National Results and Banquet Reminder

Peter Miller Claims FILA Junior (20 and Under age group) National All-America Honors in Freestyle and Volunteer assistant coach Matt Gentry captures sixth place at U.S. Senior Nationals.

Cardinal freshman Peter Miller led the way for the Stanford in Las Vegas last weekend, capturing freestyle All-America honors and coming within one bout of Greco-Roman All-America honors at the FILA Junior Nationals. Volunteer assistant coach Matt Gentry posted a sixth-place finish in the freestyle division at the U.S. Senior Nationals.

Peter who redshirted this season, won a pair of matches in the Greco-Roman field at 74 kg(163lbs.), and came away with All-America honors in freestyle, despite an injury that knocked him into eighth place. Peter lost his first bout, but won five-straight before defaulting out in the third period in his consolation quarterfinal match and ending up in eighth place.

Fellow freshman Matt Kim won six matches at 60(132lbs) kg in the FILA Junior Nationals freestyle division, also coming just one bout shy of All-America honors. Kim opened competition with a pin, and then fell into the wrestleback bracket, where he won five-straight matches ending one win short of placing.

Kyle Pubols and Tyler Parker also competed in the freestyle division, both at 66kg(145.5lbs). Parker was eliminated after an injury, while Pubols posted two victories before falling out of the tournament.

At the U.S. Senior Nationals, Gentry posted the top finish, with a sixth-place showing in freestyle at 74 kg(163lbs). Gentry won three matches, giving up a total of just three points, en route to his 6th place finish. One of Matt's losses was to the eventual champion who upset the defending 6x national champion to win the title.

Sophomore Phillip Doerner also competed in freestyle at the Senior Nationals, at 120 kg(265lbs), while sophomore Rafael Chavez 66kgs(145.5lbs) and redshirt freshmen Luke Feist 84kg(185lbs) and Jared Boyer96 kg(211.5lbs) all competed in the Senior National Qualifier tournament, with Boyer leading the way with three wins.

Sophomore Scott Loescher 74kg (163lbs) was the Cardinal's lone entrant in the Senior National Greco-Roman field.

Stanford will continue to compete on the national level, as the Cardinal readies for the University National Championships in Evanston, Ill., on April 28-30.

For more info go to http://www.themat.com/results.php?Category=National

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Stanford wrestling banquet Saturday May13 1pm at the Creekside in in Palo Alto

You should be receiving invitations soon. If you do not receive and invite, please let me know. If you are interested in attending and do not want to wait for an invite, feel free to email me and reserve your place. The day will be a lot of fun. It will feature all seniors giving speeches on their experiences while at Stanford. Also we will award the Most Valuable wrestler, coaches award and scholar athlete awards. Hope to see you there.

4/5 update-All Academic Pac 10 Accolades, Post Season Competition, and the 2006 Wrestling Banquet

Six Cardinal Wrestlers Honored for Academics

*_The regular season has ended, but the Cardinal wrestlers are not finished collecting awards. All American Tanner Gardner and Josh Zupancic were named to the Pac 10 All Academic 1st team. Jared Boyer was selected to the 2nd team and Ray Blake, Juston Johnson and Brian Perry were selected to the Honorable Mention Team. For the complete Pac 10 Academic Team go to: http://gostanford.cstv.com/sports/m-wrestl/spec-rel/032906aab.html .

Post Season Competition

*_Several Cardinal Wrestlers will be competing in several national championship tournaments this spring. The 2006 US National Championships for Fila Juniors (wrestlers born between 1986 and 1988) and Seniors (Olympic level) will be held April 12-15 in Las Vegas. The 2006 University Nationals (wrestlers born between 1982 and 1988) will be held April 27-30 in Evanston, Illinois, on the campus of Northwestern University. These events are great opportunity for the guys to gain experience at the national level. Placing in these events will qualify them for the respective World Team Trials and a chance compete in the World Championships later this year. For more information feel free to contact me or go to www.themat.com to follow the action.

