Rutgers and Princeton wrestled on Super Bowl Sunday, and it was glorious
Wrestling is as Jersey as the Sopranos, listening to Springsteen while driving on the Turnpike and Boardwalk fries at the shore. Rutgers coach Scott Goodale and Princeton coach Chris Ayres are both Jersey guys too. …Goodale from Jackson, while Ayres is from Newton. And so on a day when most sports fans around the country were focused on the Super Bowl, Goodale and Ayres relished Sunday’s emotionally-charged 19-18 Rutgers victory at the RAC in front of over 5,200 fans that took in one of the state’s favorite sports. Not only was the match well-attended, it was tremendous theater for those in attendance and wrestling fans who watched on TV or on-line around the country. Three consecutive matches ended in sudden victory and the bout that broke the string finished 3-2 with a third-period takedown. Rest of the story at https://www.nj.com/rutgers/2019/02/rutgers_and_princeton_wrestled_on_super_bowl_sunday_and_it_was_glorious.html?mc_cid=1198efe11a&mc_eid=2ef7cbca4b
First time’s the charm: Northern Nash’s Sullivan makes history with tournament finish
BY SAMUEL EVERS Sports Writer Tuesday, February 5, 2019
When Northern Nash’s Sidney Sullivan was a seventh-grader at Red Oak Middle School, after a few inquiries directed toward her father, Rodney, who also went to Northern Nash, she found out he was both a high school wrestler and football player. The football part didn’t interest her much, but the wrestling part was intriguing enough to go ahead and try out for the middle school team. She even convinced four other girls to try out the sport with her. Since, that list of five, because of other sports or other personal reasons, has dwindled down to just Sullivan, now a freshman for the Knights, who has carried on with wrestling undeterred. This season, Sullivan was the only girl on the Knights’ team, and the only girl wrestler in the Big East to make it to the state invitational this past weekend. So, a lot of regional pride was following her on Saturday, when her, her mother, Tammy, and Northern Nash’s assistant coach Bryan Sweet loaded up Sweet’s car and headed to the Winston-Salem Fairgrounds Annex for the first-ever NCHSAA Women’s Wrestling Invitational Tournament. Rest of the story at http://www.rockymounttelegram.com/High-Schools/2019/02/05/Northern-Nash-s-Sullivan-makes-history-with-tournament-finish.html
Northern Nash wrestler Sidney Sullivan, 15, poses while wearing her NCHSAA third place medal on Tuesday at Northern Nash High School. Sullivan placed third in her weight class on Saturday during the inaugural NCHSAA Women’s Wrestling Invitational Tournament in Winston-Salem.
No. 25 Camels down Gardner-Webb 40-4
TDR Editor’s Notes : Check out this article and photo. Who is the old bearded guy in the background with a quizzical look on his face?
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BUIES CREEK, N.C. – No. 25 Campbell claimed nine of 10 decisions and cruised to a 40-4 Southern Conference victory over Gardner-Webb Tuesday at McCall Court. Campbell remained unbeaten on the year at 5-0 overall and 3-0 in SoCon action, while GWU dipped to 2-9 on the year and 0-4 in conference outings. No. 14 Noah Gonser earned his third straight win, and ninth in his last 10 outings, with a 4-0 decision at 133 pounds, and Nathan Boston followed with a 4-3 edge at 141 to give CU the 12-0 lead. Making his second consecutive start at 157, Benjamin Barton earned a 6-1 decision, while No. 16 Andrew Morgan took a 6-2 win at 174. Austin McNeill earned his first SoCon win of the season with a 10-2 major decision, using a pair of third period takedowns to collect bonus points. Heavyweight Odgerel Batkhishig put the exclamation point on the win with a pin (6:32) to close the match, pushing the score to 40-4. The Runnin’ Bulldogs forfeited three weight classes on the night, including 125, 149 and 184 pounds. Tyler Marinelli gave GWU its only points with a major decision at 165 pounds. Resr of the story and details at https://gocamels.com/news/2019/2/5/wrestling-no-25-camels-down-gardner-webb-40-4.aspx?mc_cid=c28d91da5c&mc_eid=2ef7cbca4b
Bedford named head men’s, women’s coach at Texas Wesleyan
