TBWC Wrestling Session 7 Update
What a month!!! First, below are some quick notes on the curret session, then I’ll give you all some info on my travels to both B1G Championships and NCAA Championships, as well as more on our local guys post season successes. I’ll then talk a little bit about the Olympic trials and upcoming related events. Lastly, I’ll review our awesome TBWC outing to Florida High this week and the upcoming opportunities to compete and train.
My wife and my boss will reply with TLDNR (Too Long Did Not Read) but I have a lot to get out there to you guys…
Session 7 schedule posted here
We started back up with practice on April 17th in the Chiles High School cafeteria. If you aren’t sure where the Chiles Cafeteria is, please refer to the map I posted here. If you attended just to check it out and want to return, please be sure you fill out the appropriate AAU form so I can purchase the AAU card BEFORE PRACTICE on Sunday. Alternatively, you can purchase the card yourself by going to the AAU wrestling site (Google AAU Wrestling).
Upcoming Competition Schedule – Please mark your calendar and let me know what you’ll be able to attend.
Similar to this week, we have the following dates on the schedule for upcoming competition. In addition to the FL High group, we hope to see the Wakulla guys at all or some of these events.
6:00 PM Thursday May 5th @ Florida High
6:00 PM Thursday May 12th @ Chiles High School
6:00 PM Thursday May 19th @ Florida High
Coach Marschka’s JR Timberwolf Camp – May 31 – June 3
Tallahassee Summer Slam II – June 4 – This tournament is a fund raiser for Elijah Toomey
Coach Marschka runs a 1/2 day wrestling camp and wraps up the week with a tournament where the kids can try out the skills they learned through the week. It is a great opportunity to get a concentrated focus on learning more techniques and lots of battle time. I will be present as much as I am able to help out. The camp flyer with more info is here.
***Attendance is limited to 35 wrestlers so if you want your wrestler to go, please be sure to register soon**
TBWC Competition
We competed at Florida High on Wednesday this week and I could not have been more proud of our guys. Everyone went out with the goal of scoring points and battled very hard in every position. As a coach, you can’t ask for much more than that. We have some technique to cover and our defense was by far our weakest point; however, my strategy has been that a solid active offense is the best defense. We’ll dig more into defense and add some additional ways to score points this session but we battled with passion and grit and I loved it!
Below are a few pics from the event.
High School Post Season
Our local guys had a great showing in the post season competition, representing the area with increasingly impressive grit and fortitude. Lead by coaches James Marschka and Brad Hoard, TBWC favorite and Chiles Junior, Gavin Hoard, pulled off a 4th place finish at the state tournament to wrap a physically challenging but successful Junior campaign. Our friends down in Wakalla battled hard coming up with a single placer in Jr., Larry Smith (3rd). Coach Chuck Ringel lead his Leon High Lions to a strong post-season showing with multiple placers, to include a State Champ at Heavyweight in Sr. Gabe Beyer (47-0).
Were proud of where wrestling is going in the area and have no doubt that with continued support at the youth level, our guys will be competing for team championships at the state level in the years to come.
You can read more about the 2015-2016 All-Big Bend team here (scroll down).
NCAA’s and B1G’s
Thank you to the coaches who filled in for me while I traveled to Iowa City and to NYC to take in some incredible College wrestling. You can catch a lot of that stuff online but there is nothing like being there in person and watching it happen.
Iowa City was exactly what you would expect it to be – jam packed with wrestling fanatics! It is quite possibly the best place in the world to watch wrestling. You won’t find a more wrestling educated fan base in the world and they all love their Hawkeyes. My Buckeyes wrapped up the B1G with a 3rd place finish with a few guys who expected to get through to the NCAA’s not making the cut and, as well, not getting wild card bids due to how their season matched up to some of their competition.
While this was a tough outcome for some Buckeyes, the remainder of the group battled hard at NCAA’s at Madison Square Garden, bringing home a 3rd place trophy and two Champions. 2016 Olympian and World Champ, Kyle Snider, lit up the arena with what is being called the best Heavyweight final in history. Kyle secured the gold with a wicked low single leg takedown in overtime, knocking off reigning two-time NCAA champ, Nick Gwiazdowski in fine fashion. Earlier in the evening, true freshman, Myles Martin, stunned the crowd with an upset victory over crowd favorite and long time foe, Bo Nickal, of the eventual team champion Penn State Nittany Lions. That win sets Martin up for a run at the coveted 4 X NCAA championship run that has only been accomplished 4 times in history (Pat Smith, Cael Sanderson – undefeated, Kyle Dake – all at different weights, and Logan Steiber – Buckeye).
You can watch both matches, along with many others from both tournaments on YouTube or Flowrestling.
2016 Olympics and Olympic Trials
The Olympic trials were held recently, also in Iowa City, and were incredible to watch. The entire event (all mats) was available via live stream compliments of NBC Sports. At 97 kg, Buckeye, Kyle Snider beat Olympic Gold Medalist, Jake Varner in the final to secure his spot at the weight, which has already been qualified for the 2016 Olympics. Other Buckeyes did not fair quite as well but provided dynamic action, for sure. At 65kg, Logan Stieber gave up a late 4 point lift that ended up being the criteria need by his opponent, and eventual trials champion, 11 seeded Frank Molinaro, to win the match that ended tied 5-5. Though Logan scored last (to tie the match at 5), Molinaro had the higher scoring move securing the victory and the potential spot on the Olympic team. Though Molinaro won the trials, the US has not yet qualified the weight to compete in the 2016 Olympic Games. He will have a few opportunities to compete in “last chance qualifiers” over the coming weeks (to include this weekend in Mongolia) where he must make the finals or finish a true third. More on the qualification events and rules below.
You can watch the entire US Wrestling Olympic Trials event replay on NBCOlympics.com here.
You can find information and updates on the remaining “last chance qualifiers” on the United World Wrestling site or Flowrestling.
Below is some information on the Wrestling portion of the 2016 Olympics.
Wrestling is scheduled to take place in Rio from August 14 – 21 at Hall 3 of the Olympic Training Center in Barra da Tijuca (Men/Women – Freestyle, Men – Greco-Roman).
The 2016 Olympic Trials results can be found here.
The international Olympic weights are as follows:
Men
Freestyle: 57kg, 65kg, 74kg, 86kg, 97kg, 125kg
Greco: 59kg, 66kg, 75kg, 85kg, 98kg, 130kg
Women
48kg, 53kg, 58kg, 63kg, 69kg, 75kg
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I’ve included a few pictures from my trips and such below.
Ethan Jackson with 4 X NCAA champ Logan Stieber and brother Hunter Stieber
Ethan Jackson with 2016 NCAA Champion Myles Martin
Coach Dale Jackson with tOSU Coach Tom Ryan and 3rd Place Trophy
The guy on my right (pointing) was my Jr High Gym Teacher!! Good to see you, Zach!
Warm Ups 2016 B1G – Carver Hawkeye Arena
This guy….I had to share.
Dan Gable Statue @ Carver Hawkeye
One of my favorite guys to watch wrestle – Ian Miller – Kent State
I thought it was kind of cool to see a World Champ and Olympian get his first College pin!
Gavin Hoard (4th) with Coach Marschka and Coach Hoard
Gabe Beyer (1st)
Great Stuff Coach Dale- we appreciate all you do!