Takedown Report

NCAA Division I team updates – 2021 – # 1

TDR Editor’s Notes ; Many articles and topics linked in with this group. Oklahoma State in the group under (#1). Other schools included in the Division I news with brief one topic posts are Iowa State (#3), Lehigh (#4), Missouri (#6), and Stanford (#7). Some selections havemore than one link such as Oklahoma State, Minnesota (#12) and several Podcasts together in (#9). Look them over and feel free to contact us by e-mail at the Editor’s office at martinkfleming@gmail.com
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1 } – Five Takeaways from OSU Wrestling’s Media Availability
Smith provides some clarity on the upcoming season
Oklahoma State head wrestling coach John Smith spoke with the media this week about the upcoming season and here are five big takeaways from what he had to say.
1. “We’re Definitely Having a Season”
All indications were there would be some sort of season this year but in December, which is normally already the start of the season, we still didn’t even have a schedule from Oklahoma State. So there was still a bit of uncertainty about that. Now we know definitively as John has said “We’re definitely having a season.”
2. It’s going to look a little different
We all knew that this would be the case. Every sport at every school across the country so far has looked different as COVID-19 has ravaged what we’ve been used to seeing in college athletics.
Coach Smith was able to provide some additional clarity on this, stating, “We’re definitely wrestling one day a week. It looks like we’re going to have four home dual meets and be on the road 3-4 times.” … rest of story at _{^{https://pistolsfiringblog.com/five-takeaways-from-osu-wrestlings-media-availability/?mc_cid=29548697b5&mc_eid=2ef7cbca4b}}
1,995 miles: Travis Wittlake’s Journey from Coos Bay to Stillwater
Coos Bay, Oregon. Population 16,615
One of those residents? Redshirt sophomore wrestler Travis Wittlake Jr.
Wittlake, 20, is a native of the small coastal city in Oregon, a city that is more well-known for fishing than producing wrestling talent, but Wittlake is helping turn that narrative around. “Oregon, they don’t really care about it too much,” Wittlake said. “They’re not very fond of it. There’s just not a ton of high-level wrestlers coming out of Oregon, but there’s always a few individuals.” Wittlake was one of those few individuals, as his wrestling journey began at the age of 4 after his father, Travis Wittlake Sr., who was the head coach at the local mat club, started to have him wrestle. … rest of story at _{^{https://www.ocolly.com/sports/1-995-miles-travis-whittlake-s-journey-from-coos-bay-to-stillwater/article_701156f0-456e-11eb-9259-bf3fa5e06671.html?mc_cid=fecb1aa0c2&mc_eid=2ef7cbca4b}}
Check Out This Remarkable Collection of OSU Wrestling Cards
Card collectors and Oklahoma State fans will want to see this.
Just about every sports fan at some point in their life has collected trading cards. I personally grew up in the 1990s when collecting sports cards was probably at its peak in popularity and just about everyone was doing it. A few days ago I stumbled across a Twitter account that had shared some pictures of John Smith trading cards. … rest of story at _{^{https://pistolsfiringblog.com/check-out-this-remarkable-collection-of-osu-wrestling-cards/?mc_cid=1d3b41c6e1&mc_eid=2ef7cbca4b}}
John Smith Provides Some Details on the Cowboy Challenge Tournament
OSU will host the tournament on Valentine’s Day
The Oklahoma State wrestling schedule was released Wednesday, and one of the biggest events listed is the Cowboy Challenge tournament on Feb. 14. Teams coming to Stillwater for the event are the University of Central Oklahoma, Missouri, Wyoming and West Virginia. The release from OSU stated the following. … rest of story at _{^{https://pistolsfiringblog.com/john-smith-provides-some-details-on-the-cowboy-challenge-tournament/?mc_cid=fecb1aa0c2&mc_eid=2ef7cbca4b}}

2 } – Launching the Keep Fresno State Wrestling campaign
On October 16, California State University, Fresno announced it was dropping men’s tennis, women’s lacrosse, and for the second time in school history, men’s wrestling. After a decade-long quest to bring the sport back to campus in 2016, a new quest has been started by Keep Fresno State Wrestling. In conjunction with USA Wrestling, the National Wrestling Coaches Association and Flowrestling, the Keep Fresno State Wrestling group will kickoff its official efforts on Monday, December 21 at 6 p.m. Pacific with a panel of wrestling coaches, athletes, and alumni. That discussion will be streamed live on Flowrestling.org and also available via Zoom.  The panel will highlight and celebrate the strong history of Fresno State wrestling, not just with its on the mat successes, but the post-collegiate success and leadership of its alumni … rest of story at _{^{https://www.mattalkonline.com/podcast/short-time/launching-the-keep-fresno-state-wrestling-campaign/?mc_cid=0d946e15c0&mc_eid=2ef7cbca4b}}

