It's championship week in college wrestling!

When the conferences hold their big meets and wrestlers get slots to NCAA championships.

Preview of some top contenders in the East.

Greg Parker Princeton 184

Surprise runner-up at NCAAs last year. Unorthodox wrestler gives opponents fits.

http://www.puwrestling.com/photos/drexel03/index_5.htm

Jon Trenge Lehigh 197

Stud. He's the guy who lost to Cael Sanderson in last year's finals.

Mugshot
http--odanuki.com-lehigh-Wrestlers-Images-Mug-Trenge.jpg

At All-Star meet
http--www.wrestlingpic.com.futuresite.register.com-db2-00106-wrestlingpic.com-_uimages-Trenge1a.jpg

Vs Cael in 2002 finals
http://www.sltrib.com/2002/mar/03242002/im.../spt_pinned.jpg
http://www.albany2go.com/wrestling/graphic...0324morning.jpg


Greg Jones West Virginia 174

Stud. Undefeated. Probably the quickest guy on the mat.
Returning champ.

At All-Star meet

http://www.wrestlingpic.com.futuresite.reg...ges/jones1a.jpg

http--www.wrestlingpic.com.futuresite.register.com-db2-00106-wrestlingpic.com-_uimages-jones3a.jpg

http--www.wrestlingpic.com.futuresite.register.com-db2-00106-wrestlingpic.com-_uimages-jones9a.jpg

http://www.wrestlingpic.com.futuresite.reg...ges/jones4a.jpg

Clint Wattenberg Cornell 184

Pinning #1 Jessman Smith Iowa at All-Star meet
http://www.wrestlingpic.com.futuresite.reg...attenburg2a.jpg

http://www.wrestlingpic.com.futuresite.reg...attenburg1a.jpg


All-Star meet great pix
http://www.wrestlingpic.com/

http://www.usna.edu/Images/frontpage-63.jpg

Two big tournaments on the East Coast this week.

Eastern Intercollegiate Wrestling Association
March 7-8 at Cornell Ithaca
Tournament website

http://cornellbigred.ocsn.com/sports/m-wre...-champs-03.html

Teams: Navy, Army, Brown, Cornell, Princeton, Harvard, Columbia,
Penn, Lehigh, Rutgers, Franklin & Marshall, American, East Stroudsburg


Eastern Wrestling League Championships
March 8-9 at West Virginia U Morgantown
Tournament website

http://www.msnsportsnet.com/page.cfm?story=4443

Teams:Bloomsburg, Clarion, Cleveland State, Edinboro, Lock Haven,
Pittsburgh, Virginia Tech, West Virginia

Could you pick a photo and tell us what's so "unorthodox" about this wrestler...other than being better than average looking.

Thanks for those great links.

Greg Parker Princeton 184 lbs

Unorthodox wrestler who gives opponents fits.

http://www.puwrestling.com/photos/drexel03/index_5.htm

Parker of Princeton is a Funky Counterattacker!

You get in on a single-leg trying to complete a takedown, then he reaches
all the way over your back and grabs your leg, and flips you over and
suddenly you're in trouble,
and you can't figure out what you did wrong.
Referees are sometimes faked out by that move and award you the takedown,
but then they have to give Parker the quick reversal.
You set up and execute all the moves you've
learned since a kid, and he basically lets you get an advantage. Then he pulls
his funky stuff
and you realize you've never been in that position before and it's too late. You've
been tricked and trapped.

Parker (orange = Princeton) vs Heizer at Midlands

http://www.amateurwrestlingphotos.com/folk...is/index_15.htm

1st pic: Trip attempt by Parker from behind
http://www.amateurwrestlingphotos.com/folk...es/IMG_7654.htm

2nd pic: Advantage Heizer ... Parker on bottom with back exposed to mat but look ...
http://www.amateurwrestlingphotos.com/folk...es/IMG_7656.htm

3rd pic: Parker has funked out of it! No body part of his touches the mat
http://www.amateurwrestlingphotos.com/folk...es/IMG_7658.htm

4th pic: Advantage Parker. How long can Heizer support Parker's weight?
http://www.amateurwrestlingphotos.com/folk...es/IMG_7659.htm

5th pic: Bigger advantage
http://www.amateurwrestlingphotos.com/folk...es/IMG_7661.htm

6th pic: Going for back points
http://www.amateurwrestlingphotos.com/folk...es/IMG_7662.htm

7th pic: Heizer is tired from defending against the funk-master.
http://www.amateurwrestlingphotos.com/folk...es/IMG_7665.htm

Notice how Heizer is stronger physically than Parker? Doesn't matter.
Your strength will be used against you.