FORT WORTH, Texas — Texas Wesleyan University Athletics is pleased to announce Ray Bedford, wrestling coaching veteran at the state, national and international level, has joined its list of elite coaches as head coach of wrestling. Bedford is charged with building the new men’s and women’s varsity wrestling teams, which are set to compete in the NAIA’s Sooner Athletic Conference beginning in the fall of 2019. Recruitment is now underway. Bedford comes to Texas Wesleyan with extensive experience in coaching, mentoring and leading both men’s and women’s wrestling programs. He is the founder of Spartan Mat Club, one of the largest elite high school clubs in Texas, specializing in preparing high school athletes for national and international wrestling programs. Since Spartan Mat Club’s founding in 2016, Bedford has helped place more than 90 wrestlers in the state tournament. The club boasts 12 champions and 44 placing, with more than 25 wrestlers in college programs throughout the U.S. During this time, he has also served as coach with the Texas Men’s and Women’s Cadet and Junior National Dual Teams, Fargo National Championship Teams and has been asked to be an assistant coach on the Cadet Pan Am Team for 2019. For the rest of the story check https://intermatwrestle.com/articles/21362
Daniel’s Sudden Victory Lifts UNC Past Pitt
PITTSBURGH, Pa. —Cory Daniel’s dramatic overtime win and No. 4 Austin O’Connor’s pin helped lead No. 17 North Carolina to a 19-16 victory over No. 13 Pittsburgh Saturday at Fitzgerald Field House. Joe Heilmann started the afternoon strong with his second win in as many days. The freshman came out firing against Pittsburgh’s Brandon Fenton and began cutting for a major decision in the second period. He ultimately won with bonus points, a 12-3 win to kick off the day for Carolina (10-5, 2-0 ACC).
No. 5 Micky Phillippi topped Gary Wayne Harding next in a back-and-forth 8-4 decision. After that, the Panthers (8-3, 0-2 ACC) built more momentum with a major decision at 141 pounds. Those two wins turned the tide a bit, but O’Connor was able to swing things back in Carolina’s direction in the next match. Against Robert Lee, O’Connor commanded the first period and carried the strong outing through the first break. One minute and 25 seconds into the period, he found a way to get Lee onto his back and stick him for his second pin in less than 24 hours. The win via fall gave Carolina a 10-7 lead in the team score. Rest of the story and match results at https://goheels.com/news/2019/2/2/wrestling-daniels-sudden-victory-lifts-unc-past-pitt.aspx?mc_cid=5793c002d7&mc_eid=2ef7cbca4b
Princeton Opens Ivy Slate With Harvard/Brown Sweep, Heads To Rutgers For Garden State Showdown
The 20th-ranked Princeton wrestling team learned its lesson last season when it let an early-season Ivy League match slip away in Providence. Despite getting national attention for a Super Sunday showdown at Rutgers tomorrow, the Tigers remained focused inside Jadwin Gym Saturday and opened their 2019 Ivy League season with victories over both Harvard and Brown.
PRINCETON 31, HARVARD 12
Princeton won six of its last seven matches to cruise to an Ivy-opening win over Harvard during the afternoon portion of the doubleheader. That run started at 149, but not from the Tiger you might have expected. With the main event showdown with #2 Anthony Ashnault set for Sunday, head coach Chris Ayres chose to rest top-ranked Matthew Kolodzik in the opener, and he sent freshman Josh Breeding to the mat with the Tigers down 9-3. Breeding handled the moment in impressive fashion, scoring a major decision over Robert Groves for the first dual win of his career.
Rest of the story, details and video at https://goprincetontigers.com/news/2019/2/2/wrestling-princeton-opens-ivy-slate-with-harvard-brown-sweep-heads-to-rutgers-for-garden-state-showdown.aspx?mc_cid=5793c002d7&mc_eid=2ef7cbca4b
Appalachian State stays in SoCon title race with win over UTC
BOONE, N.C. — Appalachian State Wrestling stayed in the Southern Conference championship race with a 21-14 home victory Sunday against Chattanooga, which suffered its first league loss. The Mountaineers (5-6, 3-1 SoCon) clinched the victory against the Mocs (5-6, 3-1) in Varsity Gym when senior Michael Elliott ended the dual with a Sudden Victory takedown for a 6-4 decision at 165 pounds. App State possessed a four-point lead heading into that matchup, so Chattanooga needed a win with bonus points to either push the team score to a dual-deciding tiebreaker or give the Mocs a come-from-behind victory. The outcome leaves Campbell (4-0, 2-0) as the only SoCon team without a league loss. The Camels won 19-17 against App State and wrestle at Chattanooga next Sunday. Thomas Flitz got the Mountaineers off to a strong start with a 13-4 major decision at 174 pounds before Randall Diabe’s 4-1 decision at 197 pounds, Cary Miller’s 10-2 major decision at 285 pounds and Codi Russell’s 11-3 major decision at 133 pounds pushed the team score to 15-6. Rest the story at https://intermatwrestle.com/articles/21355
#21 Wrestling posts 4 tech falls & rolls by Edinboro to extend win streak
The No. 21 LHU wrestling team topped EWL rival Edinboro for the first time in 17 years thanks to four tech falls and a major. The win extended the Bald Eagles win streak to four matches.
