The wrestlers started rolling in early Thursday evening. Many took in a last minute workout at St. James Academy. Tonight there are about 10 wrestlers and coaches sleeping out in the barn. Tomorrow morning at 9am 85 wrestlers will gather to get their gear and load up in vans to make the trip to Iowa to wrestle middle schoolers from all over the US. Our four teams are comprised of kids from the four corners of the state: Garden City, Goodland, Kansas City, and Chanute. Wish them all good luck this weekend!
Make your own luck boys. Great job by the organizers, parents, coaches, kids, to all those involved.
I wish you all a safe and prosperous trip to Iowa. There are a lot of outstanding wrestlers on all four of these teams (can you say depth?). What an honor to represent the state of Kansas at this event. Good luck and Godspeed.
A huge Thank You to Will and the rest of the team who spent many hours puting teams together and planning this trip.
Good luck to all from Team Kansas!!
Ned
They are officially on the road. We checked in and loaded up 84 wrestlers in 9 vans. I want to thank all of the parents who took the day off and brought their wrestlers to Lawrence and a bigger thanks to the dads who are piloting the vans. I always say the best thing about wrestling is the friendships you develop from the wrestling community. I can't wait to get up there tonight!
Best wishes to all and thanks to the coaches for taking on the responsibility.
This is a prime example of planting seeds for Kansas wrestling! Watch the names of these wrestlers over the next 4-5 years. The investment of sweat, time and money by those involved are an encouragement to all of us!
Good luck Kansas kids!!! K some A!
Pool 1
1. Iowa Black
2. Team North Carolina
3. Team SD Westside
4. Team Kaw (Kansas 4)
Iowa Black is Iowa's number 1 team. They are a contender every year.
Pool 2
1. Team Illinois
2. Team Montana Maroon
3. Team Palmetto (South Carolina)
4. Team Nebraska
Team Illinois should be tough based on their USA wins in Cadet and Juniors. However, they fill four USA MSND rosters so this may not be their best.
Pool 3
1. Team Pawnee (Kansas 1)
2. Team North Dakota Stars
3. Team Wyoming Blue
4. Team Montana Grey
Pawnee looks to be in position to go undefeated in their pool. Based on my past three years experience we got a favorable draw.
Pool 4
1. Team Iowa Gold (2 Team)
2. Team Osage (Kansas 2)
3. Team Colorado Red
4. Team Michigan Extreme
This should be a hard fought even pool. Colorado will be lucky to win a dual.
Pool 5
1. Team Tenessee
2. Team Missouri
3. Team Colorado Blue
4. Team Michigan Titans
Missouri will walk through this pool! They sport 17 Tulsa National placers. They got a 2 seed because they didn't compete last year. Look out!
Pool 6
1. Team Montana Grizzly
2. Team Pennsylvania
3. Team SD Pierre
4. Team Comanche
Coach Vander Linden is looking to move up to the silver or gold pool this year! He challenged his boys last night and they look poised to make some noise. This is PA's first time here so I am not sure what to expect. They should be really tough but we will have to wait and see.
Pool 7
1. Ohio Prodigy
2. Team Michigan SE
3. South Dakota AAU
4. Team Iowa Hawks (3 team)
With Team Jordan being absent this year (Ohio's best and the usual champion of this event) Prodigy could be really tough.
Pool 8
1. Team Minnesota
2. Team Ohio SW All Stars
3. Team Wyoming Red
4. Team North Dakota Stripes
Minnesota will run away in this pool of also rans.
We will wrestle at 8am, 10am, and noon. More later!!!
Team Comanche records a first round win!
56-26 over South Dakota Pierre.
Penn wins over Montana 95-3 and we have them next!!
Ohio Prodigy escapes with a 47-46 win over Michigan SE.
Parker Howell 13-0 over Keyes
Jake Greider 1-6 a tough loss to Manfore
Dylan Eck 9-0 over Manfore
Holland 0-4 another tough loss to Richie
Dulgarian 7-0 over Frisco
Kinder 5-4 over Manfore
Mullin gets caught and pinned by Stoltenburg
Younger battles for a 5-0 win Leiferman
Fiscus sticks Williams
Kennedy gets roughed up a bit 3 - 10
Kyle Ryan wins 4-0 over Dorshner
Andrew Denning polishes off Scott with a fall
Adler follows with another pin against Jacobsen
John Peden battles but cannot get off his back LBF to Lettan
Grater loses a dogfight 7-9
Bonsall loses by fall to Gutmann
Blazevic pins Baker
Butler dominates and pins Jennerette
Bieberle gets pinned by Lewis
Gonzalez with a Z pins Bennett to finish off Pierre's team
Pawnee defeats ND Stars 78-16.
