February 11, 2009
Last 2 Weekends.....
Over the last two weeks the team has traveled to two tournaments, one at Wheaton College for the annual Wheaton Invitational and one at Olivet College for the 2009 Mid-States Conference Championships. The guys put together solid performances at each tournament and came away with a top 20 finish at Wheaton and a 3rd place finish at conference.
The Wheaton Invitational was highlighted by two individual place winners, Greg Rhoads at 174 finishing 7th and Michael Burke at 197 finishing 8th. Rhoads lost a heartbreaker in the opening round against the 4 seed 8-7 on a last second takedown, but then rebounded in the consolations with a 4-1 record to finish 7th. Michael Burke kicked off the tournament with 2 nice wins, with the second win coming in over the tournaments 4 seed. Burke dropped a tough match in the quarters and was sent to the consolations which ended in an 8th place finish. Andrew Kepchar had a very solid tourney as well finishing the tournament with a 3-2 record and losing a tough match in the round to place at 141.
The Conference tournament this year was hosted by Olivet College in Olivet, MI for the first time since the organization of the tournament. It was a good day for our team, as we entered 13 wrestlers and came away with 11 place winners. Leading the way for the Little Giants were Jared Tribbett at 149 and Michael Burke at 197, both finding their way to the championship match with ease. Tribbett started the day slated as the 4 seed in the weight. He opened with a 5-2 decision over the #5 seed, followed with a 2:16 fall over the #1 seed in the semi’s and then hammered the 2 seed in the finals 14-1. Burke had a similar results as he headed to the finals, opening the tournament with a fall and then followed it with a 13-3 major dec. in the semi’s, Burke was tripped up in the finals to finish 2nd. Andrew Kepchar and Greg Rhoads finished the day with 3rd place finishes at 141 and 174, each with 2-1 records on the day.
The team is off competition this weekend and will head to Trine University for the 2009 NCAA Midwest Regional next Saturday. The guys will be doing a ton of fine tuning this week and next, as they work to capture a spot in this year’s national tournament.
GO BASH WRESTLING!!
Posted by irwind at 02:08 PM
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January 28, 2009
Monon Bell Duals
The wrestling team capped off its dual meet part of the year with a 4-0 home performance this past weekend. Putting in really strong performances for the Little Giants was Jarred Tribbett at 149, Greg Rhoads at 174, and Michael Burke at 197 who all went 4-0. Also, helping the team in a strong way was two freshmen Josh Boyer at 125 and Andrew Kepchar at 141. The team finishes up this year with a dual meet record of 6-4 that saw quite a few freshmen stepping up for the youthful Wabash squad. The team was putting together strong practices day in and day out that allowed them to see success like they did this past weekend. The schedule ramps back up as only the starters will be heading to the Wheaton Invitational that is a two day grinder! This tournament is loaded with the best of Division 3 and sprinkles in some of the best of Division 2 that makes for a great weekend. Guys that place in this tournament are the guys you will usually see out at Nationals in March. There is no taking any match lightly at this tournament. The team is starting to make their push towards the conclusion of the year as the National Qualifier is not too far out of the picture.
To everyone associated with a high school program who reads our blog, Good Luck in the State Tournament Series!!!
BASH Wrestling
Posted by irwind at 03:18 PM
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January 27, 2009
Top Gun
Last weekend I ventured to Alliance, OH to watch a hopeful future Wabash grappler hit the mats at one of the premiere wrestling tournaments around. I was extremely impressed with the tournament, because it was like an Al Smith of Indiana on steroids, as the battles were fierce and the competition thick. The matches that I was the most concerned with were great and made the wheels in my head turn as I thought about all the possibilities in the near future! The two day tournament was a great spectacle as I saw the future of what the freshmen class will look like next year on the college level and guys who are making names for themselves now on the high school level. It wasn’t just how good the wrestling was either, but more importantly how passionate everyone was about wrestling. The tournament was ran on seven mats and was an extremely tight and personal environment. There was forty teams at Top Gun overall who all brought good contingents of fans. Security was heavy as the rounds went deeper, the calls got tougher and the fans got more heated.
