Lakeland College

Bumps in the Road...
Posted on 2/27/2006 5:17:58 PM

My last post was a while back so a lot has happened...

At the conference tournament, I felt, we got the title taken from us. We were up in points before the finals round, and had quite a few wrestlers wrestling for places. I was the first one to wrestle and was having a good match. I was winning 8-6 with 29 seconds left, with over 1 mintue of riding time (note: You get a pt if you ride your opponent a min. longer then they ride you, so the score was actually 9-6) with the match in my favor and only 29 seconds to go we figured we had it in the match in the bag. I was in control so I was riding him and as he started to stand up I lifted him and brought him down to the mat and he got hurt as I got up the ref hit me with a Technical Violation and the opponent didn't get up, and by him not being able to wrestle the match I lost. We ended up losing the conference tournament by a point but because of the ref's ify call in my match and in others during the final round we couldn't do a whole lot. Also, Concordia coach Bret Corner was awarded the "Coach of the Year" award, when looking back Concordia or MSOE have won every wrestling Conference (with Marnatha as an exception with one title), and this year was no different (Concordia won) . So when looking to the past, the fact Lakeland was so close to winning the title for the 1st time ever, and going from 3-8 to 11-8 (not to mention it was the most wins in history) I think they overlooked our coach Peter Rogers way too much.

After a disappointing conference tournament I looked forward to a better regional tournament and later maybe even a National tournament. We wrestled really good and had 2 place third (Paul Hart and Mark Vandenhoogen).  I was wrestling in the match to go for 3rd against the #3 seed from Augustana and was winning 7-6 with 40 seconds to go in the match. Hoping to score late in the match I shot in at the whistle and dislocated my shoulder and the trainers refused to let me continue the match. So the week before I lost with 30 seconds left and the next week I lost with 40 seconds left, while having the lead. The guy ended up taking 3rd place. So the last match of my season as you would guess angered and saddened me but only fueled my desire to do better.

Now that my season is done I have more time than I know what to do with. I have been lazy this past week for the 1st time all year; needless to say it was fun. I also found myself thinking and debating in my head things about wrestling, "if's" and "coulda's" and "will do's". So I can't wait for next season to roll around. I am also the recruiter for the team and am hoping for a strong recruiting class. I hope we do better next year and am sure with the new guys coming in adn the leadership still strong we will.

 (ME WRESTLING KNOX COLLEGE)