JAYHAWK WRESTLERS FINISH REGULAR SEASON WITH 3 FINALISTS AT THE LAKER CLASSIC
Grand Valley State University – Allendale, MI – Laker Classic
2/4/12
MCC turned in yet another solid performance Sunday with 3 tournament finalists and 9 overall place winners in the top four of their weight class. The Jayhawks were led by 141 pound freshman Steven Ruppert of Reed City who won the championship by defeating Notre Dame College’s Austin Sanders in a thrilling come from behind overtime victory. Ruppert was down 2-0 entering the 3rd period and executed a non-stop barrage of attacks for the entire period. He finally wore Sanders down with 2 seconds left on the clock and forced overtime. Not letting up, Steven continued the barrage and 30 seconds into the overtime secured the winning takedown. “I am so proud of Steven; he beat two excellent opponents from Notre Dame en route to his championship,” exclaimed Coach Brunger. “Notre Dame added an incredible amount of competition to this open as they are the two-time defending NAIA national champions.” Finishing in 2nd place today was 133 pounder Michael Lackney, who is also from Reed City. “Michael has had a rough year, we have frequent conversations about hanging in there and wrestling for the end of the season. He proved to me today that he is listening and believing in himself.” Also having a good day was heavyweight Cody VanDonkelaar who was a finalist himself. “I’ve coached Cody since he was in the Orchard View youth program. I am happy to see him continuing to perform at a high level.”
3rd Place finishers for the Jayhawks were 174lb Jacob Brown of Coopersville and 285lb Ryan Steverson of Lakewood. Finishing in 4th place were 149lb Sean Turner of Monroe, 157lb Eric Telford of Durand, 174lb Trevor Curtice of Delton-Kellogg, and 184lb Mat Henry of Owosso.
Next weekend the 10th ranked Muskegon wrestlers will head to Triton College in River Grove, IL to compete for a Central District team championship and individual berths to the NJCAA National Championships which will be held February 24th – 25th in Rochester, Minnesota.
Complete brackets can be found be going to www.trackwrestling.com and searching Laker Classic.
FINALIST TOM BOLDAY LEADS MCC WRESTLERS
AT ALMA OPEN
Alma College Open– Alma, MI
1/21/12
The Muskegon wrestlers were led by finalist Tom Bolday of Capac at the Alma Open Saturday. Bolday made his way to the finals by defeating Jeremy DeMitchell of Michigan Club and Jared Groeneveld of Alma College before falling to Michigan Club wrestler Peter Waszkiewic by a close 6-5 margin. “Tommy wrestled well all day. His semi-final victory was especially impressive, Jared was an undefeated state champion last year and is an outstanding wrestler,” said Coach Mark Brunger. “We wrestled well today in a tournament that had some really good competition, including division one red-shirts and backups from Eastern, Central and Michigan State.” Also placing for the Jayhawks were Steven Ruppert of Reed City and Mat Henry of Owosso who both finished fourth in their respective weight classes.
Open – 141
3rd Place Match - Chris Osborne (Heidelberg) won by decision over Steven Ruppert (Muskegon CC) 11-7
Open – 184
1st Place Match - Peter Waszkiewicz (Michigan Club) won by decision over Tom Bolday (Muskegon CC) 6-5
Open – 197
3rd Place Match - Anthony Abro (Eastern Michigan Unattached) won by decision over Mat Henry (Muskegon CC) 9-3
Full results can be seen by going to www.trackwrestling.com and searching Alma Open.