Wrestling Banquet

*_On May 13, we will celebrate our great season at our 2006 Stanford Wrestling Banquet. The banquet will be held at 1 pm at the Creekside Inn in Palo Alto, Ca. It will be a sit down meal with an awards presentation and senior speeches. Tickets for the banquet are $30 per person. Invitations will be mailed out next week, but if you are not on our mailing list or your address has changed, please send me your current address so I can make sure you get an invitation. If you are interested in attending, please let me know by May 6th. If you cannot attend but would like to sponsor a meal or make a donation, send donations to Stanford Wrestling and mail to the Wrestling Office 641 E. Campus Dr. Stanford, CA 94305.

NCAA Update

The season has come to an end, and we have an All-American! The weekend at Nationals was definitely filled with emotional ups and downs. Tanner Gardner became Stanford’s12th All-American, and the first for me as a head coach. As the 12th seed, Tanner opened with a 6-1 decision win over a wrestler from Drexel, and then faced the 5th seeded wrestler from Cornell. Tanner wrestled a very good match, but lost 3-2. The difference in the match was 1:05 seconds of riding time. After the loss, he was definitely upset, but he knew that he had to put it behind him if he was going to move forward and become an All-American. The next day, he was on fire and won three straight matches to secure his All-American status. He started with a 12-2 major decision win over Fresno State, then a hard fought 5-4 decision over Northern Illinois. Next he was facing the wrestler from Central Michigan. Tanner has wrestled him before losing both of their prior meetings; this time would be different. With All-American honors on the line, Tanner wrestled one of the best matches of this season, scoring a 14-5 major decision. Tanner finished the tournament with a 4-3 record and an 8th place All-American finish. We all know Tanner was not content with 8th place, but we were all so proud that he made it that far! The best thing is he has two more years to build on this experience and improve.

Although Ray Blake did not reach his goals to become a national champ or All-American, he inked his place in the history of Stanford wrestling. Ray finished his senior season with 41 wins. As we all know, 41 wins in a season is awesome, but what makes Ray’s so special is that his career record coming into this season was 10-5. He definitely made the most out of his first year as a starter. He placed in five out of six tournaments during the regular season, including 1st place at the Central Missouri State Open and 5th place at the prestigious Midlands Invitational. At the NCAA’s, he scored the first take down in both of his matches, but was not able to get the win. In the end, Ray had regular season victories over four wrestlers who were All-Americans and two others that were in the top twelve. So it was really tough to watch as the rounds progressed, but Ray handled it like a champion. He was there cheering and supporting Tanner the whole way.

Now that we are home, the guys are taking finals and getting ready for spring break. In the next week or so, we will be receiving admissions decisions for the incoming freshman class. I will keep you updated on who commits as we find out.

Now, with the first season behind me, I can say that it has been an incredible experience that I am sure is only going to get better.

NCAA update and Post Tournament Social

We have had two great weeks of training and the boys are ready.  We are very excited for the "Big Dance".  They have been working all year for this and now the time has come.  If you cannot be there in person, please follow the action online at www.intermatwrestle.com, www.themat.com, and of course www.gostanford.com.  Also, anyone in OKC for the tournament is welcome to come and celebrate with the us after the finals on Saturday.  We have reserved space at:
Newton's Steakhouse & Grille
1025 NW 70th
Oklahoma City, OK 73116
Phone:         405-840-0115
Web site:         http://www.johnniesok.com

Pac 10 Update

The Pac 10 Tournament on February 26th and 27th went well. We finished 7th out of 10 teams and placed four guys in the top six. Tanner Gardener was 2nd at 125, Ray Blake was 3rd at 165, Scott Loescher was 4th at 157, and Luke Feist was 5th at 174. The highlights of the weekend were when Tanner and Ray qualified for the NCAA Championships.

The added responsibility of hosting the event was a little stressful, but thanks to the help of my assistant coaches, guys on the team who were not competing, and support from the athletic department, it ran very smoothly. Additionally, I was very fortunate to have had such great volunteers and support to make the event a success.

