Wrestling champion strives to inspire
NICHOLAS DERASMO, The Saratogian

GREENFIELD — Rulon Gardner made history at the 2000 Olympic games in a wrestling match that will forever be known as the ‘Miracle on the Mat.’

On Monday, the two-time Olympic medalist made a stop at the Greenfield Elementary School. He was there to give a motivational speech, and the students watched him in awe.

‘I’m here to share my dreams with them and let them know their dreams are obtainable,’ Gardner said.

Gardner has had to overcome many challenges, including learning disabilities on his route to success.

‘I was put into special education as a young student,’ he said. ‘My friends would laugh at me because I wasn’t as fast of a reader as they were.’

The 2000 Olympics finals match was referred to as ‘David vs. Goliath.’ Gardner’s gold medal victory has been called the greatest upset in wrestling history. A true underdog, Gardner beat Alexander Karelin, who hadn’t lost a match in 13 years.

That was one of the moments from his life that he used to help students Monday realize one thing — dreams do come true.

By John Connolly

Boston University junior wrestler Brett Frimer may be the ultimate feel good story.

Frimer’s college career began when he walked on to the highly ranked Terriers wrestling program. Then he quit. Then he walked on again. Yet, from that inauspicious start, Frimer has twice beaten scholarship athletes in mano-a-mano, give-no-quarter wrestle-offs. In the process, Frimer has earned a partial scholarship.

You might say King Walk-on has arrived.

Frimer, who turned 20 last Friday, arrived at BU with the kind of wide-eyed optimism that any freshman possesses.

“I didn’t know if I wanted to wrestle in college,” Frimer said. “Near the end of the (high school) season I realized I wanted to wrestle and that I’d miss it if I didn’t, so I talked with coach (Carl) Adams. He let me walk on to the team.”

But Frimer battled the precarious balance of academics, sports and social life at the start of his BU career. “So for one day, I quit,” he said.

Adults change the rules to accommodate a few players’ misbehavior

LEONARD PITTS

Knight Ridder Newspapers

They don’t shake hands anymore in the Northern Neck of Virginia.

Too many rude comments were made, too many people got spat on, too many fights broke out. So the principals of five schools in the Northern Neck District agreed to end the policy of having opposing high school athletic teams line up single file to shake hands after the game.

In theory, that was supposed to signal an end to competition and respect for worthy opponents. In practice, football, soccer and basketball teams kept turning into wrestling teams, grappling on grass fields and hardwood floors. Hence, the ban on handshakes, which went into effect at the beginning of the athletic season. That decision has been decried by parents, editorialists and others, but was freshly affirmed by the administrators earlier this month.

You might take it as a sign that These Kids Today have no concept of sportsmanship as we did, back in the day. I’d agree, except that my high school football team used to sprint for the buses whenever they won an away game, because they knew that if the fans and players of the losing team caught them, it would not be pretty. Makes it hard to mount the high horse.

Jesse Jantzen is quite possibly the most prolific wrestler in Long Island history. While at Shoreham-Wading River High School, Jesse compiled a record of 221-3, with all 3 losses coming prior to 9th grade. Jantzen is the only 6x Suffolk County Champion in history. In 1999 he became only the 2nd Long Island wrestler to win 3 NY State titles, and followed it up in 2000 by becoming the first wrestler in state history to win 4 NY State titles. Jesse is one of 7 Long Island wrestlers to win the High School Senior National Championship; he was named MOW of the event in 2000 where he won his match in the finals by technical fall. Jesse won the 2000 Junior Nationals and was named the 2000 Asics National High School Wrestler of the Year, become only the second Long Islander to win the Award.

Jantzen continued his career at Harvard University where he was a 3x NCAA All-American, a feat he was only the 2nd Ivy League wrestler to accomplish. During the 2003-2004 season Jantzen went undefeated in the 149 pound weight class and won the NCAA Championship by defeating Zach Esposito from Oklahoma State. Jesse was Harvard’s first NCAA Wrestling Champion since 1938. Jesse was the 12th wrestler from Long Island and the 8th from Section XI to win an NCAA Championship.

PCC adding wrestling program
By Gale Rose of the Tribune Staff

The newest addition to the athletic program at Pratt Community College is projected to bring another 40 students to campus.

A new wrestling program was approved by the PCC Board of Trustees at their regular monthly meeting Monday night.

The additional students will add a new dimension to the athletic program and provide another source of student activities for PCC students and for the community.

“I think this is exciting. I’m looking forward to it,” said PCC Athletic Director Kevin Hackerott.

Bringing in another athletic program will bring in additional revenue but will also create additional expense not only to start and maintain the wrestling program but for the additional instructors and instructional needs caused by adding an additional 40 students.

The new program is expected to generate about $217,000 in revenue against expenditures of $206,000 for a net cash flow of $11,000.

The program would create $14,000 in additional fees for scholarship use.

Those fee dollars along with money from the booster club and the PCC Foundation would provide enough money for the first year of operation. Additional fees could be raised to provide future scholarships. Several area donors have expressed an interest in a wrestling program.

By John Huckaby
For the CDT

Ask just about any so-called college wrestling expert and they would pretty much say Oklahoma State’s Zack Esposito (149) and Steve Mocco (285) would be locks to repeat as NCAA national champions.

