Things are coming together in the Wabash College Wrestling program! The team headed to Ada, Ohio over the weekend to participate in the Ohio Northern Invitational. This has been a sore spot in our schedule the past few seasons, never able to put together a solid showing. Being that this tournament hits our guys at a busy time, with big assignments due and right before finals week, the guys did a great job.

The Ohio Northern Invitational is a tournament packed with great competition. This year's tournament consisted of 10 nationally ranked teams. The field included ranked DIII teams #5 Heidelburg, #25 Olivet and #23 Thiel; ranked DII teams included #9 Indianapolis, # 12 West Liberty State, #15 Merceyhurst, and #19 Findlay. The field also included nationally ranked NAIA programs, #7 Campbellsville, #14 Cumberland and #4 Cumberland. So needless to say the competition was stiff!

We were short handed three regular starters this weekend in Gary Black at 125, Garrett Pino at 141 and Stephen Mosier at 157, all out working on papers and preparing for a good finals week.

The guys got the tournament off to a great start in the opening rounds, with big wins coming from just about everyone from the Wabash squad. Freshman 174-pounder Michael Burke opened the tournament with a win over a 2006 national qualifier and then narrowly missed placing in the tournament. Freshman Cody Johnson got off to a good start as well with a 2nd round upset of the number one seed at 197. At 141 Freshman Kurtis Hess knocked off the five seed by major dec. in the second round then narrowly missed placing. Senior 133-pounder Eric Slabaugh opened his Senior campaign with a solid sixth place finish. Eric lost to the #4 ranked wrestler in DII in the semi's, but then won a 25 minute match that went to 4 overtime's against the #4 seed and returning national qualifier from Campbellsville. At 184 Senior Will Clarke put together another great tournament this weekend placing fourth. Will fell in the semi-finals 6-0 to the eventual champion and then medical defaulted in his 3rd/4th match due to a concussion.

At 197 Senior Keith Garrard took his second tournament title of the year and in style! Keith won four of his five matches by fall, including the championship match and was awarded the most falls award for the tournament!

The team finished tied for seventh place with DII Gannon, Olivet College was the only DIII school to place ahead of Wabash, all other schools were DII or NAIA schools.

Our next competition will be at the Midlands Championships and Midwest Open shortly after Christmas.

I wish everyone a Happy Holiday and hope to post some great Christmas stories when we return from break! If you are in need of some good stocking stuffer's, I still have a bunch of Wabash wrestling T's, just let me know how many you need.

Posted by Brent Harris at 02:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The Wabash College Wrestling Team is off to a great start!! The team has now competed in two open tournaments and have shown why they have been ranked in the Top-20 in the nation the last 2 years.

The team competed at the Concordia University Open on November 18 and came away with four place winners. Seniors Will Clarke (North Central H.S.) and Keith Garrard (New Castle H.S.) both reached the finals at 184 and 197, but lost hard fought battles in the finals to finish the day as runner-up. At 165 pounds Barton Bridge finished the day 4-3 with a solid 6th place effort. Senior Ryan Pritchard (Britt, IA) also posted a solid 6th place finish on the day finishing the tournament with a 4-3 record.

The team hit heads with the University of Chicago after Thanksgiving break and came away with a 25-16 victory. Winning matches for the Little Giants were 125 pounder Stephen Iles (Mascoutah, IL), 141 Kurtis Hess (Jay County H.S.), 149 Jared Tribbett (Crawfordsville H.S.), 184 Will Clarke (North Central H.S.) and 197 Keith Garrard (New Castle H.S.).

To kick off the month of December the Wabash team headed to Manchester College to compete in the 47th Annual Little State Wrestling Invitational. The team put together a great tournament and walked away with ten place winners and 3 individual champions. Freshman Michael Burke ( Yorktown H.S.) and Cody Johnson (Franklin Community H.S.) had great tournaments on the day. Burke finished the day in 3rd place at 174 and Johnson came back to take 5th after a opening round loss. Wabash had a pinning machine at 165 with Barton Bridge's fourth place effort, he finished the day with a 3-2 record, and three falls! Seniors Garrett Pino, Will Clarke and Keith Garrard all came away with individual titles at the meet, marking the first time since 1986 that Wabash College has had more than 2 individual champs at the Little State meet in the same year. It was a great effort by all Little giant wrestlers this weekend, everyone went out and wrestled hard and hard nosed.

I want to thank the family and friends of the program who get out and see us on the weekends. It's nice to see all the red Wabash wrestling shirts in the stands. I still have a lot of this year's new Wabash College Wrestling T-shirts left. If any one is interested in purchasing a T, contact me at andersob@wabash.edu or 765-361-6190.

Posted by Brent Harris at 10:16 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)