Here is a recap of our tournament:

125-Tanner started the tournament with a major decision over the wrestler from Oregon in the quarterfinals. Next, he scored a huge win in the semifinals over the sixth ranked wrestler in the nation. In the finals, unfortunately, he came up short. The wrestler from Cal Poly wrestled an almost perfect match, and Tanner made a few mistakes. However, we are excited about the upcoming NCAA Tournament and hope for the best there.

133-Eric Minnick, a true freshman, has continued to show improvement through the season and throughout the tournament. He lost to the 4th and 5th place finishers.

141-Juston Johnson had his NCAA hopes end when he dislocated his elbow in the consolation round.

157-Scott scored a major decision in his first match against Cal State Fullerton. In the semis, he lost to the top seeded wrestler from Boise State. During the consolation semi finals he avenged a dual meet loss to the Cal Poly wrestler, pinning him in just under a minute. He finished with a tough loss to Oregon State to finish in 4th place.

165- Ray began with a major decision over the wrestler from Oregon State in the first round. Then, he decisioned the Portland State wrester in the quarterfinals. In the semis, he had a rematch against the ASU wrestler. Ray was the aggressor, getting in on a few leg attacks early in the first period. During one of his attacks he got out of position and gave up a take down and two near fall points to go behind 4-0. The deficit was too much to overcome, and he ended up losing 4-1. However, Ray came back and finished the tournament scoring a major decision over the Oregon wrestler and a technical fall against the Boise State wrestler to finish 3rd.

174-Luke lost a close match in the quarterfinals to Cal State Bakersfield. He lost 6-4, which was a big turn around from when they wrestler before where Luke lost 8-0. In the consolations he pinned the Boise State wrestler before losing another tough match to Cal Poly. For the 5th place finish, he scored another exciting pin over Oregon.

184-Ryan Hagen hurt his knee in the first competition of the year and never really made a full physical recovery. Despite this setback, his heart and dedication meant so much to this team. He lost his first round match, and after that he decided that his knee was not going to be able to take any more so he withdrew from the tournament.

197-Larry Ozowara moved up from 184 to compete here. Giving up probably 10-15 pounds, he went out and gave a great effort. He lost his first match to the top seed from ASU, and then lost a one-point match to Portland State.

285-Jared Boyer had a tough draw losing to the #1 seed in his first match. In the consolations, he scored his first pin of the year and in his next match he got caught in a scramble and lost to the Oregon wrestler.

With the NCAA Tournament in sight and the season coming to a close, I want to take the time to thank you for all of your support throughout the season from the team and coaching staff. Please be sure to check Tanner and Ray’s progress in Oklahoma as they represent Stanford against the best wrestlers in the country!
 

2/21/06

I can’t believe the dual meet season is over and we are just 5 days away from the Pac 10 championships. We finished our dual season 8-7. During the last week of duals we had some great performances and everyone showed improvement and set the tone for the Pac 10 tournament.

Cal Poly
Currently ranked 2nd in the conference, Cal Poly has a very good team. They have a wrestler ranked in 8 of the 10 weights and a few guys that are ranked nationally. Needless to say we had our hands full.

The match started at 125 and Tanner got us started in grand fashion, scoring a 10 major decision. After two hard fought losses at 133 and 141, one of the evening’s marquee matches was next. Josh Zupancic who was ranked 5th in the conference faced the number 2 ranked wrestler in the conference. After a flurry early in the first period, Josh was up 4-0. After trading escapes the score was 5-1 midway through the second period. As the match continued the official, awarded a few penalty points to the Cal Poly wrestler. With time running out in the 3rd period, Josh found himself only up by 1 point. With about 10 seconds left in the match the Cal Poly wrestler needing to score took a shot on Josh, Josh countered and scored the go ahead takedown and the win. After a tough over time loss at 157, we were up to the next marquee match of the night. Ray Blake was wrestling a guy who had been wrestling well coming into the match. It was also the first time that Ray appeared in the national rankings. One ranking had him ranked 14th and another 16th. Ray scored the first takedown but soon after was reversed to his back, giving up 4 points. Ray came back and scored and escape and a take down to take a 6-4 lead, but the Cal Poly wrestler scored an escape with seconds left in the period to make the score 6-5. Ray started on top and his opponent got away to knot the score at 6. Ray came back with another take down and this time did not allow an escape. So going into the 3rd period the score was 8-6. Ray started down and quickly scored and escape making the score 9-6. The Cal Poly wrestler then escaped and after a scramble on the edge scored a take down to tie the score again. With about 20 seconds left the score was tied and Ray was on the bottom. After a short scramble Ray scored a reversal and secured an 11-9 win and like Josh remained unbeaten in Pac 10 duals.
After losses at 174, 184 and a forfeit at 197, we had no chance of winning the dual, but the final match had a lot riding on it for pride as well as Pac 10 seeding. Jared Boyer was wrestling a guy the beat him earlier in the season. Just like the Oregon match, Jared rose to the occasion, scoring a takedown, an escape and a point for riding time to get a solid 4-2 victory.

