bonus-points/?mc_cid=2dd9bef4fd&mc_eid=2ef7cbca4b

Berlin, Lipke Record Falls in League Dual at Platteville
PLATTEVILLE, Wis. – Junior Matt Berlin (Oak Creek, Wis./Oak Creek) remained perfect on the season, but the UW-Stevens Point men’s wrestling team dropped a 25-15 dual at league foe UW-Platteville on Wednesday.
Results
Berlin won by fall at 133, his sixth pin of the season to improve to 13-0.  His second period fall tied the dual score at 6-6.
Zack Moon (Inver Grove Heights, Minn./Simley) was the next Pointer to record a win, earning a 9-3 decision victory at 174. 
Jerry Lipke (Milton, Wis./Milton) recorded his seventh fall of the season with a pin at 197 in a time of 5:05.  His pin got UWSP within 21-15 headed to the last match, but the Pointers couldn’t close the gap. Rest of the story at https://athletics.uwsp.edu/news/2019/12/4/wrestling-berlin-lipke-record-falls-in-league-dual-at-platteville.aspx?mc_cid=2dd9bef4fd&mc_eid=2ef7cbca4b

Michigan recruit plans rare feat with double dose of football and wrestling for Wolverines
By Ryan Zuke
Gaige Garcia knows his freshman year at Michigan won’t be easy. The senior from Southern Columbia High (Pennsylvania) signed his wrestling National Letter of Intent last month and will also sign his NLI to play football at Michigan on Dec. 18. Being a two-sport athlete in college isn’t that uncommon, but playing football and wrestling at a Division I program is extremely rare. But when Garcia inked his NLI on Nov. 13, Michigan wrestling coach Sean Bormet knew he was getting an athlete who can pull it off. Rest of the story at https://www.mlive.com/wolverines/2019/12/michigan-recruit-plans-rare-feat-with-double-dose-of-football-and-wrestling-for-wolverines.html?mc_cid=2dd9bef4fd&mc_eid=2ef7cbca4b

Multi-Divisional Insider: Bedard has built a winner from scratch at Reinhardt
Tongue planted in cheek, Jeff Bedard remembers one of his first recruiting pitches when he took over the brand-new Reinhardt University wrestling program in March of 2016. At that time Bedard had just finished his second year as the top assistant at Chattanooga, and he knew he was jumping into the recruiting game late in the process. “It kind of went down like this,” Bedard related in an interview with Trackwrestling, “I’d come up to a kid and ask, ‘You wrestle? Do you want to wrestle in college?’ If he said yes, I said, ‘Let’s go.’ That is how it went that first year.” That was 2016 when NAIA Reinhardt became just the fifth college or university in the state of Georgia to offer wrestling, joining fellow NAIA programs Brewton-Parker, Life University and Shorter College and Division II Emmanuel College.  It is no longer a tough sell to get top-notch wrestlers to Reinhardt, located 40 miles from Atlanta. In three seasons, Bedard has turned the Eagles into one of the top programs in NAIA. At last year’s NAIA National Championships in Des Moines, Iowa, Reinhardt had the second-most national qualifiers with 11 and put five wrestlers on the podium in a fifth-place finish, which earned Bedard NAIA National Coach of the Year honors. With all five All-Americans back — Michael Carew, Justin George, Koby Milner, Antonio Stewart and Cole Tenety — and nine total qualifiers returning, the Eagles are considered one of the teams that will be in the hunt for a team trophy in March at the NAIA Championships in Wichita, Kan. “That first year was very, very difficult,” Bedard said. “Nobody had heard of us, obviously, had a lot of kids that weren’t sure of taking a chance on a program starting from scratch. They didn’t know financially if the school would back the program the right way to build toward success. There was apprehensiveness to be part of one of the first classes to start something. We got great kids … but it was a hard sell.” Rest of the story at https://www.trackwrestling.com/PortalPost.jsp?TIM=1575606379291&twSessionId=xqxbwcuthq&postId=1801036132&mc_cid=09e81867d2&mc_eid=2ef7cbca4b

Ferrum Women’s Wrestling Splits Tri-Meet
FERRUM, Virginia — Ferrum College’s women’s wrestling team hosted a tri-meet tonight at Swartz Gym and split a pair of matches. The Panthers beat East Stroudsburg University before falling to King University.
RECORDS
King (6-0)
Ferrum (2-6)
East Stroudsburg (0-2)
DUAL SCORES
King def. East Stroudsburg 38-5
Ferrum def. East Stroudsburg 25-23
King def. Ferrum 43-5
THE BASICS
Against East Stroudsburg, Destiny Benjamin (130 lbs) and Bailey Gilmore (143) each picked up a pin, while Tayler Kleemoff (155) won by technical fall 12-0. And in the loss to King, Ferrum’s five points came from Alisha Elizalde (101) by virtue of a forfeit. Rest of the story at https://www.ferrumpanthers.com/sports/wwrest/2019-20/releases/20191205uuriqk?mc_cid=09e81867d2&mc_eid=2ef7cbca4b