Winners
Mies
Leach
Hood
Gentzler
Shoemaker
Helms
Humphrey
Williams
Eck
Armstrong
Becker
Ortiz
Meck
Guillen
Bradley
Wilcox
Osage starts off strong but falters to lose to Iowa Gold 28-53
Winners
Cokeley
Suppes
Reed
Maki
Jared Johnson
Puckett
Rodd
Team Kaw
They lose a tight dual 45-48
Winners
Furnish
DiBlazi
Morrow
Himpel
McEachern
Harrison
Ernsdorff
Yergey
Elsasser
Burleigh
The 12 points in forfeits killed us!!
Pawnee rols up a 91-12 win over Wyoming. We gave up 6 on a forfeit as Dillon Archer tweaked his shoulder in the first round. Pawnee should dismantle their next opponent as well against Montana Grey.
Kaw is in a tight battle with North Carolina and Osage is slowly dropping back against Michigan Extreme.
PA wiped us out 96-0. A PA mom complimented Coach Vander Linden as he kept every wrestler fighting until the end. She said, "Many teams just roll over and die when they wrestle us." When you don't get what you want you get experience. We are building character here at the Middle School Duals.
Osage pulls out a big win over Michigan Extreme! It was a see saw battle and came down to the 250 lb match. Rafalko down 5-1 at one point throws his opponent to his back and pins him for a 52-42 victory.
Kaw lost another close one 50-37 giving those 12 forfeit points. Next year lets fill up all four line ups!!
Keep at 'em boys. I miss being there.
Matt
Someone else will have to keep DVL awake this year.
Iowa Black is beating up our Kaw boys a little. It is 54-3 with DiBlasi owning the only favorable decision.
Osage is in another battle royal. They lead Colorado Red 13-10
Pawnee is up 85-6
Comanches are losing 9-25 to Montana.
Osage pulled away 54-34 over Colorado Red.
Comanche lost a heartbreaker 42-44. At one point they were down 35-9! They pulled even but lost a couple of OT matches.
Is there a tournament online results link?
From this morning per phone call
Pawnee in Gold bracket
Osage in Silver
Comanche and Kaw in Bronze
Pawnee lost 1st round to Missouri
Osage wins
Pawnee 6th in Gold
Osage 4th in Silver
Comanche 5th in Bronze over Kaw for 6th
They are getting ready to head home.
Just wanted to give a big thanks to everyone who helped put this together for all four Kansas Teams. Great experience for my son, and we really enjoyed the event as parents!!
Gotta second that - We had a great time. Got to know some other really neat wrestling families from KS! Perhaps the boys had a little too much fun....as I told Will yesterday, our son mentioned something about failing and having to repeat 8th grade just so he could attend next year!
Big thanks to Will Cokeley for putting this thing together again. Big Thanks to Zach Roberson and Eric Luedke for coaching Team Pawnee. Hopefully Team Kansas was listening when they were told that Coach Zach and Coach Eric appreciated the effort, but we are behind on technique.
Big thanks to all of the other coaches as well. Big thanks to all the parents who helped with driving and "teenagersitting".
Biggest thanks goes to the parents who found a way to let their kids participate. Many lessons learned. "Mediocre/Newbie/average" kids that figured out a way to compete against kids from other states. Let's 'em know that a little work and sacrifice pays off. "Elite/advanced" kids that found out that there is always someone tougher out there. Keeps 'em working hard.
It is now time to start working on Schoolboy duals Freestyle and Greco team. If you have a kid born in 95 or 96, you are eligible. 93 and 94 is Cadets. Do some FS and Greco this summer, go to a few tourneys, go to Southern Plains camp and tourney, go to KS State FS and Greco which is in Towanda (just east of Wichita) this year. Go to a summer camp or two.
