2019 Division III Hall of Fame Presented by Defense Soap
TDR Ed. Notes ; Congratulations to these wrestlers and coaches on their induction into the Hall of Fame this year. We are particularly pleased for these veteran coaches, Grebinar, Kocher, and Morris, who have led their teams to many victories.
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Manheim, PA – The National Wrestling Coaches Association is proud to announce the Division III Hall of Fame Class of 2019 sponsored by Defense Soap. This year’s class is comprised of two former student-athletes and four coaches. The athletes are John Gemmel (Ithaca College) and Tim Jacoutot (The College of New Jersey) while the coaches are Phil Grebinar (Worcester Polytechnic Institute), Leo Kocher (University of Chicago), Lonnie Morris (Johnson & Wales University), and Donny Wichmann (Augsburg University).
NWCA 2019 Convention Details
“The Hall of Fame Class of 2019 is an outstanding group who have helped advance our sport through their tireless efforts. It is our honor to help in recognizing them on this honor and we are excited to bring the Hall of Fame to the NWCA Convention and plan on a wonderful evening celebrating these former athletes and coaches.” Mike Moyer, NWCA Executive Director.
ATHLETES
The athletes from this year’s class, Gemmel and Jacoutot combined for an impressive 7 All-American finishes, 6 Finals appearances, and 4 National Championships. Rest of the details and story at http://www.nwcaonline.com/2019-division-iii-hall-of-fame-presented-by-defense-soap/?mc_cid=5185e1e43a&mc_eid=2ef7cbca4b
National Wrestling Media Association announces 2018-19 award recipients
NEW BRIGHTON, Minn. — The National Wrestling Media Association has announced its annual award winners for the 2018-19 season.
The NWMA is the national professional organization for journalists who cover the sport of amateur wrestling. This includes reporters, editors, publishers, webmasters, photographers, broadcasters, athletic communications professionals and other media professionals who share an interest and involvement in the sport. The organization was founded in 1989.
Several repeat selections highlight this season’s winners, as well as several very accomplished first-time recipients. Second-time honorees include Jim Gibbons, Big Ten Network and ESPN; photographer Tony Rotundo, WrestlersAreWarriors; and Flowrestling. Gibbons was voted the Broadcaster of the Year, while Rotundo was again honored as Photographer of the Year. Flowrestling won Website of the Year. First-time winners are Cody Goodwin, Des Moines Register (Iowa) as Journalist of the Year, Brian Reinhardt, NC State as Division I SID of the Year, Corey Jewart, Gettysburg College, as Small College SID of the Year, and John Broughton of Trackwrestling and United World Wrestling as New Media Specialist. Rest of the details and story at http://www.nationalwrestlingmedia.com/2019/07/national-wrestling-media-association-announces-2018-19-award-recipients/?mc_cid=32ede7d1c8&mc_eid=2ef7cbca4b
Monday: Maybe the best day for wrestling celebrity watching in Fargo
BY GARY ABBOTT, USA WRESTLING | JULY 15, 2019,
There are seven days of competition at the USMC Junior/16U Nationals in Fargo, N.D., and every day there are a ton of well-known wrestling people who are all around. Today has the 16U men’s freestyle finals and the Junior men’s freestyle knockout rounds through the semifinals. This is a day in which college wrestling coaches come out of the woodwork, to see the great talent that could be available for their programs. For wrestling people watching, there is no better day in Fargo. Before we get too far, we wanted to note the first Olympic champion sighting, as 1976 Olympic champion and 1972 Olympic silver medalist John Peterson was walking across the Fargodome floor. Peterson is not only one of the wrestling greats, but is also a fantastic person. When you spend time around him, you respect his faith and kindness. He has some great wrestling stories to boot.