EDINBORO, Pa. – For the first time since 2002, the No. 21 Lock Haven University wrestling team downed Eastern Wrestling League (EWL) rival Edinboro University in a league dual, and the Bald Eagles made it look easy tonight, winning seven of 10 bouts, including five bonus-point victories. LHU posted four tech falls and a major decision on the way to the win.
Tonight’s dominating effort from Lock Haven led to the Bald Eagles first win over Edinboro (2-7, 1-4 EWL, 0-2 PSAC (DI)) in 17 years. Before tonight, LHU’s last win vs. Edinboro came back in February 2002. The win snapped a 16-match Fighting Scot win streak in the series. With the win, Lock Haven extended its win streak this season to four matches and improved to 6-2 overall. The Bald Eagles are now undefeated in EWL duals at 3-0 and LHU is now 2-0 vs. Division I Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC) teams.
Rest of the story and details at https://www.golhu.com/news/2019/1/31/-21-wrestling-posts-4-tech-falls-rolls-by-edinboro-to-extend-win-streak.aspx?mc_cid=9dd679a0fb&mc_eid=2ef7cbca4b
NCAA Division I, II, III: Dynasties, defined
How would you define a dynasty in college wrestling? In terms of sports, the Merriam-Webster dictionary defines a dynasty as “a sports franchise which has a prolonged run of successful seasons.” Wikipedia offers this definition of a sports dynasty: “In sports, a dynasty is a team or individual that dominates their sport or league for an extended length of time … This can result in a frequent topic of debate among sports fans due to lack of the consensus and agreement in the many different variables and criteria that fans may use to define a sports dynasty.”
Why bring up the issue of college wrestling dynasties now? In the first month of 2019, I came across two articles that addressed the topic of dynasties in college wrestling. The first — written before the 2019 College Football Playoff National Championship — declared the football program at University of Alabama as a leading sports dynasty … and included the Iowa Hawkeye wrestling program under coach Dan Gable among the handful of other collegiate dynasties. More recently, NCAA.com had a feature article listing NCAA Division II wrestling dynasties, based on the number of NCAA championship team titles. Seeing how other writers took on the topic of dynasties in college wrestling in a limited way, it seemed like a good time to offer an expanded view of some of the elements which might be considered in determining which college mat programs might be worthy of dynasty status. For starters, it made sense to me to expand the presentation beyond NCAA Division II to also incorporate possible mat dynasties in NCAA Division I and Division III. And, while we’re at it, why not go beyond the number of team titles won at Nationals to include tallies of individual champs and NCAA All-Americans for each college program which has earned a minimum of five national titles. Rest of the story at http://intermatwrestle.com/articles/21307?mc_cid=9dd679a0fb&mc_eid=2ef7cbca4b
Why the Marine Corps has become deeply invested in wrestling’s future
The speaker list included some of the heaviest hitters in the wrestling family with Jordan Burroughs and Hollywood star Chris Pratt headlining last summer’s United States Wrestling Foundation Gala. But the message that produced the longest and loudest ovation that night was delivered by a guy whose wrestling and professional career has unfolded primarily outside the public spotlight and inside war-torn pockets of the world.
Marine Corps Maj. Jared Reddinger stood at the dais last August in downtown Los Angeles, explaining why the Marines have aligned themselves with wrestling, telling how the sport shaped his life and talking about the characteristics he developed on the mat that pulled him through some of the most intense battles he faced in Iraq. “I’ve been in some environments in which nobody wants to be in,” Reddinger said. “The things that have gotten me through that, it hasn’t just been the training that the Marine Corps has provided me, it’s been the lessons I’ve learned as a 6-year-old kid in a wrestling room.” For me, that week in Southern California — at the USWF Gala and the men’s freestyle training camp at Camp Pendleton — crystallized the symbiotic relationship between wrestling and the Marine Corps. It shed light on why the Marines are deeply invested in the sport and why they, too, have an eye on high school wrestling participation numbers across the country. Rest of the story at http://www.trackwrestling.com/PortalPost.jsp?TIM=1548949483247&twSessionId=msgubkwmmi&postId=1174716132&mc_cid=9dd679a0fb&mc_eid=2ef7cbca4b
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