Let's make Kansas wrestling better. We are good. No question. Do we want to be the best? We have some work to do to catch up with the Pennsylvanias, Iowas, Missouri, Illinois, Ohio, New Jerseys of this world. I would like for Zach Roberson and/or Eric Luedke to post what they told the boys after the Duals, so all could hear it. They saw the "Kansas tough" out of our kids, but we lack the technique and position that it takes to move to the next level.
Thanks again to all involved for another great trip.
Doug
One word sums up this past weekend, AWESOME!!
I appreciate the compliments but I want to thank all of the parents for sending the kids, the parents who came and supported the wrestlers, and specifically: Lori and Blaine Salmans for working the tables, Patty Ochs and Pam Washington for helping with the scoring and selling all of the t-shirts and shorts (they can sell anything!), Brian Wells and Mike Morrow for working the tables, Terry O'Leary for helping coach, Jason Bates for helping coach, Bryce Hasseman for helping coach, Zach Roberson for helping coach, Eric Luedke for helping coach, Doug Vander Linden for coaching, Jerry Dale for Coaching, Joel Hood for coaching, Jared Morrow and John Johnson for coaching and helping with the alternates, John Rodriquez and Darin Denning for coaching, FINALLY Doug Eck, Loren Armstrong, Joel Hood, Mike Morrow, Brian Wells, Doug Vander Linden, Jason Bates, Duane Wuthnow, Mark Dulgarian, Kendall Adler, Richard Ortiz, and John Rodriquez for driving vans.
The kids were all great. They fought hard and left it all on the mat. Some of them were frustrated as the competition was as tough as it gets. I know they will never forget this trip. The team aspect, the friendships, the stories, the experience is priceless.
I hope to see all of the 7th graders back next year. I am beginning a plan RIGHT NOW to create a Middle School tournament next year. Top four will be on the teams and we will take five alternates from the 5th placers. I am talking with some people now about hosting it in a high school in the middle of the state on the Sunday after Wichita classic. Feedback??
Thanks again for making the Middle School Duals a great experience for the kids!
Will
Regarding the middle school tourney: I think you are still going to have to allow for some "criteria" for kids that may be a clear 1st teamer, but can't make the Sunday tourney. I feel like there were very few, if any, mistakes in placing kids on teams. It would be cool if we could make a tourney like that work. Center of the state somewhere? Probably wouldn't take too long to run, since it would only be 7th and 8th graders. I don't know how many people asked me "how many teams did Kansas bring?!!" and when I would tell them "4" they were baffled as to how we do it. Like someone said earlier on this subject, "watch the names of the kids that participated in these dual events" at the high school level.
My hat is off to Pennsylvania for winning the thing, but from what I understand, they had over 300 kids apply for positions on the ONE team that they brought. You would think that they would have tried harder to help more kids and put together several teams. (which they do for the Schoolboy duals)
I think Kansas realizes that this is simply a step up the ladder to becoming a good high school, and possibly college, wrestler. And the more kids that participate, the more quality kids we have competing at a high level, which in turn makes all of the Kansas kids better.
... and I join those that applaud the efforts of Will and all the crew! It is mammoth chore organizing four teams, coaches, travel, etc..
Iowa wrestling dad. I'm going to keep this post generic since I've read your results board and saw no reference to Team Kaws 152 and Hvwt recruits. The Browns and McCrakens would sincerely like to thank Team Kaw for the opportunity to compete Sat. and Sun. We were able to at the very least work the individual medal part. And thanks to the Team Kaw, we took home a team bronze!I don't know about the hvwt(McCracken) but Zack met a few kids on your team that just made him giggle like a girl when talked about the days events on Sat. night. That meant a lot to him and me also. It really helped lighten our load concidering the extreme stress we were under with the situation we were in. If I may I would like to make a couple of comments on what I observed as an outsider looking in. I watched 180 Kaw/Comanche vs. The Ripped matches and saw: #1 Fearless Kansas Kids no matter how outgunned they were. When their bouts were coming up, they could look over the mat and see their opponents were at times, heavily Armed. They held their head up higher,warmed up harder, RAN out to the mat, and I could swear that at times it looked like before they shook hands,spit, and said to themselves,"Lets do this!" #2 They fought to the very end. It was king of the hill, they weren't going to givem an inch and they were serious about it! #3 No one cried. If there was a tear it from the opponents finger in their eye. There were a number of those. #4 And finally, there attitude after each match was just stellar. No matter what happened on the mat, they RAN to the other corner to shake the oppoents coaches hands. To Coaches Kaw/Comanche; you guys were great. You looked, acted, and reacted in concerned, professional manner.Thanks again. Did I mention my wife is from Toepeka? Mike. joe_brown_boss@yahoo.com
I agree that we will have to accomodate for the BEST of the BEST but I would hope that if we plan this out far enough and make it simple we will have nearly ALL of the middle school kids who want to go. 6th graders will be allowed to participate in the state event as well as they are eligible. I am thinking this might be sanctioned a by a different organization as well since Kansas USA Wrestling won't accomodate USA Middle School National Duals maybe we need to support an organization who can accomodate us.