Central wrestlers earn third shutout victory
INDIANOLA — For the third time this season, the Central College wrestling team won all 10 matches in a 49-0 rout over Augustana College (Ill.) Thursday night. The Dutch (9-2) have won six consecutive duals against the Vikings (0-2) dating back to 2014. Central won four matches by fall, three by technical fall and one by major decision. The pins were recorded by Rob Areyano (sophomore, 149 pounds, Selma, Calif.), Nathan Fritz (senior, 184 pounds, Sigourney), Gavin Babcock (senior, Altoona, Southeast Polk HS) and Duncan Lee (senior, Newton). “It was a very solid effort overall,” coach Eric Van Kley said. “Our guys were very coachable and listened to some of the things we talked about this week. They really got their offense going.” It was the other two victories that had Van Kley excited after the match. Chase Poston (sophomore, Olympia, Wash.) started the night against Ellex Williams at 125 pounds. Poston was defeated by Williams 13-2 on November 9 at the Millikin Open. Poston flipped the script with a 4-3 win in the dual. “He wrestled a really hard, tough match and got us off to a great start,” Van Kley said. Rest of the story at https://athletics.central.edu/news/2019/12/5/wrestling-central-wrestlers-earn-third-shutout-victory.aspx?mc_cid=09e81867d2&mc_eid=2ef7cbca4b

#10 PITT DOMINATES MOUNTAINEERS, 29-6
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – The 10th-ranked University of Pittsburgh wrestling team recorded eight wins en route to a 29-6 win over rival West Virginia Thursday night at WVU Coliseum.
With the win, the Panthers improve to 3-1 on the year, while the Mountaineers drop to 0-3. The win was the 38th over West Virginia in program history as Pitt moves to 38-25-2 all-time. “We wrestled well,” said head coach Keith Gavin. “The goal is continual improvement and our guys are buying into that mindset. We are on the right track.” Bonus points played a major factor in the dominant win with three Panthers recording major decisions and one with a technical fall.
Redshirt freshman Louis Newell got things started for the Panthers, recording an 11-1 major decision over WVU’s Joey Thomas at 125 pounds. Newell jumped out to a 6-1 lead in the first after scoring a takedown and four nearfall. He collected his remaining points via penalty point, an escape, takedown and added his final point with riding time. The major decision gave Pitt a 4-0 lead in the dual.
Moving to 133 pounds, fifth-ranked redshirt sophomore Micky Phillippi improved to 8-0 on the year after recording his third career technical fall. Phillippi downed Lucas Seibert, 20-5, in 4:31. He scored five takedowns, back-to-back four nearfalls and two escapes to give the Panthers a 9-0 lead after two bouts. Redshirt freshman Cole Matthews continued Pitt’s winning ways at 141 pounds, recording a 4-0 decision over Caleb Rea. The 19th-ranked Panther used a takedown, escape and riding time to secure his fifth win of the year. Rest of the story at https://pittsburghpanthers.com/news/2019/12/5/wrestling-10-pitt-dominates-mountaineers-29-6.aspx?mc_cid=09e81867d2&mc_eid=2ef7cbca4b

Bucknell Wrestling Tops Bloomsburg, 24-13, in Home Opener
LEWISBURG, Pa. – The Bucknell wrestling team topped Bloomsburg, 24-13, on Thursday night in its home opener at Davis Gym. The Bison (1-2, 0-0 EIWA) used a first-period pin by Matthew Kolonia (149) and decisions by six other wrestlers to power past the Huskies (0-1, 0-0 MAC). Senior Garrett Hoffman (285) put an exclamation mark on the victory, scoring a 9-2 decision in his return from an injury suffered in January of his sophomore year.
‼️ FIRST PERIOD 📌 ‼️
Matthew Kolonia brings the Davis Gym crowd to its feet! #HerdUp | #rayBucknell pic.twitter.com/e9X84foDlH— Bucknell Wrestling (@Bucknell_WRST) December 6, 2019
Brandon Seidman (125) staked Bucknell an early advantage, using a third-period escape to top Christian Gannone, 3-2. After a loss by major decision at 133 pounds put Bloomsburg up by a point, Noah Levett (141) rallied to score a 10-5 decision over Aaron Coleman; Levett took the lead by picking up a takedown and two back points in quick succession and never looked back. Kolonia made quick work of Gavin Hale, bringing the Davis Gym crowd to its feet. After a loss by major decision at 157 pounds, the Hartman brothers won back-to-back bouts to extend the Bison’s lead to 18-8. Zach Hartman, who is ranked as high as 15th nationally at 165 pounds, used two takedowns and a 4:06 riding time advantage to down Alex Carida, 5-1. Mitch Hartman, making his first dual appearance since 2017, edged Anthony Vetrano, 3-0, in a physical 174-pound bout. Bolstered by No. 14 Trevor Allard’s technical fall at 184 pounds, Bloomsburg cut Bucknell’s lead down to 18-13. Drew Phipps ultimately clinched the Bison’s victory with a 4-0 decision over Kyle Murphy; Phipps rode out Murphy for the majority of the second period before picking up three points in the final frame. Rest of the story at https://bucknellbison.com/news/2019/12/5/wrestling-tops-bloomsburg-24-13-in-home-opener.aspx?mc_cid=09e81867d2&mc_eid=2ef7cbca4b

