The student senate at Fresno State called for the return of wrestling at the University. It’s a move that brought cheers from the program’s former coach.
Coach Deliddo says, “Oh, I’m excited you know. When you’ve got the students and the community, that’s pretty good teeth, you know in the fight. I don’t know how they can turn us down now, we gotta get out and get it going. Get the program going again.”
Nine months ago, Fresno State ended the wrestling program in a move to save money.
The decision sparked protests and angered many in the local wrestling community.
Coach Deliddo says supporters are working on a new proposal to revive Fresno State wrestling. They plan to present it to the Chancellor in May.
By Kevin Horan and Matthew Spolar
Collegian Staff Writers
Responding to alleged hazing photos brought to its attention Tuesday, Penn State’s athletic department issued two statements yesterday — one saying an investigation into the wrestling team has been launched; the other saying an investigation into the Icers hockey team has long been closed.
The statements are in response to photos sent by an anti-hazing activist in an e-mail message to The Daily Collegian, wrestling coach Troy Sunderland and a coach of the Penn State ACHA Division I Icers. Attached to the e-mail were photos found on the popular photo-hosting site, Webshots.com.
Some of the photos, posted in fall 2005, depict men stripped down to jock straps with 40-oz. beer bottles duct-taped to their hands. One has the caption “the wrestlers freshman initiation….haha.”
Other photos, including one of a fully nude man using his mouth to take a dollar bill from the hands of a fully clothed woman, were posted in the same account. The captions indicate that the men in the photos were “freshman hockey players.”
The photos were deleted from the Webshots site yesterday.
Iowa all-America wrestler Alex Tsirtsis has pleaded guilty to a public intoxication charge.
Tsirtsis, 21, a junior from Griffith, Ind., was found passed out at a parking ramp in downtown Iowa City early Wednesday, said a complaint filed in Johnson County District Court. The documents said he was disoriented when awakened.
Tsirtsis had a blood-alcohol content of 0.198, according to the complaint. That content was more than double the legal limit of 0.08.
He pleaded guilty to the charge, paid $182 in fines and court costs, and was released from the Johnson County jail.
Online court records indicate it was the third alcohol-related offense for Tsirtsis. He pleaded guilty to public intoxication, possession of a fake ID and possession of alcohol as a minor in October 2003. He was cited for underage possession in July 2005.
Coach Tom Brands says he’s looking into the situation.
Tsirtsis is a three-time NCAA qualifier. He has a 69-32 career record. Tsirtsis earned all-America honors for finishing seventh at 141 in 2006.
EVANSTON, Ill. — NCAA champion and three-time All-American Jake Herbert (Wexford, Pa./North Allegheny) has been named BigElevenWrestling.net Wrestler of the Year. Herbert shares this year’s honor with Minnesota’s two-time national champion Cole Konrad.
Herbert won his first career title and Northwestern’s first individual title since 1990 — and its seventh in program history — as the ‘Cats tied a program-best with a fourth-place finish at the NCAA Championships. Herbert wrestled a dominating final match, downing Iowa State’s Jake Varner by 6-1 decision.
He is Northwestern’s first individual champion since Jack Griffin won his crown in 1990. The fourth-place finish matches NU’s finishes in 1932 and 1990 for the highest ever in program history.
Herbert came out like a man with a plan in his 184-pound championship match, scoring a takedown over Iowa State’s Varner a little less than one minute into the opening frame. He rode Varner for the rest of the period.
The Wildcat started in the down position for the second and he escaped quickly to extend his lead to 3-0. He added another takedown in the second and Varner received a point when Herbert pushed him out of bounds near the end of the period.
Tiger Wrestling National Champion Claims Heisman Equivalent
Columbia, Mo. – Missouri two-time defending National Champion Ben Askren (Hartland, Wis.) was awarded his second consecutive Dan Hodge Trophy, wrestling’s equivalent to the Heisman, as announced today by the Dan Gable International Wrestling Institute & Museum and W.I.N. Magazine. With the honor, Askren becomes just the second grappler since the creation of the award in 1995 to earn the Hodge Trophy on more than one occasion. Iowa State standout Cael Sanderson received the honor on three occasions (2000-01-02).
“It’s a great honor, especially (finishing ahead) of guys like Cole (Konrad) who is amazing,” Askren said. “To be in the same company with Cael winning the top honor, it can’t get any better than that. I’m very excited.”
Askren capped his five-year Tiger career with an 8-2 win by decision over second-ranked Keith Gavin of Pittsburgh in the NCAA Division I Wrestling Championship finals held at the Palace of Auburn Hills March 17. The win extended Askren’s streak to 87 consecutive victories, dating back to the start of his junior campaign in 2006. Askren closed his collegiate wrestling career with a 153-8 mark which places him firmly at the top of the Missouri career wins record book. Former Tiger grappler Wes Roper held the previous record at 131 wins for 15 years.