Parker vs Becks of Penn State at bottom of page.
(He lost this one.)

http://www.amateurwrestlingphotos.com/folk...is/index_18.htm

Becks in on a single-leg.
Then Parker on top.
4th pic: Look how he goes for the far leg, putting all his weight on Beck's back.

http://www.amateurwrestlingphotos.com/folk...es/IMG_7758.htm

Typical. He sort of drapes all over you sometimes.

Last years NCAAs at 174 lbs Parker beat like Otto Olsen, John Koscheck, and Rick
Springman in a row. Those guys are national champions and are all 2 or 3-time
All-Americans. They couldn't figure out what to do against the Funk.
Too bad Parker got injured in the finals against Jones.

Mugshot
http://goprincetontigers.ocsn.com/sports/m...ker_greg00.html

Good! Maybe the WWE will have a good crop to try and pick from this year. They need more guys with amatuer backgrounds badly!

Entertainment can only hold so much. Ability is where its at. Look at who their top people are from the amateur ranks:

-Kurt Angle (current WWE champion)1996 Olympic Gold Medalist and NCAA champion

-Brock Lesnar (former WWE undisputed champion)NCAA champion from Minnesota

-Shelton Benjamin and Charlie Haas (current WWE tag team champions)both NCAA champions I believe at Minnesota and Seton Hall respectively.

Im a big pro fan, but more amatuers never hurt the business of sports entertainment.

Agreed, talent is always a good thing to find. The hard thing is to find talent mixed with personality/charisma. That's the real problem!

I'd rather see less charisma and more talent.

However, back on topic, doesn't it seem that no matter what, collegiate championships don't even seem to get much coverage on TV? Or have I missed it?


Trevor

Yeah, we got wrestling! Right here in Kansas City! With a capital "K" and that rhymes with Gay and.... well, um, you get the point.

The NCAA's are here in the the dowdy old Kemper Arena next week! Surprising how little attention it's gotten locally so far. It's already sold out, which would indicate a huge economic impact, and lots of visitors in town during the tournament. Hubby and I may try to get in to one of the sessions; there are always scalpers. The NCAA Fan Experience and the opening ceremonies & concert next Wednesday are free, so we may check it out just for fun. At least maybe we'll get a little eye candy in the local media next week.

Easterns Wrestling Championships were held
at Cornell this past weekend.

Hundreds of photos
http://www.amateurwrestlingphotos.com/folk...als03/index.htm


Parker of Princeton is losing to Wattenberg Cornell, who's ranked #2 in country.
With 30 seconds left Parker pulls the ultimate funk-win:
a pin from the neutral position!

Pix start here
http://www.amateurwrestlingphotos.com/folk...03/index_10.htm

Parker in trouble early.
http://www.themat.com/specialevents/2003/c.../photos/047.jpg

http://www.amateurwrestlingphotos.com/folk...es/IMG_2139.htm

http://www.amateurwrestlingphotos.com/folk...es/IMG_2162.htm


Wattenberg leading 4-3 plus a point for riding time
Then...

in on a single-leg, head goes between legs. Parker does this a lot and
somehow comes out on top.

http://www.amateurwrestlingphotos.com/folk...es/IMG_2182.htm

Parker twists through, 35 seconds left in match. Position is still neutral.

http://www.amateurwrestlingphotos.com/folk...es/IMG_2185.htm

http://www.amateurwrestlingphotos.com/folk...es/IMG_2186.htm

Then he leans back and..

http://www.amateurwrestlingphotos.com/folk...es/IMG_2188.htm

Win by Fall!

http://www.themat.com/specialevents/2003/c.../photos/051.jpg

http://www.amateurwrestlingphotos.com/folk...es/IMG_2191.htm

Hardware (Co-winner with Jantzen Harvard for Fletcher Award)


with Coach New
http://www.amateurwrestlingphotos.com/folk...es/IMG_2364.htm


Other individual champs

Lee of Cornell 125lbs,
undefeated, ranked #2 in country.
http://www.amateurwrestlingphotos.com/folk...es/IMG_1850.htm
http://www.amateurwrestlingphotos.com/folk...es/IMG_1853.htm

Cooperman of Lehigh 133
http://www.amateurwrestlingphotos.com/folk...es/IMG_1899.htm
http://www.amateurwrestlingphotos.com/folk...es/IMG_1904.htm

Simpson of Army 141
http://www.amateurwrestlingphotos.com/folk...es/IMG_1933.htm
http://www.amateurwrestlingphotos.com/folk...es/IMG_2004.htm

Jantzen of Harvard 149
ranked #3
Great wrestler, tough on top, his crabride is wicked
http://www.amateurwrestlingphotos.com/folk...es/IMG_1984.htm