Before we list all of the additional college coaches we have run into the last 24 hours, we also want to recognize some more great international competitors in the house. 2001 World silver medalist Brandon Eggum, who also gets on the college coach list as the head man at the University of Minnesota, is here to help stock the Gopher wrestling room with new talent. Eggum got the chance to compete in one Senior World Championships, and had a great run to the finals. It is guys like Eggum who make the U.S. men’s freestyle program so powerful. If you make a U.S. Senior World Team, you are expected to win a medal, and Eggum got it done when he got that chance. Rest of the story at
Two NCAA Champs, PA Champion, Six State Place-Winners Lead 2019-20 Mountain Cat Wrestling Recruiting Class
TDR Editor’s Notes ; Coach Pat Pecora currently has 598 dual meet wins under his belt as a head coach. This total places him 2nd among over 5,000 college coaches in over 110 years of competition. The late Dale Thomas who coached at Oregon State from 1957-1990 won 616 matches and he has held 1st place in wins since 1976 when he passed Coach Joe Begala of Kent State. The Mountain Cat squad could put Pecora in 1st place in February of 2020 if weather holds up and all matches are held and the wins continue to roll in. We will keep an eye on these matches and hope to be there.
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Head Coach Pat Pecora and the Pitt-Johnstown wrestling program have added 19 new wrestlers, including a pair of NCAA Division II National Champions, a Pennsylvania State Champion, six former Pennsylvania State place-winners and seven state qualifiers, for the 2019-20 season.
2019 NCAA Division II National Champions Tyler Warner (Dennison, Ohio/Claymont High School) and Connor Craig (Cincinnati, Ohio/Elder High School) both transferred to Pitt-Johnstown from Wheeling Jesuit (WV) University after leading the Cardinals to a runner-up national finish. Warner, a red-shirt junior, posted a 25-1 overall record and defeated Nebraska-Kearney’s Wesley Dawkins, 4-1, to win his title at 133 lbs. Warner was 53-10 in two seasons at Wheeling Jesuit. Craig won the 174-lb. national championship with a 6-2 decision over McKendree’s (IL) Nick Foster. Craig, also a junior, was 28-1 in 2018-19 and 54-9 in his two-year career at Wheeling Jesuit. Rest of the story at
Thousands flock to Fargodome for national wrestling tournament
FARGO – The FargoDome will be the epicenter of youth wrestling for the next several days. Day two of the 2019 Junior National Championships and U-16 Championships is in the books. The tournament features Greco-Roman and freestyle wrestling. Thousands of athletes from as many as 48 states are represented.
West Fargo’s Alana Schaefer is one of them. This is her first year on the North Dakota girl’s team. “There’s a lot more freedom in freestyle and you’re able to do more, which is sometimes hard because I can forget what I’m supposed to do,” she said. “It’s a little different, because they can do different throws and they can grab you differently which comes to a surprise sometimes.” The tournament runs until July 20. Rest of the story and video at
#Fargo2019: New Jersey’s Gary “Gimp” Brownell
TDR Editor’s Notes; Wow, 42 Tournaments! Way to go ‘Gimp’!
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Gary Brownell is known more by his nickname “Gimp” in wrestling circles. He’s attending his 42nd USA Wrestling Junior & 16U National Championships. He’s held a variety of roles in wrestling, but technology has been something he’s been an innovator. We talk with Gimp about his fond moments and how technology has shaped wrestling and how much easier it is to follow an event like Fargo2019. Rest of the story and podcast at http://www.mattalkonline.com/podcast/short-time/fargo2019-new-jerseys-gary-gimp-brownell/?mc_cid=628521d7c2&mc_eid=2ef7cbca4b
CAROLINA WRESTLING ANNOUNCES 2019-20 FRESHMAN CLASS
CHAPEL HILL — The North Carolina wrestling program announced Friday the seven members of the incoming 2019-20 freshman class.
The list includes a pair of North Carolina recruits and a current Junior World Team member:
Connor Alexander (Richmond, Va./St. Christopher’s School)
Charley Berry (New York, N.Y./Poly Prep)
Timothy Decatur (Goldsboro, N.C./Rosewood High School)
Marcus Loving (Charlotte, N.C./Bradford Prep School)
Max Shaw (Pittsburgh, Pa./Thomas Jefferson High School)
Gabriel Tagg (Colorado Springs, Colo./AIM Academy)
Jordan Ward (Liberty Township, Ohio/Moeller)
“This group is, top to bottom, full of great talent and most importantly high-character guys,” head coach Coleman Scott said. “Their record on the mat speaks for itself but it is what they are going to do for our room that excites me most. Every one of them is what we want a Tar Heel to be, and our campus and wrestling room will be better for having them in Chapel Hill.”
