It’s time to come clean. I’ve lied in this blog for two and a half years. I’ve always claimed that I never wrestled and that isn’t entirely true. I did win an 8th grade intramural championship at Frank L. Smart Junior High School. In 1963 every boy in Davenport, IA (it was a sexist world) was introduced to wrestling in some way. There were instructional units in our PE classes where we were taught the basics of the single leg takedown, the sitout and the half nelson. At the end of the unit the teacher would organize an intramural tournament and we were encouraged to enter.

At about the same time that I reached the apex of my wrestling glory, 130 miles to the northwest, in Waterloo, a kid named Gable was launching his career. It’s a story of 2 choices. I opted for being a really bad basketball player and he chose to become one of America’s greatest wrestlers. A few years later, in Del City, OK, some brothers named Smith were exposed to wrestling and chose to pursue their dreams – with John going on to win two Olympic Gold medals and four World Championships.

Phil Davis, 2008 NCAA Division I 184-pound champ for Penn State, will be competing at UFC 109: Relentless at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas on Saturday, February 6.

Davis, who signed with UFC just last month, will be facing former World Extreme Cagefighting champion Brian Stann, who played football at the US Naval Academy.

A four-time NCAA All-American wrestler, Davis built a 116-20 collegiate career with the Nittany Lions. The 25-year-old Harrisburg, Pennsylvania native owns a 4-0 professional MMA record, having competed inside the Palace Fighting Championship, Ultimate Warrior Challenge and Ultimate Cage Fighting Challenge promotions. In Davis’ most recent MMA event in June, he submitted David Baggett with a rear-naked choke in 3:37.

To read the rest of the story…

http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-7334-College-Wrestling-Examiner~y2010m1d8-2009-NCAA-champ-Phil-Davis-to-make-UFC-debut-February-6

University of Minnesota freshman wrestler and former Olympian, Jake Deitchler has been ruled ineligible by the NCAA for the 2009-10 academic year.

The University of Minnesota received initial notice in September and appealed the ruling hoping for a review of the situation. Deitchler has not competed for the Gophers this season, while awaiting the results of the final appeal. Deitchler’s eligibility will be reinstated under the conditions that he is withheld from competition for the 2009-10 academic year, forfeit a year of eligibility and repay the $4,000 prize money he received.

A 2008 graduate of Anoka High School and an Anoka, Minn. native, Deitchler represented the United States at the 2008 Summer Olympic Games in Beijing, China. Following the Olympics, Deitchler spent the 2008-09 academic year training and competing full-time with USA Wrestling at the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colo.

“In the NCAA’s ongoing effort to promote student-athlete welfare I do not think the NCAA is following or supporting their own ideology. The NCAA has handed a very young student athlete an overly harsh penalty,” head wrestling coach J Robinson said. “The punishment is quite severe and is a three part penalty. First; Deitchler must sit out a year, second he will lose one of his four years of eligibility, and third he must repay the money he received.

Craig Sesker USA Wrestling

Iowa’s Brent Metcalf shoots in on North Carolina State’s Darrion Caldwell during the 2009 NCAA finals in St. Louis. Photo by Larry Slater.

IOWA CITY – Brent Metcalf took the college wrestling world by storm during the 2007-08 season.

Metcalf’s first season as an Iowa Hawkeye was a memorable one as he won his first NCAA title, led Iowa to the national team title and won the Hodge Trophy as the best college wrestler in the country.

He came back strong again last season, extending his winning streak to 69 matches before he was upset by North Carolina State’s Darrion Caldwell in the 2009 NCAA finals. Metcalf helped the Hawkeyes edge Ohio State for the team title last March. Iowa won the title without crowning an individual champion.

Metcalf jumped right into freestyle competition after the NCAAs and placed second at the 2009 U.S. Nationals. He fell short of placing at the U.S. World Team Trials.

He just started his senior season as the nation’s top-ranked wrestler at 149 pounds for the No. 1 Iowa Hawkeyes.

COLUMBIA — If you’ve ever complained about the climb to your seat in row 70 of Memorial Stadium, don’t tell the Missouri wrestling team.

The 40 men of the Tiger squad trudge to the stadium once a week during preseason, which began last Monday, for their Wednesday stadium run. For at least 10 minutes, the ring of tennis shoes against metal bleachers and the grunts of overexertion and encouragement echo through the stands, drowning out the football team’s practice on the field below.

The weekly ritual is not the only element of the grueling preseason training that tests the team’s strength and willpower; the eight hours a week of practice that the NCAA permits before regular workouts begin are devoted to pushing the team’s physical and mental limits.

“They’re going to get to the point during this training where they’re going to wonder if they can go anymore,” Missouri coach Brian Smith said. “And they’re going to realize that they can. Wrestling does that to you.”

