Connecticut wrestler connects to Guatemalan roots through USA Wrestling for Peace program
BY SYDNEY SAUSCHUCK | OCT. 18, 2019
Photo of Ben alongside coaches Curtis Urbina and Tom Maurath.
Photo by Gina Mazzriello.
On May 28, 2005, a wrestler was born. Connecticut wrestler, Ben Plaue was adopted from Guatemala by his loving parents David and Gina. This past Sunday was his “Happy Gotcha Day”, as October 13, 2005 was the official day of his adoption. Not knowing he would be introduced to the greatest sport in the world, Ben found himself at a local wrestling clinic in Newtown, Connecticut in fifth grade. He has been with the sport ever since. Five years later, he is growing to be the best he can be, on and off the mat. Highlighting the Plaue family means a great deal to the USA Wrestling for Peace (USAW4P) program. A lot of the initiative is dedicated to promoting wrestling as a positive global force. Considering our next trip is to Livingston, Guatemala, Ben took it upon himself to be an active helping hand in contributing to the start of a youth wrestling program in his native country. In addition to promoting the sport as a positive global force, USAW4P strives to develop impeccable character among the youth the program encounters. Asking Ben what encouraged his commitment to assisting USAW4P garnered a simple reply, “I felt I needed to do something,” he said. This epitomizes how wrestling is a powerful influence that can be shared with the rest of the world. Thus far, his efforts have been tremendous. His desire to engage his people in the wrestling community and motivate them to donate their gear has been exceptional. People want to help him, which is leading to the expansion of what USAW4P is able to provide to the Guatemalan youth. He connected with his coaches and they were all eager to assist Ben along the way. Ben’s mother Gina expressed that this is a special way Ben gets to marry his passions. She is proud that her son is using his love for wrestling to help improve the lives of others. Ben is incredibly modest, but what he has done speaks volumes to the type of young man he is becoming. With the help of his sister Celia, they exchanged old gear from various sports in return for wrestling gear. He is determined to advocate for his roots in Central America. Only a freshman at Newtown High, he entered as two-time youth state champion. Already owning a spot on the varsity line-up, he is projected to wrestle at 120 pounds for the Nighthawks. For the last five years, he has been a staple in the Newtown Youth Wrestling Association room. Now that he is in high school, he is also involved with the Empire Wrestling Academy in Somers, New York. Ben and his family speak very highly of his coaches, to whom they cannot thank enough for engaging Ben in the sport of wrestling and what it has done for him. Opinions of the sport can be diverse, but two words that are very common in the wrestling community are grit and respect. Rest of the story at https://www.teamusa.org/USA-Wrestling/Features/2019/October/18/Connecticut-wrestler-connects-to-Guatemalan-roots-through-USA-Wrestling-for-Peace-program?mc_cid=e2d879b5f8&mc_eid=2ef7cbca4b
Record Breaking Wrestling Coverage on BTN in 2019-20
With the Big Ten seeking its 14th consecutive wrestling national championship, BTN will bring fans along for the ride with the most wrestling coverage in network history – a 40% increase from last season. BTN’s schedule begins with a non-conference matchup as No. 17 Virginia Tech heads to Columbus on Nov. 17 at noon ET to face the No. 4 Buckeyes and includes the Big Ten Championships, a Super Saturday dual between Rutgers and No. 7 Michigan from Madison Square Garden, a battle of last year’s top-two team finishers at the NCAA tournament in No. 1 Penn State and Ohio State and a primetime matchup between the top-ranked Nittany Lions and No. 2 Iowa on Friday, Jan. 31 at 9 p.m. ET. Jim Gibbons, Tim Johnson and Shane Sparks will once again anchor BTN’s coverage.
“The Big Ten is home to the most dominant wrestling programs in the country and that distinction has made wrestling the fourth most-watched sport on BTN,” said BTN President François McGillicuddy. “Our goal is to continue to showcase and amplify Big Ten Wrestling, including an increase in our live event broadcasts, a commitment to original storytelling and an investment in on-campus digital content.” BTN will debut a new wrestling-centric episode of The B1G Story, a documentary-style program produced by the Emmy-nominated BTN Originals team. At 10 p.m. ET on Sunday, Dec. 1, The B1G Story: Alex & Eli will explore the friendship and bond of Iowa wrestler Alex Marinelli and former Wisconsin wrestler, Eli Stickley. Rest of the story at https://btn.com/2019/10/17/record-breaking-wrestling-coverage-on-btn-in-2019-20/?mc_cid=987ee111d5&mc_eid=2ef7cbca4b
WolfPack Mentality Pop-Ins Podcast: Ep. 54 – Preseason Rankings with Earl Smith
Purchase 2019-20 NC State Wrestling Season Tickets | Upgrade Your Seats to Matside
RALEIGH, N.C. – Episode #54 of the #PackMentality Pop-Ins Podcast talks with head coach Pat Popolizio for the first official episode of the 2019-20 season now that practice has started. Host Brian Reinhardt and Popolizio run through a number of topics updating Wolfpack Wrestling fans on everything the team is doing now. Reinhardt also jumps into the Skype machine and chats with The Open Mat’s Earl Smith about his preseason NCAA rankings and where he sees the Wolfpack at the start of the season. Rest of the story and audio at https://gopack.com/news/2019/10/17/wrestling-packmentality-pop-ins-podcast-ep-54-preseason-rankings-with-earl-smith.aspx?mc_cid=987ee111d5&mc_eid=2ef7cbca4b
Duke Announces 2019-20 Wrestling Schedule
2019-20 Schedule
DURHAM, N.C.—Duke head wrestling coach Glen Lanham has announced his team’s 2019-20 schedule. The Blue Devils will host five home duals and wrestle four duals against NCAA top-25 finishers from a season ago. Duke is coming off its second consecutive year in which it finished in the top-25 at the NCAA Championships, taking 24th out of the 70-team pool. The Blue Devils return four starters from last season, including three NCAA qualifiers. Prior to kicking off the season, the Blue Devils will host a Black and Blue wrestle-off on October 27th. The outside meet will take place in Krzyzewskiville on Duke’s campus.