Zinck of Lehigh 157
http://www.amateurwrestlingphotos.com/folk...es/IMG_2029.htm

Letters of Lehigh 165
http://www.amateurwrestlingphotos.com/folk...es/IMG_2056.htm

Dillon of Lehigh 174
http://www.amateurwrestlingphotos.com/folk...es/IMG_2105.htm
http://www.amateurwrestlingphotos.com/folk...es/IMG_2125.htm

Trenge Lehigh 197
he'll be seeded 1st at Nationals in 2 weeks

http://www.amateurwrestlingphotos.com/folk...es/IMG_2219.htm
http://www.amateurwrestlingphotos.com/folk...es/IMG_2255.htm

Feast of Penn 285lbs
http://www.amateurwrestlingphotos.com/folk...es/IMG_2294.htm


Lehigh won team title
http://www.amateurwrestlingphotos.com/folk...es/IMG_2369.htm

Results and more pix at
http://www.themat.com/specialevents/2003/c...n/eiwa/eiwa.asp

Vr
ba

ESPN2 did NCAA wrestling finals last year on
day of final.

Will be radio & webcasts at college team sites
(OkState, Okla, Iowa, Lehigh, PSU ) for all rounds
or public TV in Iowa.

NCAAs are Kansas City this year.

No danger of Parker going to WWE.
Computer Whiz magna cum laude from Princeton '03.
Guy's got options and opportunities.

Maybe Mocco Iowa after 2008 Olympics.

Vr
ba

And what a fine place to lean back! wink

Beetarmee, thanks for your wonderfull posts! I just got back from Easterns yesterday: two solid days of fine wrestling, 4 mats going simultaneously for most of that time, 226 matches in all. My head is still swimming.

At these big affairs I usually get a lot of pleasure out of the wrestling in the earlier rounds, before everything gets grimly serious. Danielle has posted a few shots from these early rounds, and threatens eventually to post everything.

preliminary round
wrestleback finals

Did you happen to catch the Meltzer/Kirschbaum (yes, even nice Jewish boys wrestle) 5th place match in the wrestle-back finals? It was like the later Parker/Wattenburg high drama, but this time played as comedy! Melzer went in on a low single, went between K's legs and started to come out the back, got to his knees with Kischbaum draped upside down on M's back, and instead of trying to free himself from the legs, turn, and get the takedown, Meltzer just flopped over on his back, sat on K's chest, and stuck him right there! The crowd laughed AND cheered. Danielle caught the final position perfectly. Notice Max looking pointedly at assistant coaches Killar and DeNunzio as if to say "See?" Meltzer is a joy to watch, and is just a freshman! Stay tuned...

wise ass

And finally, does anyone know a cure for bleacher-butt?

[ March 10, 2003, 07:51 PM: Message edited by: Roy ]

Looks like I've killed another wrestling thread. Oh well... I'm gonna change my board name to Title-IX.

Seen on a t-shirt at Easterns last weekend:
10 top reasons to date a wrestler...

Those Top 10 reasons do seem to reflect a certain amount of orientational ambivalence.

(And that's a good thing.)

Scenes from The Big Dance:

In the final round there was a nice match at 125 lbs between Travis Lee (Cornell) and Chris Fleeger (Purdue). Danielle caught an interesting series of moves:

Lee in on a \"single\"

Countered nicely by Fleeger

Note Lee's right hand. \"ankle-pick\" coming...

And down we go! See Lee's right hand now? Guess where his fore-arm is. Fleeger is looking thoughtfull... The \"Cornell Ride\"

Near-fall situation: Back Points!

And the winner? (the coaches are grateful that the heavyweights don't
celebrate like this)

Ladies and gentlemen, at 125 pounds,
your National Champion,
Travis Lee!

And finally, a bonus shot from the 133 lb championship match between Johnny Thompson (Oklahoma State) and Ryan Lewis (Minnesota). Can you guess which of these guys is from Thumper's alma mater?
Mmmmpphh!!

Roy, Thanks for the pics and info. I don't generally follow wrestling but the word Cornell caught my eye. It's cool to know that a Cornell guy won. Go Big Red!

Also I was pleased as punch to see that he is Asian. We don't see many Asian athletes, which is a trend that is thankfully changing.

Thanks again.

One of the things I love about wrestling is that you don't have to be a huge animal to compete. You can even be a little bear, Orsino...

And asian honey bears are out there prowling the mats right along side of their black, brown, polar, bipolar and grizzly brothers. Here's another one for you: last year, in the NCAA semifinals at 157 lbs, this guy (Minnesota's Luke Becker, again) was wrestled to a draw by this guy (Penn's Yoshi Nakamura). In the second tie-breaker period Becker finally won, by 1 point. It was Nakamura's only loss of the tournament, so he just missed getting a national championship. If I can find some decent action shots I'll post them.