UTC has posted their wrestling schedule for the 2011-2012 college wrestling season. After an Alumni Match on Oct. 15th, they will start off the season by wrestling Old Dominion in Maclellan Gym on Nov. 4th.

The big news from back in May was that UTC is hosting the Southern Scuffle, one of the biggest holiday college wrestling tournaments in the country. 2011 NCAA champions Penn State recently committed to the tournament, topping off a great line-up. That tournament is scheduled for January 1st and 2nd of the new year.

Check out the UTC 2011-2012 wrestling schedule. Go Mocs!

The story of Anthony Robles is an amazing testament to the power of determination. Here he accepts the Jimmy V Award for Perseverance at the ESPYs.

The National Wrestling Coaches Association has released its annual list of Division I All-Academic Top 30 Teams and the UTC wrestling team has been honored as the #7 Division I academic wrestling program in the nation. Four of its wrestlers also took home one of the ninety-three Individual All-Academic Team honors. They are Demetrius Johnson, Jason McCroskey, Dean Pavlou, and Brandon Wright.

The NWCA states the criteria for consideration on the All-Academic Team as follows:

“For teams to be eligible for consideration, the team GPA is comprised of 12 student athletes, including the 10 wrestlers that were the entries in the NCAA tournament conference qualifier. If teams had less than 10 entries for their respective qualifier, they may fill those spots with wrestlers that competed in at least one varsity dual during the season.”

McCroskey was also recently honored as a member of the 2011 Capital One Academic All-District IV At-Large Team.

Congratulations to the UTC team and its wrestlers for this amazing accomplishment!

As many of you have probably heard, Iowa beat #1 Penn State last Sunday (1/30/2011) in their wrestling dual match. Most people thought Penn State should have won, but are still not very surprised that Iowa beat them. The Hawkeyes just seems to be able to pull off big wins like this. They always have. They fight until the end, winning or losing.

A good example of this would be the 141 match between Marion of Iowa and Alton of Penn State. Marion, who just returned from a suspension, was thrown to his back by Alton early in the match for 5 points. He then fought back for to win by 3.

If you didn’t get to watch the match on the BigTen network because Comcast sucks and only offers that channel at an extra cost, even if you are already paying for High def channels, then here is a highlight video of the dual that Flowrestling put together.

Wrestling Videos on Flowrestling

TJ Duncan, the possible 5x state champion from McCallie, has signed with the University of Maryland to wrestle next season.

University of Maryland head coach Kerry McCoy had the following to say about his new wrestler:

“Coming from Tennessee, T.J. kind of flew under the radar,” said McCoy. “He has won four state titles and almost every four-timer out of Tennessee has become an All-American and two have been in the NCAA finals. We know he has great potential.”

From the DesMoinesRegister.com:

“Former Iowa wrestler Brent Metcalf scored a second-round technical fall to beat Bubba Jenkins 2-0, 6-0 in the 66-kilogram freestyle match at the Beat the Streets Gala on Thursday aboard the USS Intrepid in New York City.
Metcalf, a two-time national champ, met former Penn State star Jenkins four times in college. Metcalf won all four matches.”

Well, this is actually the 3rd rematch, but hey, who is counting.  This one should be good.  They will be wrestling freestyle, which makes it even more exciting.  Caldwell is coming back from shoulder surgery, that put him out for the 2009-2010 season.  Hopefully he is fully healed. If not, I doubt this will be much of a match.

It is on an aircraft carrier called the U.S.S Intrepid.  Yes, you read that correctly, an aircraft carrier.  The event is a fundraiser for Beat the Streets Wrestling, inc, “a program that provides wrestling opportunities for thousands of middle school and high school students in New York City.”

Metcalf vs Caldwell will be the main event of a seven match line-up, including names like Palmer, Herbert, Askren, and many more.  Oh yeah, and Royce Alger will be providing entertainment.  That will be interesting.

Beat the Streets Wrestling
Battle on the Intrepid
New York City
May 13th, 2010
6:30pm

Here are a couple of their earlier matches:

2007 St. Ed’s duals in Cleveland

2008 NWCA All-Star Classic at Ohio State

(only about 40s of the match.  If you have the full match, email me)

2009 NCAA finals

University of Minnesota freshman wrestler and former Olympian, Jake Deitchler has been ruled ineligible by the NCAA for the 2009-10 academic year. He will lose a year of eligibility.

The story on Intermat quotes J Robinson discussing a similar situation where the student athlete received MORE money, and was only suspended for 2-weeks and made to pay back that money. I am not sure why the NCAA has given Deitchler such a harsh punishment. It seems a little unfair.

Read the full story at Intermat – Deitchler ruled ineligible for 2009-10 season

Live Sports Video will be streaming the NWCA/Cliff Keen National Duals on January 9th-10th.

There are 79 Teams are participating, so this is a huge tournament.

Multiple Mats
Multiple Live Streams
Weekend’s coverage is FREE!

Tell every wrestling fan and their mother to make this the biggest web cast the wrestling world has ever known! Commentating provided by Scott Casber and his Takedown Wrestling Media Pros and it’s cast of volunteers only on www.livesportsvideo.com

For brackets and other information, go to the 2010 NWCA/Cliff Keen National Duals official site.

Here are the participating teams:
Division I: Arizona State, Bloomsburg, Boise State, Buffalo, Central Michigan, Cornell, Iowa, Iowa State, Missouri, Nebraska, Northwestern, Ohio State, UNI, University of Maryland, University of Minnesota, Wisconsin

Division II: Augustana, Central Missouri, Central Oklahoma, Fort Hays State, Gannon, Mercyhurst, Minnesota State – Mankato, Newberry, San Francisco State, St. Cloud State, West Liberty, Western State College, Wisconsin Parkside, University of Nebraska Omaha, University of Nebraska Kearney, Upper Iowa

Division III: Augsburg, Coe, Concordia, Cornell College, Delaware Valley, Heidelburg, Johnson & Wales, Luther, North Central, St. Johns, University of Dubuque, UW- LaCrosse, UW – Stevens Point, UW- Whitewater, Wartburg, Williams

NAIA: Dana, Cal Baptist, Cumberland, Dickinson State, Grand View, McKendree, Missouri Valley, Oklahoma City University, Southern Oregon, Campbelsville, Great Falls, Lindenwood, Missouri Baptist, MSU-Northern, Northwestern, Notre Dame

NJCAA (8): Labette, Iowa Central, Iowa Lakes, Colby, Clackamas, NIACC, Ellsworth, Lincoln

Women (7): Jamestown College, Lindenwood University, Menlo College, Missouri Baptist University, Missouri Valley College, Oklahoma City University, Simon Fraser University

I came across this link featuring NCAA Wrestling Championship brackets from as far back as the 1920s. Wow, what a site!

We all know about Gable’s loss to Owings in 1970, but take a look at his 1969 tournament, which was held at Brigham Young, and his 1968 tournament, in which he beat the NCAA champ from the year before, Dan McGuire. McGuire went on to win his 2nd title the next year by fall.

Enjoy all the other brackets throughout the years!