The season officially starts November 3rd at the Battle at the Citadel in Charleston, S.C. The Blue Devils will then travel to Boone, N.C., for the Mountaineer Invitational on Nov. 9th, before ending the month at the Keystone Classic on the 24th. Duke has a little time off for the holidays before it’s back in action December 29th-30th at the South Beach Wrestling Duals in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. After the New Year, the Blue Devils head to Virginia Beach for the Virginia Duals from January 10th-11th. Duke will then wrestle Fresno State, Cal Bakersfield and Appalachian State all within a seven-day span from Jan. 17th-23rd. Rest of the story at https://goduke.com/news/2019/10/16/duke-announces-2019-20-wrestling-schedule.aspx?mc_cid=095e996692&mc_eid=2ef7cbca4b
How Wrestling Built Me: AutoNation General Manager Michael Child
‘How Wrestling Built Me’ is a podcast about the influence of wrestling beyond the mat. These are the stories of how wrestling develops a person in a singulalrly unique way. The people interviewed are those who have taken the skills of wrestling and used them to be highly successful in another endeavor. Whether it is business, politics, military, entertainment, broadcasting, writing, academics, or another sport — ‘How Wrestling Built Me’ explores the universal qualities of wrestling that last a lifetime.
Michael Child of Houston, Texas, was part of the state championship wrestling team at Midwest City High School in Midwest City, Oklahoma, before returning as an assistant coach at his alma mater for nearly 10 years. He lettered in football and wrestling at Colorado State University where he was a two-time Academic All-American. Child’s competitive wrestling career ended when he donated a kidney to his younger brother, Mark. Rest of the story and audio at https://www.trackwrestling.com/PortalPlayer.jsp?TIM=1571284075969&twSessionId=tbqudynpfd&videoId=1690370132&mc_cid=095e996692&mc_eid=2ef7cbca4b
Dan Gable Donnybrook, a new high school wrestling tournament, coming to Coralville
TDR Note; Great name for a tournament. Also note that this will be the very first event in the new facility and it will be real wrestling!
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A new high school wrestling tournament is coming to the state of Iowa — one that organizers hope will become one of the sport’s premier national competitions. Beginning next year, the Xtream Arena and GreenState Family Fieldhouse in Coralville will host the Dan Gable Donnybrook, a brand-new tournament announced Wednesday by Think Iowa City.
The inaugural competition, sanctioned through the Iowa High School Athletic Association, is scheduled for Dec. 4-5, 2020, and marks the first sporting event announced for the Iowa River Landing’s new facility. The event will be invite-only, will consist of a 32-team individual format with team scoring and will include divisions for both boys and girls. Organizers hope the best high school wrestling teams from Iowa and surrounding states will compete.
“A ‘donnybrook’ is a free-for-all brawl,” Think Iowa City president Josh Schamberger said in a release. “Our hope is that through exceptional event production and top-level competition — both attributes that are required with an event that boasts Dan Gable as its namesake — that wrestlers from the Midwest and ultimately the country will put this tournament on the top of their list.”
Any and all proceeds from the tournament will be split between the Veteran’s Liberty Center in Iowa City, which provides various levels of assistance to veterans, and a fund to help promote and grow girls’ wrestling in Iowa. The competition will be produced, in part, by the same organizers that put on the U.S. Olympic Wrestling Trials, which came to Carver-Hawkeye Arena in Iowa City in both 2012 and 2016, and the UWW Freestyle World Cup, which came to Carver in 2018. Xtream Arena is scheduled to open in August. “The new facilities … are perfect for this event,” Nathan Eichorst, chief event organizer, said in a release. “We’ll be utilizing both Xtream Arena and the GreenState Family Fieldhouse. The atmosphere that weekend will be awesome. Rest of the story and details at https://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/sports/high-school/2019/10/16/dan-gable-donnybrook-iowa-high-school-wrestling-josh-schamberger-xtream-arena-coralville-2020/4000997002/?mc_cid=095e996692&mc_eid=2ef7cbca4b
Menlo 1st, Raiders 2nd in inaugural CCC women’s wrestling poll
By: SOU Sports Information
Women’s wrestling will be an official Cascade Conference sport for the first time in 2019-20.