ASU
An even more daunting task than Cal Poly was Arizona State. The defending Pac 10 champs boast 4 number 1 ranked guys in the conference and had wrestlers ranked in all but 1 weight class.
The match started with a slight let down. Tanner Gardner received a forfeit, not giving him a chance to avenge and early season loss to the ASU wrestler who happens to be ranked 1st in the conference and top ten in the nation. After losses at 133 and 141, Josh took center stage again. He was wrestling the number 3 ranked wrestler in the weight class. After a back and fourth match, the score was tied at 5 and went to overtime. The first overtime period went scoreless. In the second overtime, Josh held his opponent down for the entire 30 seconds. Now all he needed to do was escape in 30 seconds to win. Josh escaped in a few seconds, but was penalized for stalling with about 10 seconds left in the period to tie the score again. They start again on their feet and with about 15 seconds left, Josh scored a take down to claim victory. This was a huge win for Josh as it catapulted him to the number 2 spot in the rankings and should give him at least the 2nd seed in the conference tournament as well as finishing undefeated in conference duals.
We lost at 157, and then Ray took the mat. He was facing the number 2 ranked wrestler in the conference, who was also ranked 11th in the nation. After two period of wrestling Ray was behind 1-0. Ray started the 3rd period on bottom and after some very good scrambles, scored a reversal and back points to go ahead 4-1. Shortly after, Ray gave up a reversal making the score 4-3 but it was not enough as time expired and Ray got his hand raised and finished his conference dual meet season undefeated and solidified his spot as the top ranked wrestler in the conference and likely top seed in the conference tournament.
At 174, Luke Feist continued his improvement scoring a decisive 4-0 shut out in his last dual of the season.

Fresno State
After the two losses our dual meet record was 7-7. There was definitely a little extra anxiety about the Fresno dual with a winning season riding on the outcome. The guys rose to the occasion.
The dual started at 141, and after giving up a 5 point move early in the match Juston Johnson fell short, but he did have a huge impact on the dual. With about 10 seconds left he was losing by 8, which is a major decision and 4 team points. He could have just laid there and given up, but he wanted to save the point for the team. So he exploded of the bottom and got an escape and saved the team point. Even though he loss he showed a lot of heart and made a big difference to the team.
Josh Zupancic continued his winning ways, scoring a major decision. Next up was Scott Loescher. He went out and dominated his opponent scoring a technical fall and putting us ahead 9-3. Ray gave up the first takedown and then came back to score 12 straight points to get a major decision and make the score 13-4. After receiving a forfeit at 174 and a close loss a 184 the score was 19-7. 197 was on of the most entertaining matches of the night. After trading takedowns and escapes, Larry Ozowara scored a take down with just over 30 seconds in the match to get the win and put the match out of reach. The score was 22-6 with 3 matches to go.
With close losses at 285 and 133 and a major decision at 125, we captured a 26-12 win.

Over all the guys have been moving in the right direction. We did not win as many matches as we would have liked, but everyone has improved and that’s what we need going into the post season.

Thank you for your support and hope to see you at the Pac 10 and/or NCAA championships.

