McMurray Open (12/11/04)

The University of Dubuque Wrestling Team traveled to Jacksonville, Illinois on Friday, December 10th and competed on Saturday, December 11th at the MacMurray Open over the weekend. The 17th Annual MacMurray Open held in Jacksonville, IL hosted 15 teams this year and with over one hundred and seventy competitors.
No team score was kept but the University of Dubuque showed they have the competitive heart to win as they won four nailbiters in overtime during the semi-final and consolation round and many other close matches throughout the event which lasted from 7am until approximately 9:30pm. Matt Wonderlin went 4-2 for the day and won in overtime in the consolation semifinals over Joe Krugler from Millikan. Cole Williams won in overtime against Tom Tjakwoski of Truman State 7-4. Ben Swan won a close 6-4 decision in the semis finals over MacMurray Colleges' Adam Kravitis 6-4. Darren Kaisand beat Kellen Delaney from Simpson College 3-2 before beating Wes Pierce 3-2 of William Penn College. Kyle Morrow won a close 3-2 decision in his 7th place match at 165 pounds and showed a lot of heart and promise as well. David Cedeno beat NCAA II Central Missouri wrestler Jeremy Hudson with a solid finish 12-2 to end up with 5th place at 174 pounds. Lance Whetter made a strong finish being down by eight points and closing the margin at the end to 12-11.
Cole Williams become UD's first champion at 165 winning 7-3 in the finals over Matt Rudd an NAIA wrestler from Missouri Baptist. Ben Swan placed second at 141 making it to the finals before losing 7-2 to the Division II National Champion from last year and current NCAA #1 ranked Merek Meyer of Truman State. Nic Timbs and Steve Wonderlin placed second and third respectively in the 197 pound weight class. Four other UD Wrestlers showed promise as Matt Wonderlin (184) placed 4th, David Cedeno (174) placed 5th, Kyle Morrow (165) placed 7th and Darren Kaisand (157) placed 7th.
The next real test will come on Thursday, December 16th at Loras College where the team will compete against the University of Chicago at 5:30pm and then face off with Loras College at approximately 8pm.

UNI Open (12/6/04)

The Spartan Wrestling Team competed on Sunday, December 5th in the UNI Open with over 450 wrestlers and some of the top programs in the country including the #4 ranked University of Illinois, #15 ranked Central Michigan, #10 ranked University of Northern Iowa, #9 ranked University of Iowa, #3 ranked Iowa State University, and many other top 30 Division I, II, & III Schools. The IIAC showed why it is one of the best conferences in the nation at this event. This was a great preparation tournament during finals week and will give extra confidence to the wrestlers when they compete at similar high level competitions to come like the IIAC and NCAA Championships. Darren Kaisand lead the UD Spartan squad while coming back after a first round loss and then coming back with three straight wins to finish with a 3-2 record at 157 pounds losing first round to Chad Henning of Northern Illinois University and then beating Matt Vigna of William Penn, John Andrews from the University of Missouri, and Banning Stephens of William Penn, before losing a 3-2 decision to Collin Kelly of North Dakota State University. Cole Williams moved up a weight class to 174 and showed a lot of heart in a 3-1 overtime win over Central Missouri's Jeremy Hudson.
The wrestlers have finals this week and are working there way to becoming NCAA Academic All-Americans. This is achieved by receiving a 3.2 G.P.A for two consecutive semesters and placing in the top 6 at the IIAC Championships. At the same time this week they will be preparing for their next competition held on Saturday, December 11th at the MacMurry Invite. The MacMurray Invite has been a traditional maintstay tournament in UD Wrestling Schedule. In 1972 UD IIAC Champion Eric Jogben won the MacMurray Invite and the team won its first ever tournament team title. Teams scheduled to compete include: Missouri Baptist, McKendree, Eastern Illinois University, William Penn University, MacMurray College, NorthCentral College from Naperville, and Simpson College, as well as others.
For the University of Dubuque this is the first time back to the MacMurray Invite and they will be hoping bring back the team title to UD as well as regain some seeds for the IIAC Tournament when and if they face off with Simpson opponents. The wrestling Team will be staying at the Super 8 Motel in Jacksonville Illinois for the MacMurray Open. We will check in at approximately 7pm on Friday, December 10th. The phone number for the hotel is 217-479-0303. Weigh-ins begin at 7am with competiton set to begin at 9am.
The last competition for the University of Dubuque before Christmas will be held at the Las Vegas Duals on Monday, December 20th. This will be the Spartans last competition before going home for Christmas Break. The team will leave on Sunday December 19th @ 4pm from the University of Dubuque. Flights will leave @ 7:55 from the Cedar Rapids airport. The team will stay at the Flamingo Hotel and competition will be held on Monday, December 20th in the Flamingo Hotel. Weigh-ins will be held at 7am with action beginning at 9am.

