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Amateur Wrestling Reports

Northwestern Wins Midlands Team Crown, Three ‘Cats Capture Individual Titles

Wildcats claim first Midlands team title in program history

HOFFMAN ESTATES, Ill. (December 30, 2022) – Hosting the 58th edition of the prestigious Ken Kraft Midlands Championships, three Wildcats took home individual titles as Northwestern won the Midlands team championship for the first time in program history.
 
Northwestern totaled 122.0 points to top the team leaderboard, while Penn (115.0), Pittsburgh (115.0), Wisconsin (114.5), and Illinois (104.5) rounded out the top five.
 
Lucas Davison was dominant at 285 pounds, shutting out his opponents across five victories on his way to the individual title.  After opening the meet with a fall over Alex Semenenko (Brown), Davison steamrolled his way to the top of the podium, downing Dayton Pitzer (Pittsburgh) by a final count of 4-0 to claim the 285-pound crown.

Yahya Thomas notched a pair of major decision victories en route to the 149-pound semifinals, where he downed No. 10 Doug Zapf (Penn), 3-2.  Thomas picked up another ranked win in the finals, staving off a late charge from No. 5 Kyle Parco (Arizona State) to secure a 4-3 victory. … rest of story at NUsports.com/news/2022/12/30/wrestling-central-northwestern-wins-midlands-team-crown-three-cats-capture-individual-titles

HOST NORTHWESTERN WINS MIDLANDS MEN’S TITLE, NORTH CENTRAL WINS INAUGURAL MIDLANDS WOMEN’S TITLE

Men’s Midlands wrap

A close title for the hometown squad.
Northwestern used three champions to win its first Midlands title on Saturday night in Hoffman Estates, Illinois.
The Wildcats entered the day in second but used its finals run to pull through. Penn jumped to runner-up while Pittsburgh,Wisconsin and Illinois finished the rest of the top five. Parity showed as Northwestern’s total — 122 points was only 15.5 ahead of fifth-place Illinois.

Yahya Thomas (149), Trevor Chumbley (157) and Lucas Davison (285) emerged as champions.

Speed showed at 149. Thomas edged Arizona State’s Kyle Parco, 4-3, in a battle of All-Americans. This clash showed high-level skills from guys that could be NCAA title contenders. Parco flexed his defense as he avoided several takedowns with some roll throughs. Tied 3-3 halfway in the third, Thomas escaped to score the final point.

In a match crucial to the team race, Chumbley stopped Wisconsin’s Drew Scharenbrock, 8-0, at 157. Chumbley dominated with 2:15 in riding time.

In the tournament’s final bout, Davison concluded his incredible shutout run with a 3-0 win over Pittsburgh’s Dayton Pitzer in the heavyweight final.

Back at 125, Wisconsin earned its first champion with Eric Barnett. He beat Arizona State’s Brandon Courtney, 6-2.

Though both are multi-time All-Americans, Barnett showed his skill on top with 2:42 of riding time. … rest of story at Teamusa.org/USA-Wrestling/Features/2022/December/30/Midlands

January 3, 2023 Posted by | Uncategorized | Leave a comment

ABBOTT BLOG: THE TOP 10 WRESTLING STORIES OF 2022

To start this annual column, I’d like to mark a milestone in my life. In 1972, as a seventh grader at Oldfield Junior High in Greenlawn, N.Y., along with my older brother Jim, I joined the wrestling team. I started my career on the B team with six straight losses but rallied to win the last two matches. But I also found a new sport that I was determined to stay with. This holiday season marks 50 years that I have been involved in the sport of wrestling. I remember a while back when dear friend Doc Bennett told me he had been in wrestling 50 years, which then seemed like such a long time. Now that I have reached the half-century mark in the sport, I am tremendously grateful and amazingly humbled.