Home Finale

This weekend we hosted our last three home duals for the season, and we won two ( Oregon and Portland St.) and lost one (Oregon St.). The Oregon match was full of excitement; the dual went back and forth from the start. We won the first match(125) they won the next two, and then we tied up the dual after a win at 149. Then the action really picked up. Scott Loescher threw a head lock and pinned his opponent in :49 seconds to put us ahead by six going into the marquee match of the dual. Ray Blake faced the number one ranked wrestler in the conference, who is also ranked 6th in the nation, and is a returning conference champion who Ray lost to earlier in the season. At the end of the 1st period Ray was losing 4-1, and by the 2nd, Ray was down 6-2. Now usually when one of the best guys in the country is ahead by a few points the match is over, but we had faith that Ray would find a way. Ray scored an escape and a take down to close the gap to 6-5 with 36 seconds left. Ray's opponent thought he could just hang out on bottom and and try to coast for the win. Due to his non-activity, he was called for stalling twice, which gave Ray the tying point and sent the match to overtime. Ray scored a take down with a few seconds left in the second overtime period to secure the win and put us up by 9 with 4 matches to go. Luke Feist faced the 6th ranked wrestler in the conference and it was a must-win match for us to keep our chances of winning alive. Luke came away with a 12-2 major decision. This win put us up by 13. After two tough losses at 184 and 197, heavyweight was up next. The odds were against us since Jared Boyer lost to the Oregon heavyweight earlier this season, and he was also ranked 6th in the conference. Jared scored two take downs en route to his upset victory, and secured the win for us.

The high that we were on after the Oregon dual did not last very long, when just a few short hours later, we lost to the The Oregon State Beavers. After a few down to the wire matches, Ray Blake and Josh Zupancic came away with wins. Despite the many close matches, they went home with a 28-7 victory. In our final match of the weekend, we competed against Portland State on Saturday at noon. Before the match we recognized 8 graduating seniors and their parents that were in attendance. Juston Johnson, Miguel Matta, Zack Hensley, Brian Perry, Brennan Corbett, Larry Ozowara, Ryan Hagen and Ray Blake will be graduating this year. Five of the eight seniors competed in the dual for the last time in Burnham Pavilion. Juston Johnson won by forfeit, Brennan Corbett (filling in for Ryan Hagen) scored an exciting second period pin, Miguel Matta (filling in for Ray Blake) and Larry Ozowara (filling in for Ian Bork) lost tough matches. The last senior competing was Zack Hensley (filling in for Scott Loescher). He was losing 6-1 going into the 3rd period. Zack chose top and scored 10 points to score the victory. We wish our seniors the best of luck and look forward to seeing them at matches cheering on Stanford in the future. Other winners were Tanner Gardner, Eric Minnick, who picked up his first dual meet victory of the season, Josh Zupancic, and Phil Doerner. With these wins, we were able to capture a 40-7 victory and close our our home matches for the season on a winning note. Next up, we are at Cal Poly on the 10th, at Arizona State on the 12th, and we finish our dual season at Fresno State on the 15th. If you are near any of these sites, please come support the guys in their last three duals of the season. Finally, we are busy gearing up for the Pac 10's at Stanford on February 26 and 27th, and hope that if you are in the area we will see you then! Thanks for your support.

1/30/06

Friday's dual vs UC Davis was a stereotypical Murphy's Law day.  To start, two of our captains (Ray Blake and Tanner Gardner)  were going to be out with minor injuries.  They could have competed, but we decided (with advising from doctors) to have them both sit and take the time to get better.  To add to that, Josh Zupancic was too sick to compete Friday morning.  So we headed to Davis with 3 of our top performers out of the line up.

UC Davis has been a thorn in the side of Stanford this year.  After suffering losses in a few other sports, including football and men's basketball, we did not want to be another notch on their belt.  Unfortunately, we did little to change the trend.  After some tightly contested matches, we fell 38-6.