Before the final round Saturday evening, I went to dinner with a good group of people and boy was that the most exciting Applebee’s trip ever. At dinner I learned more insight on everything and had some good laughs. The ride back to the tournament was a little scary as the driver that I caught a ride with had their fare share of accidents, but none the less I made it back safely for what was a great final round. The final round was awesome as nationally ranked guys squared off in the finals and you could feel the anticipation rise in the gym for the start of each match! The tournament was loaded as guys who had multiple state placements were wrestling not only for third, but fifth and eighth place in this tournament. For any wrestling fan this tournament is a must see as it has had the likes of Harry Lester, Tommy Rowlands, and Joe Heskett compete in it, before they made names for themselves on the college and world scene!
I cannot say enough how happy I was to go watch these important matches and how excited I am for all the possibilities to come at Wabash College.
Coach Irwin
Posted by irwind at 02:20 PM
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January 23, 2009
Dean's List!
The Wabash Wrestling Team continues its excellence in the classroom as four guys were recognized for their hard work and dedication to academics. The list included three Juniors and one Sophomore from the team. Juniors James Fitzpatrick (174) from Honolulu, HI, Justin Michaels (157) from Ballwin, MO and Seth Flater (149) from Pittsboro, IN were all on the list. Sophomore Graham Youngs (157) from Zionsville, IN was the fourth wrestler on the list, that was overall well represented by student athletes here at Wabash.
BASH Wrestling
Posted by irwind at 02:22 PM
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January 22, 2009
Spartan Mat Classic
We traveled to North Manchester, IN this past weekend for the annual Spartan Mat Classic. We came away with one Champ and two runner-up finishes for the Little Giants. The guys put together a strong performance after two weeks of very tough tournaments that didn’t go the best. Jarred Tribbett led the way by winning three matches to capture the title at 149 pounds. Greg Rhoads at 174 and Michael Burke at 197 fell in the finals to individuals that will be in our regional. These two didn’t wrestle their best matches of the year, but both of them can take bits and pieces out of those championship matches to build on going into the last two months of the season. Wabash placed five other guys in the top 8 of the tournament. Brock Sempsrott took 3rd place at 125 and Bryan Hugo came away with a fifth place finish at 17 4. Robert Beeler who is back competing took fifth place after drawing the number 1 seed right out of the gates at 165. Also taking fifth was Junior Seth Flater at 149, placing 8th at 125 was Stephen Iles. Senior Stephen Mosier came in 8th at 165.
Going into the weekend the team had really strong practices and it showed as we only had a couple guys that didn’t place this past Saturday. The team is still trying to get healthy and this upcoming weekend Wabash hosts the Monon Bell duals that will see the Little Giants in action in four dual meets starting at 9:00 a.m. This will be the last time for duals this year and to get everyone on the team in action. I hope to see everyone at Chadwick Court this Saturday.
BASH Wrestling
Posted by irwind at 02:53 PM
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December 16, 2008
ONU Invitational
It was not exactly what we were looking for out of the team this past weekend, but as the day progressed we had a number of guys step up their wrestling. We ended with three place winners and a couple more just outside of that. We fixed problems from the weekend before, but still managed to give some matches away that should have never reached that point. Greg Rhoads, Bryan Hugo, and Cody Johnson placed this past weekend and all their work leading up to this point really showed. Rhoads placed 4th at 174 and is building momentum every match of the year. In the quarterfinals he avenged an earlier loss from the year by totally dominating every position against his University of Indianapolis opponent. In the Semi Finals Rhoads found out where he needs to be at the end of February as he dropped a 11-4 decision to Olivet’s Kyle Vanderhyde who was the National Runner up two years ago and fourth last year at the National Tournament. The Olivet standout won the regional last two years and showed why as he was the champion of this weight class for the day. For the third place match Rhoads would see the other guy that he would face at the National Qualifier in Trine’s Nick Kraus who was the runner up at 174 last year at the regional tournament. Rhoads started off strong with the opening takedown, but gave up near fall off of a cradle that was hit off of Rhoad’s standup in the second period. He never managed to recover from that and lost 8-4. It was great for him to hit both of those two guys this early in the year and will benefit from it a ton.