Action will be as follows:
Round 1 - Bye
Round 2 - vs. Menlo College
Round 3 - Bye
Round 4 - vs. Pacific College
Round 5 - vs. Ohio Northern
Round 6 - vs. McDaniel

Augsburg Open (11/20/04)

On Saturday, November 20th - the University of Dubuque Team traveled by bus to Minneapolis for the 20th Annual Augsburg Open. This was a record setting event which attracted over 200 wrestlers from 19 colleges and universities inculding NCAA Champions Augsburg College and fourth ranked UW-LaCrosse. The young spartan squad had 8 wrestlers place in this competitive field. Highlights for the team were at 133 where Rudy Maynez posted wins over Upper Iowa University wrestler Nate Naumann and Rochester Community College wrestler Steve Johnson to end up in 8th place.
Lance Whetter showed the most improvement throughout the tournament and finished with a 5th place finish. Bobby Larson went undefeated reeling off four straight wins to win the 157 pound weight division. Cole Williams placed 3rd at 165 pounds with a close loss to the third ranked 165 pounder in the nation from Augsburg 3-1. Darren Kaisand placed 7th at 165 pounds for the University of Dubuque. Matt Wonderlin placed second at 184 pounds, his brother Steve earend a pin against Jim Swanson the number 8th ranked wrestler in the nation from UW-LaCrosse at 197 pounds. Cesar Dominguez placed 6th at 197 pounds in to help bring a total of 8 wrestlers to eight for the University of Dubuque. The next competition for the spartans will be on Sunday, December 5th when they attend the prestigious UNI Open.

Simpson Dual (11/18/04)

Spartans dual 5th-Ranked Storm in IIAC Thursday evening the University of Dubuque Spartans fought a valiant effort against Iowa Conference powerhouse and 5th-ranked Simpson College Storm in a losing effort 6-27. The match of the night for the 200 people in attendance witnessed an upset of epic proportions in the 133 lbs. match. Unranked UD's Brandon Jones (5-7, Jr., Carroltown, Texas/Hebron HS) pounced early in the match with a takedown at the blow of the whistle and never slowed. After one period Jones led 3rd-ranked Quent Christensen (5-10, Sr., Bedford, Iowa/Bedford HS) by a score of 4-3 after a takedown and a two point nearfall. Christensen tied the match in the second period after a flurry of action on an escape. The final period was all UD, Jones captured two takedowns and a two point nearfall to put the match away for a decisive 10-5 victory.
Iowa Conference placewinner Nickolai Timbs (5-11, So., Atlanta, Ga./James Madison HS) was the only other winner for the UD Spartans, capturing the 197 lbs. match in a 4-3 battle over Daniel Zepeda (5-11,Jr., Des Moines, Iowa/Lincoln HS). Timbs had a takedown in each of the opening two periods and gave up a reversal in the first period and a point for riding time.
Simpson's Dustin Brewer, ranked 3rd in the nation and returning IIAC MVP did not wrestle, but let Tony Hager take the match and he held Eric Adamany scoreless in the 0-5 loss at 125 lbs. UD's Ben Swan garnered a late reversal in period three at 141 lbs., but was unable to overcome the early deficit and lost 7-12 to Chase Weller. Currently #1-ranked Clint Manny of Simpson lived up to the hype and beat Josh Cross by a technical fall in the 149 lbs. weight class. At 157 lbs., UD's Bobby Larson knotted the match in the second period at 2-2 before a late escape and a takedown took away the victory in the final period.Simpson's Kellen Delaney captured the win 5-2.
Darren Kaisand was going for the win in the final period of the 165 lbs. match when he slipped off the top giving up a reversal and the win to Nate Broghammer. Chad Schultz lost at 174 lbs. to Wade Samo by a score of 4-16. At 184 lbs. Matt Wonderlin came back with a vengence in period three, but fell a point short after a nearfall was ruled a two-point instead of a three-point nearfall in the waining moments of the match. Wonderlin captured a point for riding time, but lost 5-6. At heavyweight, UD's Steve Wonderlin took some quality shots, but just couldn't capitalize on them in the 1-5 loss to the Storms' Brett Christensen.