Now the important thing is to see how the guys bounce back for our three matches this weekend.  Oregon invades Stanford this Friday with The University of Oregon at 2pm and Oregon State University at 7pm.  Then, we host Portland State University at noon on Saturday, when we will be recognizing our seniors.  These will be the last home dual meets of the season.  If you can't join us this weekend, we will return home for the Pac 10 Championships Feb. 26-27 at Maples Pavilion.

We have a solid week of training planned and will be ready to go by Friday.  If you are in the area, please come support us as we close out our home schedule.

1/27/06

Last weekend we competed in our first two conference duals. On the 23rd, we wrestled Cal State Bakersfield and on the 20th we wrestled Cal State Fullerton. These matches were important for many reasons. First of all, they were conference duals and each match would affect conference ranking and influence seeding at the conference championship. This was also the first time we competed since the tough loss to Illinois. Also Stanford lost to Fullerton last season and has not won against Bakersfield in a few years. So needless to say, the guys were pretty fired up.

The Bakersfield match was awesome. We started of winning six straight matches including pins at 157 and 197, and Ray Blake avenging a loss from earlier this season. Ryan Hagen also earned his first dual meet win of the season. The final score of the dual was 27-14. We were very excited about the win, but could not celebrate too long. We had to get ready for the Fullerton Dual three days later.
The Fullerton dual was also very exciting. The dual started at heavyweight. Freshman Jared Boyer started us off scoring 3 take downs en route to an 8-5 decision. Sophomore Captain Tanner Gardner continued his winning ways scoring a technical fall in a matter of 3 minutes. In one of the most exciting matches of the night, Scott Loescher built a 5 point lead, only to see it disappear when he was caught in a late flurry and ended up on his back with about 20 seconds left in the match. The 5 points scored in the scramble tied the match and sent it in to overtime. Scott had to reach deep down and find a way to win. He did taking his opponent down to his back in the first few seconds of overtime, securing the win and putting the match almost out of reach. The deal was just about closed when Senior Captain Ray Blake scored his 32 win of the season, putting us up 20-4 with 3 matches to go. We lost two of the 3 by decisions so going into the last match we were up 20-11. They forfeited the last weight making the final score 26-11.

These were great wins for the team and the program. Our guys are excited and really know that we are on track to be the best team in the West. We return to action this Friday against UC Davis. They have a bunch of guys ranked in the conference and a couple ranked nationally. This will be a good test and another chance for our guys to improve. Check www.stanfordwrestling and www.gostanford.com for updates and results.
 

1/16/06

The match against Illinois on Sunday started with a bang.  Tanner Gardner vs. Kyle Ott.  Ott is a 2x NCAA runner up and currently ranked 3rd in the Nation. After giving up an early take down, Tanner stormed back and pushed the pace of the match.  After scoring two escapes and a point for stalling, the score was tied at 3.  Tanner fell a little short giving up a take down with about 10 seconds left in the match making the final score 5-3.  Another close match came from Ray Blake who faced 9th ranked Mike Poeta.  Poeta was 2nd at the Midlands and Ray was 5th.  Poeta scored 1st, and Ray fought back scoring a reversal with about 1:30 left in the match.  That made the score 3-2 for Poeta.  We told Ray that he either needed to ride him out to go to over time or let him go and take him down.  Ray was confident that he would not only ride him, but he was going to turn him.  After riding him for close to a minute, Ray got out of position a little and gave up a reversal.  The final score was 5-2.
Here is a link to pictures of from the dual:
http://www.tech-fall.com/05colStanvsIll1.html

Next up, Cal State Bakersfield on Friday 1/20, and Cal State Fullerton on Monday 1/23 at home. These are the first of our Pac 10 schedule and will be very big for Pac 10 seeding.  If you are in the area, I hope you will join us.

Illinois Webcast

I know most of you will not be able to make it for the dual, but you can still watch us.  Here is a link to the webcast:
javascript:loadlink(`http://allaccess.cstv.com/media/school_epg.jsp?sid=3650&ts=0&ngSportId=all&ngDates=all&gState=0&gDates=all&gSportId=35&gMediaType=all')
If you have problems you can also go to:
http://gostanford.collegesports.com/sports/m-wrestl/stan-m-wrestl-body.html
and click on the web cast link.
Thanks for your support.