Tagg is a member of the 2019 United States Junior World team after winning the U.S. Open and will compete in Estonia at Junior Nationals in August at 61kg.
Decatur is a three-time North Carolina state champion out of Rosewood, while Alexander also won three state titles in Virginia. Ward, whose older brother Joey was an All-American at 141 pounds in 2016, was a state finalist and a three-time state placer in Ohio. Rest of the story at https://goheels.com/news/2019/7/12/carolina-wrestling-announces-2019-20-freshman-class.aspx?mc_cid=127304e67a&mc_eid=2ef7cbca4b
Abbott Blog: A heartfelt tribute to my friend, the late Joe Seay
BY GARY ABBOTT, USA WRESTLING | JULY 13, 2019
It is a truly busy time at USA Wrestling, with the USMC Junior/16U Nationals beginning today, a number of foreign tours on the schedule, a magazine deadline looming, as well as preparation for the upcoming age-group and Senior World Championships. Plus a ton more things. In spite of all that, I am compelled to squeeze in a few minutes to write about my friend Joe Seay, who passed away on Thursday. On a wrestling level, Joe Seay was a giant. His gift was the ability to coach, and help develop and support great wrestlers. On a personal level, Joe was a wonderful man with a kind heart that made spending time with him a positive thing.
You can track his coaching career and understand why he is in the National Wrestling Hall of Fame. He was a great high school coach, who then moved up and built the CSU-Bakersfield program into a Div. II giant, with many Div. I champions and All-Americans (back then, D-II champs could go to the D-I NCAA meet). He went on to coach two NCAA Div. I national champion teams at Oklahoma State. Later, he was a masterful freestyle coach for the Sunkist Kids, and in perhaps his biggest moments, he was volunteer head coach for many of the greatest U.S. World and Olympic teams in history. If you were a great wrestler, or was active with USA Wrestling at the national level during Joe’s prime as a coach, you knew Joe Seay and probably worked with him often. Rest of the story at
Seven Minutes with Mark Manning presented by College Wrestler Recruiting
Seven Minutes is a series of interviews with top wrestling coaches and athletes. Most of the question-and-answer sessions last roughly seven minutes. Hence the name. Mark Manning is the head wrestling coach at the University of Nebraska and was an NCAA Division II champion in 1983 and 1985 for the University of Nebraska-Omaha. You can listen to the entire interview above or read the transcript below.
If you could take what you know now and have a conversation with yourself at the age of 15, what advice would you give yourself?
Work hard and work smart. You have to be smart on your approach and keep learning from everyone. I’ve taken that motto and it’s most important to keep doing that.
Let’s go back to when you were picking a school. You went to Nebraska then you transferred to Nebraska-Omaha. What was the recruitng process like and why did you ultimately transfer to Nebraska-Omaha?
I grew up watching Iowa Public Television and I loved watching Iowa and Iowa State wrestling matches. I grew up on that. I was really close to the border of Iowa. I grew up like that. Iowa recruited me. So I guess if I was 15 I would have gone to the University of Iowa and I would have wrestled there. It’s not about the cost. It’s what you’re going to do. Money is very important but at the end of the day it’s being happy and going where you think you can reach your goals. I got a big offer at Nebraska and that’s where my parents advised me to go. Rest of the story at
Lackawanna College Announces Area’s First Women’s Collegiate Wrestling
Scranton, Pa. – July 9, 2019 – Lackawanna College will add the area’s first and only women’s collegiate wrestling program. The College will compete in the Women’s Collegiate Wrestling Association (WCWA) with 2019-20 set as its inaugural season. WCWA has partnered with 38 colleges across the U.S. and Canada. Lackawanna’s home matches will take place at the Lackawanna College Student Union.
Kate Fox has been named the first women’s wrestling head coach. Coach Fox has assisted with several programs for over 18 years including Lackawanna’s men’s wrestling program and women’s tennis program. “I’m super excited, wrestling has been a passion for many years. I’m happy to have the opportunity to help young women in their college experience,” said Coach Fox. In addition to women’s wrestling, Lackawanna College recently announced … Rest of the story at https://portal.nwcaonline.com/articles/NWCA_News/Lackawanna-College-Announces-Area-s-12-7-2019
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
