Minutemen Youth Wrestling

125 – Purdue’s Chris Fleeger got the first takedown with a nice counter attack and re-shot, but Cornell’s Travis Lee was able to execute two ankle picks from a left handed “over-under” position to win. Both wrestlers were good in this lefty over under, so it was an interesting match-up in this position. Early in the match Fleeger attempted an inside trip and Lee re-attacked with his ankle pick to score. With less than a minute to go in the bout the match was tied 4-4 and Fleeger had riding time. Fleeger took a full injury time and shortly after action resumed Lee aggressively got into his left underhook, hipped in, and again used his ankle pick to explosively score a secure victory. Travis Lee’s performance as a true sophomore from Hawaii was very impressive. He is Hawaii’s first ever NCAA Champion after becoming their first ever All-American last season. I have been following Travis’s career since he won Junior Nationals less than two years ago. At Junior Nationals one of the many Travis defeated was long-time camper, Matt Easter, who is now heading to Cornell to train with Travis. You do not need to be from a traditional wrestling powerhouse state to excel in our sport. 133 – Oklahoma State’s, Johnny Thompson, defeated Minnesota’s, Ryan Lewis, with a 2nd period re-shot double leg attack and a 3rd period double leg when Lewis reached. Lewis had a dominating tournament heading into the finals, but Thompson kept good position and capitalized on Lewis aggression for two quick, well-timed leg attacks. 141 – Oklahoma’s Teyon Ware almost won in regulation with good spin behind techniques, but Northern Iowa’s Dylan Long did a nice job facing off and scrambling to prevent Ware from finishing. In sudden victory, Ware was almost taken down but he scrambled out and ended up with a Cement Job.He then changed quickly to a throw by single to score the winning takedown. It was an impressive display of scramble ability and athleticism. 149 – Arizona State’s Eric Larkin defeated Minnesota’s defending NCAA Champion Jared Lawrence for an impressive third time this season. Larkin used a good combination of counter attacks from scrambles and a strong ride. Larkin became a 4x NCAA All-American placing at three different weight classes. 157 – Michigan’s Ryan Bertin won with three solid takedowns. He used an underhook counter-attack and spin behind in the first period. Later in the match he used two left-handed head inside single legs to Tirapelle’s right leg. He finished his single legs crisply by changing to a double leg the first time and by quickly bringing the leg to his feet and back tripping the second time. Tirapelle hit a cement mixer with less than a minute to go and almost put Bertin on his back, but Bertin rolled through and got back to his base. It could have been déjà vu from last year’s NCAA Final, when Rob Rohn used a cement mixer to pin his opponent after falling behind. 165 - Illinois Matt Lackey used a scramble spin out and scoot around counter in the first period, a hip heist switch to avoid a near takedown in the second period, and an explosive foot sweep with 20 seconds left to secure the victory. The foot sweep was very impressive. 165 – Oklahoma’s Rob Waller used basic leg attacks to defeat Greco-Roman expert Carl Fronhoffer from Pittsburgh. 184 – Oklahoma State’s Jake Rosholt’s first period double leg and over-under ankle pick(similar to Travis Lee’s ankle pick) were the keys to his victory over Missouri’s Scott Barker. 197 – Lehigh’s Jon Trenge scored with a single leg with less than 15 seconds left in the first period to take a 2-0 lead. However Minnesota’s Damion Hahn used two impressive 3rd period takedowns to secure victory. Hahn hit an inside trip and was stopped cold by Trenge, but Hahn fluently changed to a double leg and explosively lifted Trenge and authoritatively returned him to the mat for a takedown. Then, losing by one point with 11 seconds left, Hahn attacked and got into an over-under position where he hit an explosive lateral drop on the edge and kept his toes in bounds to secure victory with one second to go. It was the most exciting move of a finals that included many good attacks. Hahn has been at 184 throughout his career and decided to move up a weight class during the final month of the season. This proved to be a very wise move for Hahn. He has tremendous technical skills and athleticism, particularly for an upper-weight class wrestler, but he often did not show his skills at 184. I suspect he was cutting too much weight and pacing himself at 184. The value of cutting weight is over-rated, though it is rare for an athlete to move up a weight class late in the season. Another successful example I can think of was in 1984 when Penn State 126-pounder Scott Lynch moved up to 134 and defeated Clar Anderson and Greg Randall to become an NCAA Champion. Scott is now an orthopedic surgeon in Hershey, PA. He stays active in our sport as a clinician and featured speaker at my summer camps. Another impressive example of moving up in weight and finding success that stands out in my mind is Jeff McGinness moving from 126 to 142 and winning an NCAA Championship, although Jeff moved up in weight over the course of a couple seasons, not during the course of one season. Jeff is now an attorney in Chicago. Maybe our sport should follow the lead of these smart, hard working guys like Lynch and McGinness who have figured out that cutting weight is not the only way to find success. HWT – Iowa’s Steve Mocco used a go behindand his frequently usedfoot sweepto defeat Air Force Academy’s Kevin Hoy. It was great to see legend John Smith, my Olympic Team Teammate and training partner, lead his Oklahoma State Team to the NCAA Championship for the first time since 1994. It was also good to see so much parity among the teams with All-Americans and Champions coming for a wide variety of schools.