While it was a crazy year for me in 2022 for a lot of reasons, it was a crazy good year for Team USA on the mats, perhaps the best in our history. The hardest part of this column will be deciding the No. 1 selection. How do you choose between the greatest season ever for a young U.S. star, or the crowning of the greatest champion in U.S. wrestling history? Rather than declare a tie, I will force myself to decide. (PS – I changed my mind a few times).

1. Jordan Burroughs wins seventh World and Olympic title, the most golden U.S. wrestler ever – When Jordan Burroughs stood on top of the podium in Belgrade, Serbia as the World champion at 79 kg in men’s freestyle, he raised six fingers. This was accurate as it was his sixth Senior World title. I kind of wish he raised seven fingers, because that is what made his victory so historic. Jordan Burroughs won his seventh World and Olympic gold medal, breaking a tie he held with John Smith and Adeline Gray. In 1992, John Smith won his sixth straight World and Olympic title with a Barcelona Games gold medal. He never officially retired, focusing on coaching and other things. It took 30 years for another American to beat his record. Early in his career, Jordan Burroughs came up with the Twitter handle of @AllISeeIsGold and talked about breaking Smith’s record. Some saw it as brash, but I never did. Jordan was just being honest, sharing his goals and his belief in himself with the rest of the world. Jordan has reached this specific goal, and at the age of 34, he is not yet done. This new record may not last 30 more years. Jordan is still wrestling and could extend it. Adeline Gray, at six, is coming back. Kyle Dake has four World titles. Kyle Snyder has four combined golds and is just 27 years old. With seven golds and 10 medals at the World and Olympic level, Burroughs deserves the No. 1 story of 2022. There is a lot of talk about who the GOAT is within American wrestling, and deservedly so. Go ahead and debate that. It is good for wrestling.

2. Amit Elor wins U20, U23 and Senior World titles in the same year – On October 23, Jordan Burroughs tweeted this: “Now this is what you call the Triple Crown!” He was re-tweeting a FloWrestling graphic listing Amit Elor’s three World titles in 2022, at the U20, U23 and Senior World levels. Elor had the most remarkable season ever for a young U.S. athlete, and achieved something that had never been done before. In 2021, Elor won two World titles, at the U17 and U20 levels. In 2022, she moved up into two new higher age divisions, and won them both, the U23 and Senior level, while repeating at the U20 level. Clearly, the most impressive was winning the Senior World title at age 18 (our youngest Senior champion ever). … rest of story at Teamusa.org/USA-Wrestling/Features/2022/December/28/Top-10-stories-of-2022

January 3, 2023 Posted by | Uncategorized | Leave a comment

2022-23 NAIA Men’s Wrestling Coaches’ Top 20 Poll – No. 3

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – For the fourth consecutive ratings period to begin the season, Grand View (Iowa) sits on top of the NAIA Men’s Wrestling Coaches’ Top 20 Poll. The rest of the Top Six teams remain the same with Life (Ga.), Southeastern (Fla.), Doane (Neb.), Indiana Tech, and Ottawa (Kan.) following in order. Oklahoma City and Thomas More (Ky.) capture spots 19 and 20 respectively, bumping out Missouri Valley and Montana State-Northern.

Poll Methodology

  • The poll was voted upon by a panel of head coaches representing each of the eight conferences.
  • Two days prior to the national poll, each qualifying group rater submits the top 10 individuals from each weight class in his conference into the system. Only wrestlers listed on a conference ballot are considered for the national ballot.
  • The top 25 individuals in each weight class is based on how each voter ranks the best individuals. An individual receives 25 points for each first place vote, 24 for second place and so on through the list. This same point system is used to determine the team ranking.
  • The highest and lowest ranking for each team (a non-rating is considered a low rating) is removed and the team’s ranking will be recalculated with an additional point added to each team for every ballot
  • For the complete Top 20 calendar, click here.
  • … rest of story at NAIA.org/sports/mwrest/2022-23/Releases/4_National

January 3, 2023 Posted by | Uncategorized | Leave a comment