Takedown Report

UPIKE Wrestling Completes Program’s First Ever Competition at Patriot Open

Corbin, Ky. – UPIKE wrestling completed it’s inaugural competition as a program Saturday afternoon, fielding three athletes at the Pepsi Patriot Open.

UPIKE’s Aiden Vega battled his way to a pair of wins in the Freshman/Sophomore 174 weight bracket. Vega opened the meet with a matchup against Indiana Tech’s Matheos Veiga who won 10-2 by major decision. Vega then moved on to the consolation bracket where the freshman won back to back by pin-fall. In the first round, Vega took just 1:13 to pin Brewton Parker’s Booker Colson. In the second round the challenger was Josh Mojica Smith of Montreat College, and Vega once again won by fall in just over a minute. The third round ended Vega’s run, where he was pinned after 1:40 by Dominico Migliori of Lourdes.

Also in the freshman/sophomore 174 bracket was Nate Greene who fell in the opening matchup to Mojica-Smith. Greene went 4:25 with Mojica Smith in the battle but was ultimately defeated by fall. Greene won his first as a Bear in the first round of consolation, falling Brewton-Parker’s Darrell Shields in 6:18. Greene’s final match ended in a tie-break loss to Vega of Indiana Tech. … rest of story at UPIKEbears.com/news/wrestling-completes-programs-first-ever-competition-at-patriot-open

Fairmont State Wrestling wins a Pair at the Pioneer Duals
Wrestling goes 2-2 at the Pioneer Duals starts the year 3-2
Glenville, W.Va. — Wrestling went 2-2 on the day against a tough field of competition at the Pioneer Duals. They started the day with two defeats to very tough opponents. First up was the host school Glenville State who was recently picked to finish second in the MEC. Winning matches were 141 Mikey Jones by fall, 157 Navid Ighani by forfeit and 285 Mason Atkinson by forfeit. The final score for the dual was 33-18. Next up was Super Region 1 foe Seton Hill. The lone winner in that dual was 285 Mason Atkinson by fall. 

To finish up their pool play the Fighting Falcons squared up against MEC foe Notre Dame College. Notre Dame is a perennial D2 power that has won 5 National Championships since 2010. They were picked to finish 3rd in the MEC preseason poll. Starting up the dual was 125 Brandan Myers winning by forfeit and 133 Nate Pelesky followed with a big win, winning by fall to push Fairmont State’s lead to 12-0. 141 Mikey Jones collected a forfeit win to extend the lead to 18-0. A loss by fall at 149 made the score 18-6 Fairmont State. 157 Navid Ighani had a solid win by decision to make the score 21-6. Freshman 165 Jude Childers secured a big win by fall to extend the lead to 27-6. A tough loss at 174 made the score 27-9 but 184 Austin Gibson put an end to Notre Dame’s comeback bid with a big win by fall. After losses at 197 and 285 your Fighting Falcons won by a final score 33-18. … rest of the day at Fightingfalcons.com/news/2022/11/5/wrestling-wins-a-pair-at-the-pioneer-duals

TDR Editor’s Notes; While these colleges are located outside of the Carolinas they are new and we are always glad to see schools adding wrestling opportunities for their students. New college teams in West Virginia, Kentucky and Virginia are welcome and that news shall be emphasized. It is pathetic that Division I school with big name visibility are slow in following these examples. Only 1/4 of the D-I teams that will participate in football bowl games this year have a current wrestling program. Twice that number of schools USED to have a team. Somehow the cash cow bowl games and football revenues are not enough to fund other worthy programs. We wonder what percentage of the players on the school teams without wrestling benefited from wrestling while in high school. More on this later.

December 3, 2022 - Posted by The TakeDown Report | Uncategorized