Bryan Hugo also wrestled 174 and was unseeded going into the tournament, but turned in an awesome performance as the only match he would lose was to Trine’s Nick Kraus by a small margin. Hugo would place 5th on the day. He went in there and battled all day and it really showed. He didn’t care who was seeded, all he cared about was how he was going to wrestle as he was intense the whole day. He battles every match, every second and it shows and is a blast to watch and coach!
Cody Johnson is starting to make a nice adjustment to heavyweight as he went into the tournament unseeded, but came away with 7th place. It was no easy day for Johnson as he drew the 3rd seed who was the eventual champ right out of the gates. He took a loss in that match, but battled back all the way through the consolations and on the way knocked off three opponents who are in Wabash’s National Qualifier. It was good seeing that he didn’t let a tuff draw affect him, he just plugged away the whole day and wrestled smart.
Looking forward, we do not compete again until January 3rd and 4th at the Midwest Classic hosted by the University of Indianapolis. This is primarily a Division II tournament and has great action and will be a good one to open up the New Year with. As a team things are continuing to look brighter as we look to the weeks and events to come. The team will be bolstered by the return of starter Graham Youngs at 157 who dealt with sickness that saw him get pulled from the whole first half of the year. He is a sparkplug to this team and has been missed. Also returning to action will be Michael Burke at 197 who was out due to injury which will provide some much needed power in the 197 pound slot. When the team returns back after Christmas there will be battles as weight classes will be set in stone for the rest of the year, and as the team gets ready for the National Duals!
BASH WRESTLING
Posted by irwind at 03:38 PM
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December 11, 2008
Tournament Time
As we loaded the bus for Wisconsin it was exciting because we knew we would see quite a few National Qualifiers and All Americans at the Concordia Open the next day. It was a good week of practice leading up to that and we felt confident that we would have guys make big jumps in their wrestling. As it would turn out we had some great performances, but we lost someone that you cannot just replace. Our 6’ 4” 270 pound heavyweight would suffer a season ending injury in his senior year as he broke his leg in his second match. That guy will be hard to replace not just because of his wrestling, but the person he is. No one else on the team could put up with all the freshmen messing with them like Rob could, but everyone should keep Rob in mind and wish him a speedy recovery! Andrew Kepchar at 133 would excel throughout the day as he ended up finishing in fourth place with five pins on the day. Yep that’s right 5 pins, he battled all day and when he got a chance to put someone away they weren’t going anywhere. Tony Conway and Jared Tribbett each came away with a 6th place finish at 141 and 149 for the Little Giants. They only placed the Top 6, otherwise we would have came away with a lot of top 8 finishers. Justen Lock, Jake Moore, Greg Rhoads, and Bryan Hugo were all right there to place. That was a long day for everyone, but a successful one as our young guys now know exactly what it feels like to go against some of the top wrestlers in division 3 before heading home for Thanksgiving break.
Coming off of Thanksgiving Break the team had a lot on their plate as they are trying to get ready for their first two day tournament of the year, which is the Indiana Little State tournament that was hosted by us. Not only do they have that, but it is also the last week two weeks of classes before going into finals week! The tournament did not go as well as it could have as we had some starters out from illness, but the guys that did wrestle went out and wrestled hard. Greg Rhoads finished 3rd after a tough quarterfinal loss to the #2 seed which saw Rhoads give up a last second reversal to lose the match. Rhoads did an excellent job battling through the consolation rounds and finished the second day by dominating everyone. Brock Sempsrott finished 8th at 125 along with teammate Bryan Hugo at 174. Jared Tribbett at 149 finished out at 4th place and saw some situations not go his way. It was good for him because he needs to work those out so that they go his way at the National Qualifying Tournament.
This weekend we are heading to Ohio Northern for a day long tournament that features a bunch of Division II schools and some great Division III schools. It is definitely a tough one that you see guys who will be at nationals in March battling it out in the round of 16 and definitely in the quarters. Practices have gone great this week and the team is ready to meet the challenges that they will face this weekend!
Wabash Little Giants
Posted by irwind at 02:59 PM
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