1/10/06

The new year is here and were are in full swing.  This past weekend we competed in the Lone Star Duals in Texas (www.lonestarduals.com).  Over all we did well.  We posted wins over Army and Harvard and lost to UNC Chapel Hill.  The matches gave us a chance to get back into the swing of dual meets.  The matches started at 157 so it was a little different preparation for the guys but they responded well.  We won 6 out of the 10 matches against Army, including at fall by Luke Feist at 174, and a 13-0 major decision by Tanner Gardner.  The final match of the dual came down to Josh Zupancic.  His thrilling overtime win gave us the win.

Next we faced University of North Carolina.  Our guys were a little flat for this one.  We ended up losing 7 out of the 10 matches.  Our top performers were Tanner, Ray Blake and Josh Zupancic, who won his 2nd overtime win of the day.

In our last match, we faced Harvard.  I joked with the guys that after the dual we could compare test scores, but when the match came were were all about wrestling.  Neither team cared about who was "smarter".  We were out there to get the win.  The match went back and fourth.  Harvard actually forfeited two weights which gave us a little cushion, but we still had to compete well to make sure the match did not get away from us.  As a whole our guys fought very hard and competed well.  They may not have wrestled the best they could have, but the heart and the fight is what will make us better in the long run.  Perfect example is Tyler Parker's over time loss.  He was wrestling on of the top guys in the nation.  If it weren't for a few inconsistent calls by the official Tyler would have won, instead he ended up losing 12-11.  That match confirmed what our staff already knows, that Tyler can compete with any one in the country at his weight class.  Ray Blake also earned his 30th win of the year and Josh Zupancic sealed the victory with another overtime victory.

So, it definitely was not the best we can do, but it was great to have our guys respond and finish with heart and intensity.

We also had 4 guys compete in the Portland State Open.  Red shirting Freshmen, Matt Kim, Kyle Pubols, and Peter Miller competed unattached.  Phil Doerner competing attached for Stanford.  Everyone won a match and the losses were close.

Next up, the #4 ranked University of Illinois will be in town on Sunday the 15th at 1pm.  This will be a very tough dual, but our guys are ready for the challenge.  After the dual, there will be a social/ meet and greet in the Arrillaga Family Sports centers' Dalmar court.  There will be refreshments served and give you a chance to meet the team and staff.
Remember to check www.stanfordwrestling.com and www.gostanford.com to follow the progress of the team.
Thanks,

1/5/06

What a season so far.  We have made huge strides this season.  Ray Blake has 28 wins, Tanner Gardner has 21 and Scott Loescher has 14.  They would have a few more, but some of their wins were against Junior college and club teams so they do not count on their official records.

At the Reno Tournament of Champions we were one win or two away away from a top 10 finish.
Our team was lead by captains Ray Blake and Tanner Gardner.  Ray finished 4th and Tanner finished 5th.  Ray finished with a 6-2 record including wins over Penn State, Fresno State and avenged an earlier lost to a wrestler from Embry Riddle.

Tanner Gardner had a 5-2 record with a pin and 2 major decisions.  Another strong performance came from Brennan Corbett.  Wrestling at 174 he scored an 11-6 victory over Cal Bakersfield's wrestler who was ranked 3rd in the conference.
Overall we were 22-19 on the weekend which is billed the "toughest tournament in America". We finished 13th out of 27 teams including top ranked Oklahoma State, Penn State, Central Michigan and many conference opponents including Arizona State, Boise State, UC Davis and University of Oregon.

After Reno, the guys had a few days off for the holidays.  We sent 6 guys to Midlands in Evanston, Ill on the campus of Northwestern University, and the others returned to campus to train.  At Midlands we had a good showing, especially considering the guys were training on their own with less than optimal training situations the few days leading up to the tournament.  Again, Tanner and Ray were our top performers, each finishing in 5th place.  Tanner advanced to the semifinals with a hard fought win against the starter from the University of Iowa on the first day, guaranteeing a place, and finished in grand fashion, scoring a technical fall over the wrestler from University of Northern Iowa.
Ray took a slightly different route to his placing.  He lost a controversial first round match and had to battle back to win 5 straight matches to ensure a place.  One of his wins came over a top 20 ranked wrestler from Northwestern and another was a rematch of the first round loss.