The day that amateur wrestling becomes a major spectator sport in America is the day that aliens land in Iowa and decide their favorite delicacy is cauliflower ear.
It just won’t happen, and I suspect most wrestling fans are fine with that. They get their sport to themselves. They get to rule the Palace for a weekend for the NCAA championships. And if you wonder why a bloodless match between two men in funny outfits can be so compelling, well, here are a few reasons.
• 1. Matches are quick, easy to follow, and surprisingly suspenseful. Friday afternoon, North Carolina State’s 141-pounder Darrion Caldwell built a big lead over the No. 1 seed, Northwestern’s Ryan Lang, and the crowd was screaming for the upset, and then — wham — Lang hit Caldwell with a cement mixer.
Well, not an actual cement mixer. That probably would be illegal. Lang won on a move called “the cement mixer” — he pinned Caldwell to end the match.
You never see a football team win on a play called “the cement mixer.” Football coaches take themselves way too seriously for that. They think a play is more likely to work if it is called “Red Python 46 X-Z Double Murder.”
But “the cement mixer” is a wonderful name for a wrestling move. Other great names would be “the peanut sheller” and “the dirty truth.” (EDITOR’S NOTE: Like “the cement mixer,” “the peanut sheller” and “the dirty truth” also would be great names for mixed drinks.)
PARKER – One of Jerome Hunt’s former wrestling teammates testified Wednesday that Hunt inserted his finger into his rectum while another teammate held him down.
The alleged victim said it happened about 20 times before Parker High School wrestling practice, mostly before coaches arrived but sometimes when an assistant coach was present with his back turned.
He said Hunt threatened to “do it worse” if he told anyone.
“I was kicking and screaming, trying to get away,” the boy testified.
Because the trial is being held in juvenile court, Circuit Judge Steven Jensen requested that the identities of witnesses be withheld.
The boy who testified Wednesday also said he watched Hunt do the same to two other teammates during the same practice. In those instances, he said, the same teammate held the victims down while Hunt assaulted them.
The alleged victim is one of several students who left the school for Marion in December. He testified briefly that he left because school officials portrayed Hunt as a “good kid” in a court hearing and because he was sick of his classmates.
Hunt, a 17-year-old former Parker High School wrestler, is accused of rapes and attempted rape of his teammates during the 2005-06 season.
Auburn Hills, Mich. — It takes a special athlete to enjoy competing in a sport as hard and brutal and mentally demanding as college wrestling.
Winners of NCAA titles experience a joy of euphoria, and title round losers suffer bitter depression or anger. That’s why normally happy-go-lucky North Royalton resident Ryan Lang was distraught after losing Saturday night in the 141-pound finals of the 2007 NCAA Division I Wrestling Championships in front of 17,780 at The Palace in Auburn Hills.
Minnesota beat out Iowa State, 98 to 88½, for the team title and had five All-Americans including Ohio natives Dustin Schlatter (third at 149) and older brother C.P. (sixth at 157) — but that number was the lowest for a title winning team since Iowa had five in 1975.
Lang, a four-time state champion at St. Edward and a junior at Northwestern, dominated the first two minutes of his finals match with California-Davis senior Derek Moore, and then was beaten on a 17-2 technical fall in 5:41
I’ve uploaded, with permission, Veritas the Jon Trenge wrestling movie trailer to YouTube. Enjoy!
Veritas is a full-length movie documenting Lehigh University’s 2004-2005 wrestling team and the story of Jon Trenge, who strives to achieve his dream of becoming a National Wrestling Champion for his hometown school. Jon’s freshman season is cut short when doctors discover an eye condition so serious that he is told he should never wrestle again or risk losing his eyesight permanently. But did he listen?
Equity in Athletics, Inc. (“EIA”) announced today it has filed a lawsuit in United States District Court for the Western District of Virginia seeking to set aside the so-called “three-part test” utilized by the Department of Education (“DOE”) to determine compliance with Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972. The case is Civil Action No. 5:07-0028 before Judge Glen E. Conrad.
EIA’s lawsuit alleges that DOE changed the Title IX compliance test from the 1975 regulations’ requirement of equal opportunity, based on the genders’ relative interests, to the three-part test’s standard of equal participation, based on enrollment. Citing Office of General Counsel memoranda from DOE’s predecessor, the former Department of Health, Education & Welfare (“HEW”), EIA’s complaint alleges that HEW did not intend the original three-part test in 1979 as binding or even as a test for Title IX compliance. No court has considered the merits of HEW’s position in 1979 versus DOE’s position today.
Since 1996, however, DOE has treated the three-part test as having the force of law, despite the failure of HEW and DOE to follow mandatory rule-making procedures to amend the Title IX regulations. EIA also alleges the three-part test violates the United States Constitution’s equal protection guarantees on its face and as applied by DOE and educational institutions, which agree to follow federal standards as a condition of accepting federal funds.
- 