ATHENS, Ohio – Ohio Wrestling welcomes Ryan Lang, who will become a volunteer assistant coach for the Bobcats.

Over five stellar competition years at Northwestern University, Lang compiled a 104-27 career record, going 39-9 in dual meets. A native of North Royalton, Ohio, Lang was a four-time Ohio state champion in high school.

In his first year he wrestled unattached, going 7-1 overall, including competing at the Michigan State Open. He won his first three career matches and posted an undefeated 4-0 record at the Cleveland State Open.

His freshman year was marked by a 28-10 overall record, including a 4-2 mark in the Big Ten. He only missed All-American status by one win this season. Being one of only three freshmen to crack the 20-wins barrier, he was a perfect 7-0 in nonconference dual meets. He also recorded eight major decision victories this year, with eight pins and two technical falls.

In his sophomore season, he posted a 22-7 overall record en route to earning his first career All-America honor. He finished fourth at the NCAA Championships this season and placed second at the Big Ten Championships. His sophomore campaign began with eleven straight wins. In November he was crowned Themat.com’s Wrestler of the Week and Big Ten Wrestler of the Week. He was ranked top-ten by all four major wrestling polls this season.

More than two years after their last matches at Iowa State, twins Trent and Travis Paulson remain inseparable.

They live together, they train together and now they’re back at ISU together to continue their quest to become world and Olympic freestyle wrestling champions.

“We’ve always wanted to stay together, just because we feed off each other. We always have,” Travis said Tuesday. “We know what we’re capable of and we push each other to the limit.”

Their return figures to be a two-way deal in the Cyclone wrestling room.

The Paulsons say they’ll benefit from training under Iowa State Coach Kevin Jackson, an Olympic gold medalist and former national team coach. Jackson’s ISU wrestlers will benefit from having the Paulsons as workout partners.

“Our mentality is we want to work harder in practice than we do in a match,” Jackson said. “A match should be easier than practice, so with these guys in our room, it kind of plays into that. We’re actually wrestling at a higher level than we’ll face in competition. There are no collegians as good as these guys right now.”

Tar Heels Add Chinn To Wrestling Staff

Three-time NCAA qualifier will work with middle weights, Carolina Wrestling Club.

Aug. 18, 2009

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. – Trevor Chinn, a three-time NCAA qualifier at Lehigh University, has been named an assistant wrestling coach at the University of North Carolina, head coach C.D. Mock announced Tuesday. Chinn will work with the Tar Heels’ middle weight groups and will serve as head coach of the Carolina Wrestling Club.

A December 2008 graduate of Lehigh with a degree in physics, Chinn posted a 91-30 record over four seasons at 149 pounds. He qualified for nationals in 2006, 2008 and 2009 and won 29 and 30 matches, respectively, in his junior and senior seasons.

Chinn is also a two-time winner at the USA Wrestling Beach National Championships, claiming his most recent title in July in his native New York. Prior to enrolling at Lehigh, Chinn was a two-time New York state champion at Canandaigua High School. He went 42-0 as a senior and was a four-time state finalist

The Manheim Central school board approved the hiring of former Penn State coach Troy Sunderland as its head wrestling coach during a school board meeting Tuesday night.

Sunderland, who resigned from Penn State on April 4, replaces Shane Mack, who had coached the Barons since 2005.

The coaching job will be Sunderland’s first at the high school level. Sunderland served as an assistant at Penn State and Navy before replacing John Fritz as the Nittany Lions’ head coach in 1999.

Sunderland, 38, led Penn State to an 8-12-2 record and 17th-place finish at the NCAA Championships during his final season at Penn State. Sunderland went 115-90-2 and coached 27 All-Americans in 11 years at Penn State.

Sunderland becomes the 15th head coach in Manheim Central history. The Barons, who compete in District 3, have recorded more than 700 dual meet wins since the school introduced the sport in 1926. The program has produced eight state champions and 13 PIAA runner-ups since 1943. The school also conducts one of the state’s top high school tournaments — the Manheim Holiday Tournament.

Sunderland’s wife, JoAnn, was hired as Manheim Central High School’s in-school suspension monitor, according to the Lancaster Intelligencer Journal/New Era.

TEMPE – Former collegiate standouts Bryan Snyder, Ben Askren and Raymond Jordan have joined the coaching staff of the Arizona State University wrestling program, Head Coach Shawn Charles announced Tuesday. All three individuals, who will join current assistant coach Brian Stith on the staff, were multiple All-Americans and conference champions in their time on the mats and will bring a wealth of knowledge and experience to the mats in Tempe.

“I am very excited to have all three of these men on my staff,” Charles said. “I have worked with them all in the past and I believe they bring a lot to the table as we push to become a very successful program once again. I really feel our coaching staff is second-to-none and I know each of these men are ready to work hard to help our program succeed both on the mats and off. I look forward to watching this program continue to grow with their help.”