After all, both won last year and appeared, that’s a key word, the definite favorites to win again in Oklahoma City in March. Results from Monday’s 40th NWCA All-Star Classic in Stillwater, Okla. might change that thinking.

Both Esposito and Mocco went down as did two other defending NCAA champions, Oklahoma’s Teyon Ware at 141 and Oklahoma State’s Johny Hendricks at 165.

Esposito dropped a 7-3 decision to Michigan sophomore Eric Tannenbaum (fourth last March) while Mocco fell in overtime 4-1 to Minnesota’s Cole Konrad. Tannenbaum will likely be in action Saturday as Penn State entertains the Wolverines in Rec Hall at 1 p.m..

Iowa State’s Nate Gallick, who lost to Ware in last March’s final, beat the Sooner this time 3-1 and Hendricks lost a 5-2 sudden victory decision to Minnesota’s Matt Nagel.

Other winners, before 4,854 fans at Gallagher-Iba Arena, were Oklahoma’s Sam Hazewinkel (125), Cal Poly’s Darren Vasquez (133), Alex Tirapelle (157) of Illinois; Jake Herbert (174) of Northwestern; Pete Friedl (184) of Illinois; and defending champion Jake Rosholt (197) of Oklahoma State.

The Sky’s the Limit for the Minnesota Wrestlers in 2005-06

As head coach J Robinson enters his 20th season at the helm, the sky is the limit for the 2005-06 Golden Gopher wrestling team. Minnesota returns three All-Americans and six NCAA qualifiers from a team that narrowly missed out on winning the Big Ten Championship and claimed fifth at the NCAA Championship.

Minnesota returns a talented and experienced nucleus, led by NCAA runner-up Cole Konrad, Big Ten Freshman of the Year Mack Reiter and All-American Matt Nagel. Konrad has 79 wins in his first two seasons, the most in back-to-back years by a Golden Gopher since 1980. Reiter became the third Golden Gopher to win the league’s highest rookie honor, while Nagel overcame a challenging schedule to earn All-American honors for the first time in his career. Konrad and Nagel will serve as team captains this season.

They will be joined in the lineup by trio of sophomores looking for breakout seasons. C.P. Schlatter, Roger Kish and Gabriel Dretsch will look to build on their first trip to the NCAA Championships a year ago. Schlatter and Kish, two of the top three recruits in the nation in 2003, both overcame injuries to qualify for their first national tournament. While not as heralded as many of his fellow sophomores, Dretsch earned the starting nod last year at 174 and looks to make a bigger impact this year.

By DAN McCOOL
REGISTER STAFF WRITER

The University of Iowa wrestling team has a day of firsts in opening its dual meet schedule against Arizona State tonight in Tempe, Ariz.

This is the first time the fifth-ranked Hawkeyes have opened their dual-meet schedule in Arizona. The meet against the 10th-ranked Sun Devils, 3-1 and coached by former Iowa State assistant Thom Ortiz, is scheduled for 7 p.m. Iowa time.

Northern Iowa and Iowa State are idle until Dec. 2, when Northern Iowa will be host to Minnesota, and Iowa State is host to Iowa.

Iowa has participated in two tournaments and 157-pounder Joe Johnston and 184-pounder Paul Bradley participated in the NWCA All-Star meet in Stillwater, Okla., on Monday. Tonight’s meet will provide the first taste of what’s to come this season for the Hawkeyes, coach Jim Zalesky said.

“It’s the first time in a 7-minute match, first time making weight an hour before wrestling,” Zalesky said. “Let’s see if they are ready for them right now. Sometimes those things take a while to get used to.”

Zalesky said most weights have been settled for now, except heavyweight.

By Steve Brooks
Star correspondent

Carmel High School senior Mike Klemen admits he has a bit of a problem with nerves on the wrestling mat. He has a solution for his problem, but chances are his idea won’t be implemented this season.

“We could have dual meets every other night, on the weekends we’d have tournaments, and on the nights we didn’t have dual meets we’d have an intense hour-and-a-half drill session,” Klemen said. “My problem has been nerves, and it’s always been nerves. I think if I wrestled all the time, that wouldn’t be a problem.”

In his first season wrestling for the varsity team, Klemen managed to control his nerves enough to win 29 of 39 matches at 160 pounds, advancing to the first round of the New Castle Semistate. The 6-4 loss to Cathedral’s John Schmaltz in the semistate still haunts Klemen.

By DAN McCOOL
REGISTER STAFF WRITER

Boone, Ia. — Is Mother Nature a wrestling fan?

Hundreds of high school wrestlers in Iowa hope she will carefully pick her times to whip up a snowstorm or an ice storm.

A new rule this season will put a crimp in how much food a wrestler can eat, especially if school is called off — and subsequently practice is cancelled — the day before a meet or tournament. The first meets are Monday, with the first heavy night of competition Tuesday and the first tournaments Saturday.

“The most noticeable change that fans, wrestlers and coaches are going to see is the scale allowance that we used to give for bad weather is not available this year,” said Alan Beste, wrestling coordinator for the Iowa High School Athletic Association. “If a school doesn’t have practice on a Wednesday because of snow but has a meet on Thursday, we used to allow them one or two pound scale allowance. That doesn’t exist by national rule. The only scale allowance that is available now is for consecutive days of competition, and the limit on that is a maximum of two pounds.”