Mark Perry Jr. spent 45 hours hauling his belongings across the country last month, moving out of his apartment near Penn State’s campus, lugging everything back home to Oklahoma and packing up again for the next stop on the journey to his ultimate goal as a wrestling coach.

The trip could have been considerably less time consuming for the former Iowa star had he traded in the U-Haul and hopped on one of the sport’s established bandwagons in the Big Ten or Big 12 instead. But the two-time NCAA champion thinks the route he’s taking could be the best path to becoming a college head coach.

Perry was officially hired Friday as the top assistant to John Azevedo at Cal Poly.

“I don’t think jumping on whoever’s bandwagon and trying to shoot for the top right now is going to develop me as a coach as much,” Perry said. “I’d play a role, but just not the same type of role I’ll play here.”  Read more... (505 words, estimated 2:01 mins reading time)

EVANSTON, Ill. — Matt Storniolo, a two-time All-American at 149 pounds while wrestling for Oklahoma, is the newest addition to Northwestern’s coaching staff, head coach Tim Cysewski announced on Friday. Storniolo has spent the last two seasons as a volunteer assistant at Old Dominion where he trained closely with Ryan Williams, the 2009 NCAA runner-up at 141 pounds.

“Matt was an outstanding college wrestler and we saw in person the influence he had on the wrestlers he coached at Old Dominion,” Cysewski said. “We think his experience, technical skill and passion for the sport will really help our guys, particularly at the middle weights.”

“We’re really excited to bring in an individual like Matt who has gone deep in the NCAA Championships as a wrestler and a coach,” said associate head coach Andrew Pariano. “He’s going to play a huge part in all aspects of our program moving forward.”

Storniolo began his college wrestling career at Penn State, reaching the finals of the Big Ten Championships on his way to winning the conference’s Freshman of the Year honors. After transferring to Oklahoma, Storniolo reached the Big XII Tournament finals each of the next three years, claiming the league championship as a senior in 2007.  Read more... (391 words, estimated 1:34 mins reading time)

Jared Frayer, the Iowa wrestling team’s strength and conditioning coach, has accepted a position as an assistant coach at Wisconsin.

Frayer wrestled at Oklahoma, where he was a two-time all-American and an NCAA runner-up in 2002 at 149 pounds, and also has extensive post-collegiate national wrestling experience. He served as Iowa’s strength and conditioning coach for the 2008-09 season.

Frayer will join former Hawkeye Barry Davis’s staff at Wisconsin.

First assistant Bart Chelesvig left Davis’s staff in May, and Donnie Pritzlaff was elevated to the associate head coaching position. Frayer will take over Pritzlaff’s position.

“They had offered me the volunteer position about two weeks ago,” Frayer said. “It just wasn’t right. It was more of a lateral move for me. I enjoyed where I was at at Iowa. But I guess they kind of knew what they wanted and they (made the offer).

“It’s a better position. This is what I want to do as a career. It’s a position where I can recruit. I’m directly involved with the university. I respect the guys that are there. There are not too many places that I would have gone other than that.”  Read more... (379 words, estimated 1:31 mins reading time)

Mike Kirk

EDMOND, Okla. — Unbeaten 157-pounder Todd Meneely of Nebraska-Omaha has been selected as the 2008-09 NCAA Division II Wrestler of the Year after winning his third straight national championship this season.

Meneely is the second winner of the award, sponsored by the NCAA Division II Wrestling Coaches’ Association and voted on by eight regional representatives from around the country. Nebraska-Kearney heavyweight Tervel Dlagnev took the inaugural award last year.

Each of the four regions nominated a candidate, with Super Region Two nominee Meneely finishing with 28 points to edge out runner-up Cy Wainwright of Newberry and Super Region One by one point. Minnesota State-Mankato’s Tommy Abbott was the Super Region Three representative and Arsenia Barksdale of Adams State the Super Region Four nominee.

Meneely, a native of Omaha, went a perfect 27-0 this season with 10 falls, seven major decisions and three technical falls. He was only scored on offensively three times (three takedowns) and won five tournament titles this year.

A three-time regional champion, Meneely captured the Division II national title at 149 pounds in 2007 and ’08 before moving up to 157 this season and winning a third consecutive crown March 13-14 in Houston, Texas. He finished with a 85-5 career record in three years with the Mavericks.  Read more... (274 words, estimated 1:06 mins reading time)

University of Nebraska Sports Information

LINCOLN — Jordan Burroughs and Vince Jones notched major decisions against No. 15 Oklahoma State to help the fourth-ranked Nebraska wrestling team claim a historic 17-16 dual victory over the Cowboys in front of more than 2,800 fans at the Bob Devaney Sports Center on Thursday. The win was NU’s first home victory over OSU since the 1921-22 season, and gave the Huskers back-to-back dual wins over the Cowboys for the first time ever. Nebraska improved to 14-2-1 overall and 2-0 in the Big 12, while Oklahoma State dropped to 12-6 and 0-3 in the conference.

The contest came down to bonus points, as each team claimed five bouts on the night, and Burroughs and Jones, both natives of Sicklerville, N.J., scraped NU by with their two wins. In one of three matches featuring two wrestlers ranked in the top 10, third-ranked Burroughs used 10 takedowns, including four in the final period, to post a 21-9 major decision over No. 10 Neil Erisman of OSU at 157 pounds. The win was the junior’s seventh of the year against top-10 opponents, and kept his perfect season alive at 24-0 and 15-0 in duals.  Read more... (592 words, estimated 2:22 mins reading time)

Oklahoma State University Sports Information

STILLWATER, Okla. — Oklahoma State junior 285-pounder Jared Rosholt was recognized as the Big 12 Wrestler of the Week, the conference office announced today.

Rosholt continues to dominate the opposition in 2008-09, as he ran his season record to 17-0 on the year after pinning Cal Poly’s Kelan Bragg in 1:38 as part of a dual meet last Tuesday, then followed that up by toppling two ranked opponents on the way to winning the heavyweight title at the Reno Tournament of Champions last Thursday. The consensus No. 1 wrestler in the nation in his weight class, Rosholt beat No. 7 Mitch Monteiro of Cal State Bakersfield by a 13-5 major decision before handing No. 15 Konrad Dudziak of Duke a 5-4 defeat in the Reno title bout. When his 8-4 win over No. 3 Kyle Massey of Wisconsin at the NWCA All-Star Classic is added, Rosholt is a perfect 4-0 vs. ranked opponents this year, including a 3-0 mark vs. opponents ranked among the top seven in the nation.  Read more... (288 words, estimated 1:09 mins reading time)

Newark, NJ
By Jason Bryant
jbryant@intermatwrestle.com

The Prudential Center in northern New Jersey is the brand-spanking new gleaming home of the National Hockey League’s New Jersey Devils.

On Tuesday, USA Wrestling made “The Rock” the backdrop for an announcement of a new fundraising initiative aimed at helping not only the athletes who will represent the United States at the 2008 Games in Beijing, but their families as well.

“Fuel the Dream” will help the families of the 2008 Olympians with travel, lodging and overall accommodations in Beijing, something costly to the athletes since the dawn of the Olympiad.

“One of the starters for this program was back when John Smith was on the team,” said USA Wrestling Executive Director Rich Bender. “Seagram’s sponsored a program that helped with those costs. It doesn’t exist today, so we saw this as an opportunity to really make a difference for the athletes beyond getting them the best coaches, training schedules and facilities.”

“I was on two Olympic teams and I was fortunate enough to win two gold medals there,” said current Oklahoma State head wrestling coach John Smith. “It was nice to have family there.”  Read more... (836 words, estimated 3:21 mins reading time)