3 } – Iowa State Wrestling Media Day
AMES, Iowa — Ahead of the 2021 season, Iowa State wrestling head coach, Kevin Dresser, and his team hosted Media Day on Wednesday. Hear from Coach Dresser, Ian Parker, Jarrett Degen, Gannon Gremmel and David Carr as they recap the offseason and look ahead to the 2021 schedule. Print Friendly Version … rest of story at _{^{https://cyclones.com/news/2020/12/30/iowa-state-wrestling-media-day.aspx?mc_cid=e4f16a9e0e&mc_eid=2ef7cbca4b}}

4 } – Season Preview: No Matter The Circumstances, Lehigh Wrestling Excited For Opportunity To Compete
BETHLEHEM, Pa. – The last time the Lehigh wrestling team competed on the mats, the Mountain Hawks navigated a challenging field to claim their third straight EIWA team title. Three wrestlers claimed individual titles and ultimately nine qualified for the NCAA Championships in Minneapolis. Five days after the triumph in Stabler Arena, the sports world shut down due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The NCAA Championships were canceled and college athletics took a long pause.  
It has been nearly nine months since Lehigh’s EIWA triumph and the athletics department’s last competition. But finally, on Saturday January 2, Lehigh athletics and Lehigh wrestling return. “We’re just excited to have some competition,” head coach Pat Santoro said. We didn’t see our guys for six months at one point and then we lost them again for five weeks. The fact that we’re even competing. We weren’t sure this was going to happen. We’re really thankful and grateful it is. It’s going to look a lot different. I’m just excited to see out guys go out and compete.”   Lehigh will face a curveball right out of the gate. … rest of story at _{^{https://lehighsports.com/news/2020/12/31/season-preview-no-matter-the-circumstances-lehigh-wrestling-excited-for-opportunity-to-compete.aspx?mc_cid=b46d50bbf8&mc_eid=2ef7cbca4b}}

5 } – With Lewis and Bolen back, Virginia Tech wrestling aims for good year
Last year, the lineup for the Virginia Tech wrestling team boasted one of the better wrestlers in the country. This year, it has two of them. Tech opens its abbreviated, delayed season Saturday with two wrestlers who are ranked No. 1 or No. 2 nationally in InterMat’s preseason rankings. Mekhi Lewis, who won the 2019 NCAA title at 165 pounds as a redshirt freshman, is ranked No. 1 in his weight class. Lewis, the first NCAA champ in the program’s history, did not compete for the Hokies last year. He took what the NCAA terms an “Olympic redshirt” year last season to train for the 2020 U.S. Olympic trials, which wound up being postponed until this year because of the coronavirus pandemic. Tech coach Tony Robie, whose eighth-ranked Hokies open the season Saturday against visiting Campbell, is glad to have Lewis back in the lineup. “It’s huge,” Robie said this week. … rest of story at _{^{https://roanoke.com/sports/college/va_tech/with-lewis-and-bolen-back-virginia-tech-wrestling-aims-for-good-year/article_371ab5f0-4c60-11eb-958c-a3550847f73e.html?mc_cid=6915204714&mc_eid=2ef7cbca4b}}

6 } – Mizzou wrestlers hoping for another successful season
Brian Smith has been the head wrestling coach at the University of Missouri since 1998-99 and has never seen anything like it. Last season, after his squad captured its eighth consecutive MAC Tournament championship – the Tigers also won the tourney title in their final season as a Big 12 squad back in 2011-12 – the sports world shut down due to the coronavirus. That meant no NCAA Tournament. “It was awful, especially for the guys who saw their careers come to an end,” Smith recalled. “And even now, it’s still crazy. In the last two weeks, our schedule has changed daily; in fact, it changed three times today. “On the positive side, the NCAA has announced that everybody gets a free year this year. … rest of story at ^{_{https://www.examiner.net/story/sports/college/2020/11/25/mizzou-wrestlers-hoping-another-successful-season/6401319002/?mc_cid=de5a36abdc&mc_eid=2ef7cbca4b}}

7 } – A STATEMENT FROM STANFORD WRESTLING
STANFORD, Calif. – On July 8th, our student-athletes and coaches were blindsided when Stanford announced its intention to eliminate wrestling and ten other varsity athletics programs at the conclusion of this season due to fiscal concerns. Though shocked, our team immediately decided that it would band together and do what wrestlers do best—work to persevere through adversity. We began developing and executing a plan to reverse the university’s decision and establish an endowment that would not only ensure wrestling’s place at Stanford, but help preserve collegiate wrestling’s presence on the West Coast and nationally. The resilience and determination our team has demonstrated has been inspiring. We have raised over $12 million and counting since September when our fundraising efforts began in earnest. We have established working relationships with many allies within the university and across the country. We have the support of 36 Sports Strong and other prominent Stanford alumni. These successes now have us more optimistic for the program’s continued future at the varsity level than ever. … rest of letter and story at _{^{https://www.teamusa.org/USA-Wrestling/Features/2020/December/08/A-statement-from-Stanford-Wrestling?mc_cid=6c7e360412&mc_eid=2ef7cbca4b}}