Franklin Features: Rider Strong; Wrestling Off to Hot Start in 2019-20
Wrestling Off to a Hot Start in 2019-2020 by Paul Franklin
The next three matches for the Rider wrestling team will be telling. But regardless of the results, what they’ll be telling for years is what happened three weeks ago. That’s when the Broncs traveled to the University of Minnesota and stunned the Big Ten powerhouse 21-17. The Gophers were ranked No. 6 in the country at the time. It’s a nice way to honor the program’s 50th anniversary. Rider goes into Friday’s match at Bloomsburg ranked No. 20. On Sunday, 1 p.m., Central Michigan comes here for a match in Alumni Gym. On the 19th, Rider travels to Princeton for a huge match at Dillon Gym, 7 p.m. Princeton is ranked 12th in the National Wrestling Coaches Association poll. Rider is ranked ahead of Big 10 members Michigan, Purdue, Illinois and Rutgers, as well as the likes of Virginia and Lock Haven.NWCA Coaches Poll
“If we win the next three we might be ranked in the top 10 or top 15,’’ Head Coach John Hangey said the other day, sitting behind his desk before workouts at the Canastra Health and Sports Center. Even if they don’t, the foundation that has been in place for several years is not about to collapse. “The school fits what the program is all about,’’ said Hangey, a long-time assistant now in his third year in charge. “We’re not an Ivy League school, we’re not a state school. It’s a private school where kids have to work hard. That just sells that you can come to a small school and that you can wrestle a Penn State, an Iowa, beat a Minnesota, beat an Ohio State and beat a Wisconsin. And that’s a selling point. Rest of the story at https://gobroncs.com/news/2019/12/5/franklin-features-rider-strong-wrestling-off-to-hot-start-in-2019-20.aspx?mc_cid=09e81867d2&mc_eid=2ef7cbca4b

December 8, 2019 Posted by | Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Bears take team title at Swiss Bear Classic

The Swiss Bear Classic may be just an early season wrestling tournament but every year, the host Bears sure set out to win it. New Bern did that Saturday by taking first place with a cumulative score of 169 points, just edging out Croatan’s 161.5. Topsail was third with 140.5 points, Dixon took fourth with 126.5 and Wake Forest came in fifth at 110. Sam Barnett was the Bears’ lone champion of the event at 113 pounds as he won the title match via pinfall. Pamlico County heavyweight Javon Armstrong, a former state champ, also won his weight class with a 10-3 victory in the finale. In addition to Barnett, Paul Denoia, Grant Gupton and Jackson Bird all finished second in their respective weight classes. Eh Neysoe Jaw, Riley Dean, Wyatt Stevens, Jaidon Bennett and Marcus Grist all also finished in the top four for the Bears. West Craven and Havelock were also competing at the event as Jon Ward and Jeremiah Cannon both took third place for the Eagles and Xavier McCullough was second for the Rams.
“At this point in the season, we try to focus on just getting a little better every time we get a chance to compete, to get ready for February,” New Bern head coach Bo Lansche said. “With it being our tournament, of course the guys always want to bring this one home.” Lansche was excited two years ago about many of the kids starting for him now when they were freshmen about the potential the team could have. Now that most of the team are juniors and seniors, wins are piling up. Ward had a landmark win early in the tournament as he won his 100th career match for West Craven. Havelock’s Brooke Hermel, Cody Rutherford and Isaiah Verspoor were all top-four finishers for the Rams. “I think the highlight of the day for us was Xavier (McCullough) getting a win over Jon (Ward) but then when we get a good win like that, we can’t turn around not wrestle well after it,” Havelock head coach Chase Holleman said.
Rest of the story with top four individual placers at each weight class at https://www.newbernsj.com/sports/20191207/bears-take-team-title-at-swiss-bear-classic

December 8, 2019 Posted by | Uncategorized | Leave a comment