Menlo (Calif.) was dubbed the favorite to win the first CCC title in a coaches’ poll released Tuesday by the league office. The Oaks – who in March captured the inaugural NAIA Invitational championship – collected all seven first-place votes, and Southern Oregon was picked second. Providence (Mont.) was third, Eastern Oregon fourth, Life Pacific (Calif.) fifth, and Simpson (Calif.) and Warner Pacific tied for sixth in the poll. The Raiders, entering their fifth season, are operating under the leadership of a new head coach: SOU alum and former men’s wrestling assistant Joel Gibson. His roster includes 16 returning wrestlers – headlined by All-Americans Anesia Ramirez (130 pounds) and Sienna Ramirez (143) – and an incoming recruiting class of 17. The Raiders will host the first CCC Championship meet on March 1 at Lithia Motors Pavilion. After going 9-8 in duals last season and taking eighth as a team at the NAIA Invitational, they’ll debut on Oct. 26 at the California-Oregon Duals in Redding, Calif. Rest of the story at https://souraiders.com/news/2019/10/15/menlo-1st-raiders-2nd-in-inaugural-ccc-womens-wrestling-poll.aspx?mc_cid=095e996692&mc_eid=2ef7cbca4b
USA Wrestling creates three new young girls age groups which match boys age groups, and sets their weight classes
BY GARY ABBOTT, USA WRESTLING | OCT. 16, 2019
USA Wrestling has changed its age-group structure for youth girls wrestlers, and developed the official weight classes for these new age groups.
The new age groups for youth girls will be 8U, 10U and 12U. This replaces the two youth age groups previously contested for younger girls in USA Wrestling competition. Moving forward, girls wrestling will have the exact same age-group structure as boys wrestling from high school and below. Rest of the story and details at https://www.teamusa.org/USA-Wrestling/Features/2019/October/16/New-young-girls-age-groups-and-weights-announced?mc_cid=095e996692&mc_eid=2ef7cbca4b
InterMat NCAA Division I Rankings
InterMat has rankings for all three NCAA Divisions, NAIA, NJCAA, Women’s College Division and California Jr. Colleges. Plus there are rankings of high school wrestlers from around the country. The high school wrestlers are even ranked on grade level.
Rest of the story and all the rankings at http://intermatwrestle.com/rankings/college?fbclid=IwAR1mFBkTGNfFpk6wh8ID7tvQXyu4dhQI56lwKndl7aiP_JuTvydZFeqOoaY
BARANIK STEPS DOWN AS WRESTLING COACH; NICHOLAS SOTO USHERS IN NEW ERA
Laurinburg, NC – St. Andrews University has hired Nicholas (Nick) Soto to be the new Head Coach of the Men’s Wrestling team. The Spring Hill, Florida native will start coaching the Knights wrestling team this upcoming season. Soto comes to us after coaching as a graduate assistant coach at Seton Hill University. Soto also has experience coaching in high school, where he helped Cleveland High School (who became State Champions), Jesuit High School and Springstead High School.
Soto attended the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga where he was a decorated wrestler. While at Chattanooga, Soto was a four-time NCAA Qualifier and four-time SoCon Champion. Soto was ranked in the top 15 every year and was undefeated in conference competitions in his four years at Chattanooga. Soto is fourth on UTC’s All-time Win’s list. He’s a Reno Tournament of Champions winner, a Southern Scuffle finalist and multiple time place winner, and a Hokie Open Champion and multiple time place winner. In high school, Soto was an NHSCA three-time All American, a two-time Florida State Champion and a three-time place winner. Soto’s high school team at Springstead High School was the first athletic team in their county to win a state title.
Soto graduated from the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga with a bachelor’s in business administration in 2015. While at Chattanooga, Soto was a continuous member of the Dean’s List and Athletic Director’s List. Rest of the story at http://www.sauknights.com/article/mens-wrestling/baranik-steps-down-as-mens-head-wrestling-coach-nicholas-soto-ushers-in-new-era
TDR blog
After 20 seasons of publicizing wrestling The TakeDown Report’s (TDR) focus has changed to the collecting of college coaching records from North America since 1903. We will continue to recognize and reward successful wrestlers in eastern North Carolina (east of Raleigh & Fayetteville), assist with schools in starting or re-starting a team and this blog. Join us on our FaceBook Page – “The TakeDown Report” for photos and news. Please send results, stories, links and news to pass along. E-mail us at takedownreport@gmail.com
Martin Fleming, Editor
Takedown Report
