Derek Sikora has taken over the head coaching position as UW-Eau Claire after long time coach Don Parker announced his retirement. Parker spent 32 seasons at Eau Claire, coaching 15 All-Americans and one national champion. Sikora was that national champion in 2006 when the Blugolds placed 16th in the NCAA. Sikora was a three time All-American and was an assistant coach at Eau Claire last season.
Listings of current openings for Division III coaching spots can be found by clicking “Job Openings” in the sidebar to the right. Five positions are open right now and divided between full time, part time, and graduate assistant. Please contact me with information about other job openings.
Alec Bonander of Luther College, Andrew Gardella of Case Western Reserve University, and Ben Youel of North Central College were each awarded NCAA Postgraduate scholarships, the NCAA announced today. The scholarships are given to senior athletes who excel athletically and academically, and the awards will go to help in paying for graduate studies. Only 29 male winter athletes in the NCAA were awarded scholarships, so it is a an exclusive honor. See the full list at the link below.
See the release from the NCAA about false starts from referee’s position.
Heidelberg assistant coach Brandon Brissette has been named as the new head coach at Olivet College, taking the position vacated by outgoing coach Todd Hibbs. Brissette has been at Heidelberg in various capacities for the past four seasons after finishing his wrestling career at Wartburg. See the Olivet release below.
We’re in the midst of a redesign here at d3wrestle.com. The content is all there, so please ignore the dust and caution tape over the next couple of days.
MIT announced today that they are dropping eight sports as a cost saving measure. Wrestling was one of the eight. In each of the past two seasons, MIT has had an All-American. This year’s All-American, Joe Silverman, will be a senior next year.
The list of DIII team sites has been updated. All links to Division III teams should be
correct as of today.
This post will aggregate as many DIII highlight videos as possible. Two are up right now, but as I find out about more, they will be posted here. If you have or know of a DIII Highlight Video from 2008-2009, please let me know.
2008-2009 Highlight Videos
Stevens Institute of Technology
Gettysburg College
The NE Regional Senior Freestyle tournament took place this past weekend in Brockport, New York. Several DIII wrestlers participated. See results here. Champs qualify for the world team trials.
DIII wrestlers:
Brian Borst, Cortland, 1st at 121
Ryan Fallot, Brockport at 132
John Khoury, Brockport at 132
Don Ooton, formerly of Brockport, 1st at 145.5
Danny Song, formerly of USMMA, assistant at Stevens @ 145.5
Pat Fallot, Brockport at 145.5
Troy Cunningham, Brockport at 163
Joey Favia, Stevens at 163
Ryan Pullman, Brockport at 163
Terry Madden, formerly of Hunter, top 6 at 185.5
Josh Lancaster, Brockport at 185.5
Tom Voorhis, Brockport at 211.5
Ryan Malo, Williams, 2nd at 211.5
Darren Sneed, Brockport at 264.5
Olivet wrestler Greg Jarratt is conducting a survey for use in a paper about Ethical Issues in Wrestling. The survey is for anyone associated with wrestling as a fan, parent, coach, or participant. Please click below to take the survey.
Tom Schleicher has announced his retirement as head coach at Muhlenberg College. In his 13 years, the Mules sent 25 wrestlers to the NCAA tournament and came home with six All-American honors, including Rob Kein at 149 lbs. this season. See the release below.
Here are the winners of the wrestlilng picks game for 2009. First place wins a t-shirt, while #2 and #3 get recognition here.
Third Place – CH Bucco – 6000 Points
125 McInally
133 Lang
141 Donahue
149 Gardella
157 Wernimont
165 Bonitatis
174 Brown
184 Wilcox
197 Semple
285 Witzel
2nd Place – MTDEW MAN – 6300 points
125 Kist
133 Cuciniello
141 McKray
149 Naig
157 Wernimont
165 Hanson
174 Grothus
184 Boltz
197 Moore
285 Plattner
FIRST PLACE – Alphonse – 6400 points
125 Ecker
133 Kelly
141 McKray
149 Woszczak
157 Gin
165 Dahlheimer
174 Molitor
184 Moenkedick
197Massey
285 Glotfelty
This year’s high score wasn’t as high as the winner last year, but it was just enough to win. I’ll be in touch with the winner shortly to arrange delivery of the prize.
Update 3/12 – don’t forget to post your results here by Friday night. I will close down the comments at some arbitrary time on Friday evening, so don’t delay. I will list the top three scores after they have been verified on Friday, and I will then contact the winner to set up delivery of the prize.
Please post your contest results here. List your team and how many points they each scored. Please make sure you use the same email address and “name” that you used in your original entry. We’ll announce the top three on Friday.
Todd Hibbs has stepped down after five years as the head coach at Olivet College. He will remain as an assistant professor in the Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Sport department. Olivet was 56-24 during his tenure and had 11 national qualifiers and four All-Americans.
Hibbs stepping down as head wrestling coach at Olivet College
Updated 3/10/09 – took these down for a little bit, but they’re back up now
All available video is now up
Click below for the listing of NWCA Academic All-Americans and the top 25 team GPAs. To be an Academic All-American, academic and athletic criteria must be met.
Congratulations to the Academic All-Americans as well as Team GPA champion Williams College.
Here are some comments on each of the finals matches from this past weekend.