8 } – 24 HAWKEYES TO WATCH: JAYDIN EIERMAN
By DARREN MILLER hawkeyesports.com
IOWA CITY, Iowa — Jaydin Eierman hasn’t wrestled a match in a University of Iowa singlet, but the transfer from Missouri already possesses a Hawkeye mindset. The three-time All-American talks of winning an NCAA championship and an Olympic gold medal. Then there is this:
“We are going to try to break the (NCAA Championship) scoring record,” Eierman said. “If we wrestle to the best of our ability, we are going to shock the nation.”
Sure sounds like a Hawkeye. Eierman reinforces an Iowa lineup that graduated 149-pound All-American Pat Lugo, but returns nine All-Americans, including Max Murin at 141. Murin projects to move up a weight, allowing Eierman to compete at 141, where he has placed third (2019), fourth (2018) and fifth (2017) nationally. “Jaydin being in our room makes us better. Him being in our lineup is instant credibility because of his history of results,” Iowa head coach Tom Brands said. “He is a good wrestler; he wants to be a great wrestler and he wants to be an icon in the sport.” As a redshirt sophomore and junior, Eierman advanced to the national semifinals, but lost to eventual champion Yianni Diakomilhalis of Cornell, 6-4 in sudden victory (2018) and 6-5 (2019). “It hurt, but I have to work on my things every day and I feel this year I will be the one with a target on my back,” Eierman said. “I’m at Iowa now and they know I will be one of the best in the country.” … rest of story at _{^{https://hawkeyesports.com/news/2021/01/06/24-hawkeyes-to-watch-jaydin-eierman/?mc_cid=4295bf0eb8&mc_eid=2ef7cbca4b}}

9} – “A HIGHER STANDARD” PODCAST RETURNS WITH CHRIS AYRES
It has been a whirlwind 2020 for Chris Ayres and the Princeton Wrestling program. The Tigers claimed their first Ivy League championship since 1986 in February and saw two wrestlers win EIWA titles in March only to have a magical season come to a halt as the world grappled with COVID-19. Ayres joins host Chas Dorman to discuss how the program has responded to unforeseen challenges and continues moving forward on the mat and off. … rest of story at _{^{https://goprincetontigers.com/news/2020/11/24/wrestling-a-higher-standard-podcast-returns-with-chris-ayres.aspx?mc_cid=1348aad4fc&mc_eid=2ef7cbca4b}}
Purdue : Always Aggressive Podcast: Season 2, Episode 10
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – While Purdue wrestling head coach Tony Ersland hasn’t had much new news since the U23 and Junior national freestyle championships, the Boilermakers are getting closer to the reveal of the 2021 schedule and wanted to share what we do know about the coming season on the latest episode of the Always Aggressive Podcast. Ersland dives into the format of the pending Big Ten schedule, along with some of the potential additions and match structures of the coming season. The conference is tentatively planning to open action on the weekend of January 9, and feature a seven-week format with nine events. … rest of story at _{^{https://purduesports.com/news/2020/12/18/wrestling-always-aggressive-podcast-season-2-episode-10.aspx?mc_cid=ed5fd11129&mc_eid=2ef7cbca4b}}
Mocs on the Mic 49 – Wrestling Update
Mocs on the Mic is back again this week with Episode No. 49, presented by SmartBank.  Wrestling head coach Kyle Ruschell joins host Chris Goforth to talk about the state of the program and what the 2020-21 schedule looks like. COVID testing, practice schedules and more make up the topic of conversations with the third-year head coach of the Mocs.  They also go through a rundown of the lineup and talk about where the most competition for starting spots is as we enter the season.  Also joining this week’s podcast is senior Fabian Gutierrez.  He talks about his goals for the year and what it has been like training and preparing in this unusual environment.  Fans can check out the interviews … rest of story at _{^{https://gomocs.com/news/2020/12/16/mocs-on-the-mic-49-wrestling-update.aspx?mc_cid=4edc48d477&mc_eid=2ef7cbca4b}}
Always Aggressive Podcast: Season 2, Episode 11
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – The first Always Aggressive Podcast of 2021 comes with a wonderful holiday present as the Big Ten released the 2021 schedule on New Year’s Eve and unveiled the nine dates for head coach Tony Ersland and the Boilermakers. Ersland and co-hosts Cory Palm and Tanner Lipsett walk through the schedule, talk challenges of the pending season and take a look at some of the team’s preseason rankings.
With the Boilermakers set to start competing in just over a week, Ersland dives into the team’s five duals and two tri-duals for the regular season, specifically commenting on how the structure of the slate worked out. … rest of story at _{^{https://purduesports.com/news/2021/1/6/wrestling-always-aggressive-podcast-season-2-episode-11.aspx?mc_cid=4295bf0eb8&mc_eid=2ef7cbca4b}}