Others competing were Josh Zupancic, Scott Loescher, Luke Feist and Ryan Hagen.  Our record for the weekend was 13-11 and we had wins over wrestlers from Iowa, Northwestern, Northern Iowa, Northern Illinois, Purdue, Indiana and Cal State Bakersfield.

Over all I think it was a good weekend and our guys are really beginning to understand and believe we can compete and win matches against anyone in the country.

From Midlands we returned to campus to get ready fro the second half of the season.  We had a great few days of training and have really set the tone for the rest of the season.  We are heading to Grand Prairie, TX for the Lone star Duals this weekend.  We will compete against, Army, University of North Carolina, and Harvard.

When we return from Tx, we will get in a good week of training and prepare for the 4th ranked University of Illinois on January 15th.

12/11/05

Recap from Las Vegas Invitational.
We started out with a bang in the preliminary round.  We won 6 out of 7 matches.  We were on our way.  Or so I thought.  The next round was really rough.  We were 2 and 9 I think.  It was very tough to move on, but we had to.  We pulled the guys together and told them to that they couldn't hang their heads and feel sorry for themselves.  We have to bounce back and show everyone what we were made of.  Even though it did not end exactly the way we wanted, the guy responded well.  Over all we finished with 20 win against 19 losses.  Tanner Gardner finished 4th, losing two close matches to Pac 10 foes, Jeremy Mendoza and Chad Mendes.  Scott Loescher lost in the placing round to a top 20 ranked wrestler from Hofstra.  Ray Blake and Luke Feist were a match or 2 from placing and Josh Zupancic, had to pull out after an injury in the first period of his third match.  So over all we were a little disappointed by the weekend, but we were also encouraged by the way our guys are fighting and progressing so far.
We had a good week of training last week.  The guys were working hard and with the stresses of finals looming they never skipped a beat.  Which make me feel very good about The Reno Tournament of Champions this weekend.  This will give us a chance to see more of the nations best teams including 3x defending NCAA Champion Oklahoma State, Penn State University, and  Arizona State to name a few.
So in the last few weeks of the fall quarter we will have seen 9 of the top 15 teams in the country.  That's a pretty tough and good way to set the tone for the rest of the season.

11/23/05

We got our first dual win of the season last night at San Francisco State University.  This also marks the first Dual meet win of my Head Coaching career, so it was definitely a special night.  We started at 197, and the match went back and fourth.  We won the first, they won the 2nd, then we got a forfeit at 125, which gave us a 9-3 lead.  They came back with a win at 133 to bring the match to 9-6.  at 141 we scored a close win to go up 12-6.  At 149 they had the defending 149 lb. NCAA division 2 champion.  Josh Zupancic was a little banged up from last weekend so we had Juston Johnson, who is a 141 pounder fill in.  It was a big risk for us, since Juston is recovering from major shoulder surgery and this would be his first official competition.  It was either take the risk or forfeit.  About 30 seconds into the match there was a collision and there guy came out of it with a broken nose.  It was not the way we wanted to get a win, but that's what the circumstances lead to.  After that match we were up 18-6.  We lost a tough one at 157 where Scott Loescher fought back from a 10 first period deficit.  He cut the lead to 5 with about 30 seconds left but we fell a little short.  The score was now 18-9.  We finished by taking the next three matches with a technical fall, a major decision and a regular decision to make the final score 30-9.

For pictures from the dual check out:  http://www.tech-fall.com/05colStanSFS1.html

Our guys fought hard and definitely are improving on a daily basis.  We still have 4 freshman and 3 sophomores in the line up and so our future is looking very bright.  The guys will get a short break for Thanksgiving and then we start getting ready for the Las Vegas Invite Dec. 2-3.