Kansas Wrestling
Posted By: Les Brown juco wrestling at its finest - 12/28/02 12:42 AM
On January 10th and 11th Colby Community College will host its annual Tournament of Champions. Historically this has been one of the most competitive regular season junior college wrestling tournaments in the nation.

Names like T.J. Williams, Dana Holland, Tony Davis, Reggie Wright, Eugene Harris, Ramico Blackmon and Daniel Cormier have all graced the wall brackets at the TOC in past years. And you can bet that many of this year's names will one day find their way on to the podium at the NCAAs too.

The 12 teams expected to compete in this year's event accounted for 49% of last year's NJCAA All-Americans. Of those 12 teams, 7 are ranked in the top 10 of the NJCAA Division I poll and another is ranked 2nd in NJCAA Division III. Together those same 12 teams currently account for 55% of the individuals ranked in the NJCAA poll that was released on 12/16/02.

And if you want to make a weekend of it. The host school, currently ranked #1 in the nation, will take on #3 ranked Neosho County Community College in a dual on January 12th at 3:00 pm. Neosho currently has 5 individuals ranked in the polls and Colby has 7 ranked - with 5 of those individuals being ranked 1st in their respective weight class.

January 10th - 12th will be a great weekend of wrestling action in Colby and we'd love to have you in attendance.

Let me know if you'd like additional information.
Posted By: Mike Furches Re: juco wrestling at its finest - 01/01/03 11:51 PM
Les, would appreciate any information you could send via email or any other form. Email address is mike@furches.org, other informaiton available through the profile. Thanks in advance.
Posted By: Les Brown Re: juco wrestling at its finest - 01/12/03 03:38 AM
TOC results -

1st Colby 101.5 points
2nd Ridgewater (MN) 50.5
3rd Lincoln (IL) 49.0
....
6th Neosho 41.5
7th Labette and Meramec (MO) 37.5

Colby 8 medals (5 Champs, 1 2nd 2 4ths)
Neosho 3 medals (3 2nds)
Labette 3 medals (1st, 2nd, 3rd)

Some great wrestling at the event. All 3 Kansas juco teams look poised to bring home several All-American honors from this year's NJCAA national tournament.

If you get a chance, you really ought to take in a juco event. There is a stereotype out there that juco is not that tough, but that couldn't be any further from the truth.

Good luck to Labette, Neosho and Colby as they continue to do a fine job of representing wrestling at the collegiate level for Kansas.
Posted By: Mike Sample Re: juco wrestling at its finest - 01/12/03 03:49 AM
Les - Did Bryan Miller get 1st?? Nothing against the out-of-area recruits that Lampe gets, but it is good to see a NWKL kid ranked 1st in the NCJCAA Polls.
Posted By: Les Brown Re: juco wrestling at its finest - 01/12/03 10:30 PM
Hi Mike -

Yes, Miller did win the TOC. He is currently ranked first in the nation. He beat a tremendously talented returning All-American from Neosho in the finals last nite and this afternoon at the dual.

Seems like the area recruits go in cycles. Two years ago we took seven to nationals and six (Duell, Jones, Jenkins, Koster, Oursler and Dennis) were all from western Kansas. Last year we took six to nationals and three were from western Kansas (Jones, Miller and Murray).

This year it was a good thing Lampe got some out of area recruits, because the NWKL was weak for seniors last year. The one who could have made an immediate impact told us no. We also begged a certain central Kansas talent to join us, but he chose Neosho. Jones graduated, Murray moved on to greener pastures at Nebraska a year quicker than we had planned. And we have never had a lot of luck in getting eastern KS kids to come this way.

So it was a necessity this year.

It would be good to see you. Are you going to Beloit?
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