10 } – Adam Lynch: From Penn State Wrestler to Director of Operations
Penn State alumnus checks in with GoPSUsports!
Former Nittany Lion wrestler Adam Lynch never would have guessed he would be the Director of Operations for Penn State Wrestling. Now entering his 10^th year with the program, Adam continues to be an important member of the Penn State wrestling family.    Unsure of exactly what he wanted to do after college, Lynch knew he enjoyed being involved with athletics and earned his graduate degree in sports management and sports administration in 2013. He thought he might become a high school athletics director or pursue a career in collegiate athletics. When the director of operations position opened up, Adam recalls, “I was in the right place at the right time.”   
“This has been a great learning experience,” says Adam. “I’ve learned a lot about athletics.” Adam’s responsibilities vary depending on the time of year, as he is always busy doing a lot of different things. In season, some of his tasks include making sure tickets are in order for the team and preparing pass lists for home matches. To get ready for an upcoming competition on the road, he ensures meals and travel are arranged, confirming the team knows exactly who is traveling and where they are traveling to. … rest of story at _{^{https://gopsusports.com/news/2020/12/9/wrestling-adam-lynch-from-penn-state-wrestler-to-director-of-operations.aspx?mc_cid=372ecbefe1&mc_eid=2ef7cbca4b}}

11 } – Bears to travel to Utah Friday, cancel California trip
Northern Colorado will no longer wrestle in California on Monday, will make the trip to Utah Friday instead.
GREELEY, Colo. — Northern Colorado Wrestling will no longer be making the trip to wrestle in a non-conference event against Cal-Poly and California Baptist on Monday, January 11.  The Bears will instead travel to Orem, Utah Friday, January 8, where they will wrestle California Baptist at 12:45 p.m. and Utah Valley at 2:30 p.m. UNC enters Friday’s contests ranked No. 25 in both the NWCA Coaches Poll and FloWrestlings rankings. The Bears cracked the NWCA poll for the first time in 51 years following the season-opening win over Wyoming.  Northern Colorado will work with the Mustangs to schedule an event for the 2021-22 season. … rest of story at _{^{https://uncbears.com/news/2021/1/6/wrestling-bears-to-travel-to-utah-friday-cancel-california-trip.aspx?mc_cid=4295bf0eb8&mc_eid=2ef7cbca4b}}

12 } – Live Stream Schedule for NCAA Division I Wrestling: Jan. 8th – Jan. 10th
38 NCAA Wrestling duals featuring Division I teams are live streaming on the internet this week. Where can you watch? There are many outlets scattered around the web that will provide college wrestling this weekend, some free, some for a fee. Here is the list of all NCAA Division I wrestling events we’ve found streaming starting Friday, January 8th through Sunday, January 10th. As of now, there are no links for a few ESPN+ matches. If you spot any streams not listed, let us know by sending an email to support@theopenmat.com Enjoy!
Friday, January 8: … rest of story and schedule at https://news.theopenmat.com/college-wrestling-news/live-stream-schedule-for-ncaa-division-i-wrestling-jan-8th-jan-10th/79766?mc_cid=4a4f0e7778&mc_eid=2ef7cbca4b
For now, Gophers wrestlers just happy to have a season
The U’s 2019-20 season was canceled days before Minnesota was set to host the NCAA championships at U.S. Bank Stadium
As the Gophers’ wrestling team readies for their first competition since March, the resounding feeling around the program is gratitude. For months, student-athletes and coaches felt in limbo as the possibility of a college wrestling season teetered on the edge. When Big Ten football was first canceled, they thought their season was as good as gone. When football came back, so did their hope. … rest of story at _{^{https://www.twincities.com/2021/01/07/for-now-gophers-wrestlers-just-happy-to-have-a-season/?mc_cid=4a4f0e7778&mc_eid=2ef7cbca4b}}
Gable Steveson Previews the 2021 Season
Gable Steveson has been one of the most prolific wrestlers in the country. Wherever Gable goes, the camera has followed, and after an exciting offseason that included knocking off the No.1 freestyle heavyweight in the country Nick Gwizdowski, Gable is now set to toe the line once again at the collegiate level. In this installation of “Going for Gold w/ Gable”, we caught up with the man himself to preview … rest of story at _{^{https://gophersports.com/news/2021/1/7/wrestling-gable-steveson-previews-the-2021-season.aspx?mc_cid=4a4f0e7778&mc_eid=2ef7cbca4b}}

January 13, 2021 - Posted by The TakeDown Report | Uncategorized