Spartan Open (11/13/04)

Highlights for the University of Dubuque Wrestling Team at the 3rd Annual Spartan Classic - Saturday, November 13, 2004 held at the University of Dubuque Stotlz Athletic Center. With a strong field of over 175 wrestlers including top teams from the Midwest area including: University of Iowa, Upper Iowa University, University of Dubuque, Loras College, UW-Platteville, William Penn University, Augustana College, Knox College, Illinois, and many unattached wrestlers competing the third annual Spartan Classic is fast becoming one of the best in the midwest early season openers. There were numerous NCAA Champions and NCAA All-Americans in competition and some numerous All-Americans didn't' even place in the top 8 in this competitive classic. There were over 350 fans in attendance.University of Dubuque Wrestlers showed a lot of promise with 12 spartan wrestlers placing in the top eight in their respective weight classes.
Dan Ruter wrestled a great tournament at 133 pounds finishing in 4th place at one of the tournaments toughest weight classes. There were over 28 wrestlers in the 133 pound weight class. Dan Ruter gained confidence throughout the day as he won 6 matches and lost two placing well ahead of NCAA Qualifier Terry Morgan of Loras who finished in 8th place at 133 pounds. Bobby Larson defeated Upper Iowa's Scott Fisher by a fall to finish in 7th place at 157 pounds. Darren Kaisand and Kyle Morrow finished in 7th and 8th place at 165 pounds for the University of Dubuque. Cole Williams wrestling unattached for the University of Dubuque beat returning NCAA All-American from Loras Brad Bishop for third place. David Cedeno and Matt Wonderlin placed 7th and 8th respectively at 184 pounds for the University of Dubuque. Matt Wonderlin faced University of Iowa's returning NCAA All-American Paul Bradley in the quarter finals and came back to beat John Parkhurst of Augustana 6-3 to place 7th. Steve Wonderlin defeated Dan Goodson from Upper Iowa 11-2 and ended up with a fourth place finish at 197 pounds. Nickolai Timbs had an outstanding tournament coming back from behind to beat Matt Bucklin unattached and come out with four wins and one loss to place third in the tournament at 197 pounds. Cesar Dominguez beat heavyweight Steve Farrell from Upper Iowa 11-7 and won by injury default to Tyler Ohnemus from the University of Iowa to finish in 7th place at Heavyweight for the University of Dubuque Spartans.
No Team Score was kept during the 3rd Annual Classic. Outstanding wrestler for the tournament went to Mark Perry of the University of Iowa.
The next opportunity for the young Spartan Squad will come on Thursday with a dual meet at home against #5 ranked Simpson College at 7pm in the University of Dubuque McCormick Gymnasium.