125 Jake Oster (Elmhurst) dec Mike McInally (RIT) 8-7
A scary moment at the beginning when McInally brought Oster to mat after lifting him up in a single leg. Oster landed flat on his back, making a resounding thud on the elevated platform. McInally was penalized, and Oster was ok. After that, it was vintage Oster, as he scored on some step overs while giving up points of his own, but never enough to cough up the lead. He’s just a really tough matchup who is now a three time All-American with a year left to go.
133 Zac Bartlett (Luther) dec Nichalos Nothern (Cornell) 6-0
Nothern was on the offensive most of the match, but couldn’t convert any of his leg attacks into points. The battle of IIAC foes was scoreless until Nothern got in on another leg attack, but Bartlett stepped over the ankle and scored five with the rarely seen leg cradle. Nothern fought off his back, but there wasn’t enough time to do anything, and Bartlett became one of this weekend’s more unlikely champs.
141 Minga Batsukh (St. John’s) dec Zach McKray (Wartburg) 5-2
Batsukh took out the #1 seed in the semifinals and kept the momentum going in the finals against #2 McKray. He was able to turn McKray’s pressure against him and score with some nice slidebys. They spent a lot of time on their feet going back and forth, but McKray couldn’t penetrate Batsukh’s defense.
149 Matt Mauseth (UW-Lax) dec Paul LeBlanc (Cortland) 6-3
No one predicted this final, but Mauseth upset Holst and LeBlanc stopped Naig. Mauseth was in control most of the way, mostly shutting down anything LeBlanc tried to get going. His head started bleeding again from a wound sustained that morning, but he was able to stay focused and finish out a championship as a sophomore.
157 Aaron Wernimont (Wartburg) dec Jason Brew (Olivet) 2-1
It was a rematch of last year, but this time it was a closer fight. Wernimont set the pace from the beginning and was constantly attacking, but he couldn’t finish any of his attempts. He did, however, get the stalling point that proved the difference. Later in the match, Brew opened up, but Wernimont did enough to fight him off while still continuing to attack at a slower pace. He finished out the match to earn his second title and hsi 80th straight win.
165 Justin Hanson (Wartburg) dec Ben Youel (North Central) 7-3
These guys knew each other well, having wrestled twice this year and at least once last season. Hanson was able to avenge his only loss of the year with a controlling victory. It was a very tough weight class featuring last year’s champ and runner up, though neither made it to the finals.
174 Evan Brown (Dubuque) dec Rocky Mantella (Delaware Valley) 1-0
Mantella was favored, but he could not get anything going. Brown’s extreme right footed stance made it impossible for Mantella to hit his left handed high crotch, so he had to shoot low sweeps to the other side, and he was not as adept at finishing. Brown did almost nothing on his feet, but did enough to avoid the stalling call. On the mat, Mantella never seemed to make a real attempt to get up and spent the whole second period on the mat. He never got the takedown he needed, and Brown won on riding time.
184 Mike Wilcox (Delaware Valley) maj dec Phil Moenkedick (Concordia) 15-1
A couple of undefeated wrestlers went at it, but it didn’t take long for Wilcox to assert his control. He scored with a few huge double legs, but also was able to score on the mat, which is his specialty. Near the end Moenkedick was going for some big moves to try to get back into it, but Wilcox just took him straight to his back. It had been a long year for Wilcox after a runner-up finish last year, but he made it count with a performance that earned him the OW award.
197 Jared Massey (Augsburg) maj dec Ryan Malo (Williams) 11-2
Massey wrestled a great tournament, and he was able to keep the momentum going against Malo in a matchup of D1 transfers. Malo couldn’t get anything going against the aggressive Massey. Massey rolled to a regional title and kept it going at the NCAA tournament, winning every match he wrestled against a DIII opponent.
285 Dan Laurent (UW-Lax) dec Mark Corsello (Elmhurst) 6-3
Laurent successfully defended his title after dropping a few DIII matches this season. He scored his first takedown on a questionable call near the edge, but he thankfully got a few more to make that call moot. He’s an aggressive heavyweight who uses his athleticism to keep the attack going, and he put it all together when it mattered most.
Click below to see the d3wrestle.com gallery of the 2009 NCAA Division III Finals. All ten weight classes are represented both with action shots and podium shots, courtesy of Bruce Meminger. If you are interested in having a high quality copy of any photo, please contact me so I can email it to you.
It was an awesome tournament as usual. Lots of upsets and exciting matches. Congratulations to team champ Wartburg and OW Mike Wilcox. We’ll have more detailed finals analysis later, as well as a ton of action photos from the weekend courtesy of Bruce Meminger. For now, congratulations to our 10 champs:
125: Jake Oster, Elmhurst
133: Zac Bartlett, Luther
141: Minga Batsukh, St. John’s
149: Matt Mauseth, UW-Lax
157: Aaron Wernimont, Wartburg
165: Justin Hanson, Wartburg
174: Evan Brown, Dubuque
184: Mike Wilcox, Delaware Valley
197: Jared Massey, Augsburg
285: Dan Laurent, UW-Lax
Awards:
Outstanding Wrestler – Mike Wilcox
Coach of the Year – Jim Miller, Wartburg
Rookie Coach of the Year – Greg Ilaria, Merchant Marine
Most Falls – Seth Flodeen, Augsburg