Will,
I want to personally thank you for all the time and effort that you put into making this happen and also let you know that it was an honor being on the mat for the kids of Team Osage. Every kid on our team left it all on the mat win or lose. It was very impressive sitting in the hotel parking lot of the hotel and watching team kansas vans pull in one after the other. I believe there was 9 or 10 vans pulling in at the same time. Every kid that I watched this weekend represented Kansas with dignity and got to experience something that they will NEVER forget. If you haven't experienced this you need to get involved as your kid will have the trip of their lives. Thanks for everything you do and don't get in trouble next time. LOL
Cokely,
I wanted to thank you, for giving me and the rest of these excellent athletes a chance to see actual wrestling. after seeing what youve done for all these young men and I, you have made one of the biggest impacts on all of our lives, and i know we will never forget the memories our teams had together evenif it was only a two day event. thanks again
"Anthony Gonzalez with a Z!"
Anthony: Does your teacher know you're posting on the internet? Aren't you supposed to be doing some homework or listening to a lecture or something right now?
Hey so called Cokeley,
Come out west for a change! I'm keeping my eye on you. You are doing great work but don't forget your roots. We got sommma that good wrestling out here too don't forget.
Just wanted to add my 2 cents. We had a great time and really appreciate the effort that all the people, Cokeley and the coaches, drivers and others that put this together.
Will,
Have to say "Ditto" to what a lot of others are saying. We had a good time, my son enjoyed the competition and we got to see where the rest of the country is at. Just wish Bryant's one loss wasn't to Missery. That team loss to Illinois hurt, because it seemed like we had enough talent but just didn't get the "W". Appreciate the hard work and will enjoy watching all of these kids in high school over the next few years.
Iowa Wrestling Dad; Thanks for the post. I can assure you the experience for Team Kaw would not have been the same without the services of the dynamic duo of Iowa's Brown and McCracken. Kaw was having a ruff time swallowing the 3 point loss to South Dakota in duel #1 after giving them 12 free points because 152 and heavy were open weights. My older son Jared has had fun telling the locals the recruitment story. After fracturing his back in football last Fall and losing wrestling this season he has been trying to fill his competitive itch by coaching and helping his younger brother. Who knew that he had acquired such good recruiting skills? It was amazing to watch how fast the two Iowa kids were accepted as part of Team Kansas Kaw. And certainly not to take anything away from the performance of the other Team Kaw kids, but given the pins and points posted by Brown and McCracken they certainly made the difference in the end (literally) on a couple of duels. Both my boys were amazed at skill level and the work ethic of both Iowa kids. Their ability to keep digging until they finished their moves was most impressive. It's what we stress as coaches but it seemed to sink-in with them watching the Iowa/Kaw kids. In fact, Jared said that he wished I would video taped Zack's matches so he could study how he wrestled and that's a high school sophomore wanting to learn from him! Thanks again for not only being great hosts all weekend but taking the chance and allowing the alliance and the friendships to unfold. My kids both had a great wrestling experience and made some lifetime memories that they won't forget. This sport has always been so much more than just hanging hardware on the wall. This weekend proved that. Thank you Zack and Big Mac! You always have a place to stay while in Kansas. Coach Morrow ~ who served as table worker Morrow all weekend!
when are we going to see some results good job guys
My School Gives us laptops and i had free time and right now i do.
This will bring you directly to the results. Lee said he has sent all the information to AAU, they will process it, and then(or who knows when) the results will post as "2009 Results." I'll get back to you Mr. Marrow, in a hurry and wanted to get this posted.
http://aausports.org/sprt_Wrestling.asp?a=sprt_Wrestling_msnd_results.htm
Results are up. I see some descrepancies.