Wheaton Preview

Wheaton College Thunder
Head Coach: Jim Gruenwald
Years at School as head coach: first season

2008-2009 Dual Meet Record: 6-9
2008-2009 All-American:  Toby Boltz (184/8th)
Number of returning wrestlers who competed in 2009 national qualifier: 5

Top returning starters:
174 Justin Marble 21-20, 5th Great Lakes
184 Justin Tomal 24-16, 5th Great Lakes
197 Matthew Griffiths 10-7

Top incoming wrestlers:
Casey Krahn
Stephen Takashima

2008 was a transitional year for Wheaton.  Head Coach Dan Weber was a one year appointment while a more permanent coach was found.  Wheaton did pretty well for themselves in enticing Olympian and USOEC Greco-Roman coach Jim Gruenwald to make the move from the Upper Peninsula of Michigan to the suburbs of Chicago.  In addition, the team had their first national qualifier and All-American since 2003 in Toby Boltz.  Boltz has graduated, and a small team greets the new coach as he works to start the next era of Wheaton Wrestling.  A pair of 5th place finishers at the Great Lakes Region will lead the way for the Thunder in senior Justin Tomal and junior Justin Marble. 197 Matthew Griffiths has been a two sport athlete for the past two years but has decided to focus on wrestling for his last two years of college.  A number of other starters return and put their year of experience starting as freshmen to good use.