Wrestling, Midlands Championships

This just in…Seth Gross is incredibly good. This, in a time of Jackrabbit athletics where we are seeing some of the greatest athletes to ever don a Jacks uni. With the likes of Daum, Telly, Miller, Guebert, Goedert, Weineke, Christion and Rozeboom dominating Jacks athletics headlines it’s understandable that Gross doesn’t roll off the tongue first when discussing the best Jackrabbit athletes. It should though.

Why? Not only did he go 34-2 last season en route to a runner-up finish, a 4-3 loss in the finals(his other loss being an OT loss at Midlands) but he is undefeated this year. At this years Ken Kraft Midlands championships all Seth did was become the Jacks first champ evergoing 6-0 while earning Oustanding Wrestler of the tourney. This tourney featured teams and wrestlers from Iowa, Rutgers, Arizona State, Purdue amongst the 50+ team field. The two day tournament was held 12/29-12/30 in Hoffman Estates just outside of Chicago IL.

More on Seth’s dominant performance later on, he wasn’t the only Jackrabbit to shine in this event though. The Jacks wrestled very well as a team and were rewarded with 5^th place in the team standings scoring 99 points. Iowa ran away with the title tallying 156.5 points that included seeing them crown 5 individual Champions.

Wagner native David Kocer began the tourney with a couple tech falls followed by 2 major decisions to put him in the championship match. In the finals David, ranked ninth, faced number one ranked Zahid Valencia and fell 18-7 bringing home the runner up finish. Other Jacks with SD ties fared well also, Martin Mueller at 184 went 5-2 bringing home a 7^th place finish. Nate Rotert’s two day record ended at 4-1 with him withdrawing in the 3^rd place match due to medical reason. Only hope that Nate’s injury isn’t too severe as the team will need him as they enter the conference portion of the dual schedule.

Senior Luke Zilverberg turned in a good performance at 157 going 4-2 and bringing home 5^th place. Of note for Luke, he is wrestling down a weight, he was at 165 last season. Fellow Minnesotan Logan Peterson is now at 165 and wrestled well, 4-3 en route to an 8^th place finish with the 7^th place match going to OT where he lost 7-5.

It’s also important not to overlook the tremendous performance true freshman Connor Brown turned in. Although he didn’t place Connor battled back after losing his opening match 5-4 to Justin Stickley of Iowa. Connor rattled off 4 straight wins to make it to the second day of competition. I expect his future to continue to trend upward.

The Jacks had 14 guys competing including 4 guys that wrestled unattached. Half of these guys made it to the second day and 6 placed.

Now back to Mr Gross…here is how his path looked in the tourney:

• tech. fall Dan Moran/Lehigh, 18-3
• def. Trevor Tarsi/Harvard, pin
• tech. fall Garrett Pepple/Indiana, 18-3
• tech. fall Ali Naser/Arizona State, 16-0
• Semi’s- tech. fall #20 Dylan Duncan/Illinois, 16-1 (1^st period)
• Finals- def. #19 Bryan Lantry/Buffalo, pin (1^stperiod)

Yes, you are reading that correctly, 6-0 with 2 pins. One of those pins, 1^st period in the finals to the 19^th ranked wrestler in the nation and a tech fall in the first period against the 20^th ranked wrestler. The 4 tech fall wins, he outscored his opponents 68-7. Seth is on another level, remember, these are Division 1 athletes where most have been in this sport ¾ of their young lives. Out of all the special athletes we are fortunate to have wearing blue and yellow, he is amongst the best. 

That said I will echo that sentiment with what we are seeing in this program as a whole. Chris Bono has cultivated a culture of winning through hard work, excellent conditioning and sound fundamentals. Bono and assistants Jon Reader and Cody Caldwell test and push these young men to be their best, not only on but off the mat. They are also promoting the Jacks brand(#getjacked) as well as anyone out there. Watch an interview or any episode of “Jacked Up Mondays” (JUM, for short) and tell me you wouldn’t run through a brick wall for Bono. If you haven’t been to a Jackrabbit wrestling match yet you are truly missing out. I challenge you to make it out to one, it is easily the best value dollar for dollar out there.

The Jacks return to dual action this Friday the 5^th at 7pm when they host Oregon State. The team holds a 4-2 dual record this season so far with losses to Minnesota (10^th ranked at the time) and Arizona State (12^th ranked at the time). So, if you can make it out to Frost this Friday prepare to be entertained and #getjacked.

-Rick