FINALISTS BROWN AND FAULTERSACK LEAD JAYHAWK GRAPPLERS AT ART KRAFT MEMORIAL
Triton College – River Grove, IL – Art Kraft Memorial Invitational
12/10/11
The Muskegon Community College wrestling team took a banged up squad to Triton College on Saturday for the Art Kraft Memorial Tournament. The Jayhawks were led by finalists Luke Faultersack (149) and Jacob Brown (174). Luke made the finals by knocking off the 4th ranked 157 pounder in the country in Mercyhurst NE’s Jake Kondrlik, who made a drop in weight classes this week. Luke pinned Kondrlik in 3:41 to set up a finale with Harper College’s Donnie Simpson. Donnie is quickly making a name for himself as he knocked off the top ranked wrestler at 149 pounds, Vinny DiGravio of Mercyhurst NE, in his semi-final by a 10-4 score. Luke was up to the task as he opened up a 2-1 lead after the first period. Luke gave up a 1 point escape after the second period but not before gaining the ride time advantage. Choosing neutral in the third period, Luke worked hard to keep it at 2-2 or score a takedown himself but came up on the short end of a scramble and lost the closely contested match. “Luke did his best wrestling of the season today and it was great to get match ups with Kondrlik and Simpson to measure where we are right now,” said Coach Brunger. Brown advanced to the final to face Harper’s Khari Washington who is currently ranked 2nd in the country. Brown gave up a quick throw to go down 5-0 early and had to claw his way back into the match. An escape in the first and second periods closed the gap to 5-2 entering the third period. Brown gave Washington an escape to make it 6-2 and quickly took him down to close it to 6-4. Knowing that turning him for back points would be difficult he let him escape again and spent the rest of the period going after another takedown before time expired, falling just short. “The positive thing is that Jacob got stronger as the match wore in, giving him confidence as the season progresses,” said Coach Brunger. “The whole team got a good look today at what the competition will be like in our national qualifier.” Other impressive performances came from a 5th place finish by Trenton Spivey (125), a 3rd place finish by Tom Bolday (184), and a 3rd Place finish by Mat Henry (197). Please click on the following link then search "Art Kraft" for complete results: www.trackwrestling.com
JAYHAWK WRESTLER ERIC TELFORD WINS OUTSTANDING WRESTLER AWARD AT THE NIAGARA OPEN
Niagara County Community College – Sanborn, NY – Niagara County Trailblazer Open
12/3/11
The 3rd ranked Jayhawks rolled into Niagara Friday night to wrestle 19th ranked Mercyhurst North East College in dual meet action. The Jayhawks turned away the upstart Saints 28-20.
On Saturday, Muskegon picked up where they left off the night before by crowning three tournament champions. Sophomore 157 lb. Eric Telford of Durand had 3 pins on his way to the finals before defeating Garrett Singer of Penn State-Dubois 12-7 in the final which garnered him enough votes to claim the tournament’s outstanding wrestler award. Not to be outdone, 174 lb. Jacob Brown of Coopersville successfully defended his Niagara Open title from last year by defeating teammate Trevor Curtice of Delton-Kellogg in the 174 pound final. 141 lb. Steven Ruppert of Reed City won his first collegiate tournament championship by defeating Ryan Guynup of Jamestown College 13-6. All told the Jayhawks had a very successful tournament with nine wrestlers earning hardware. Other Jayhawk placers were Eric Brooks of Lansing Waverly 4th at 125 lbs, Tom Bolday 5th at 184 lbs, Mat Henry of Owosso 5th at 197 lbs, Cody Wolever of Hesperia 3rd at 285 lbs and Cody VanDonkelaar of Muskegon-Orchard View 4th at 285 lbs. “I am very pleased with the way the team performed this weekend,” said Coach Mark Brunger. “The great thing is we wrestled well enough to perform better than the other teams here, but we still have plenty to work on to keep improving as the season progresses. We have yet to do our best wrestling.” The Jayhawks travel to Triton College next weekend for the Art Kraft Memorial Tournament.
Full brackets can be viewed by following this link: http://uploads.matburn.com/6/6803/74997204edaedb09fc5f.pdf
JAYHAWK GRAPPLERS WRESTLE TOUGH AT CONCORDIA UNIVERSITY-WISCONSIN
Concordia University - Mequon, WI – Concordia Open
11/19/11
The Jayhawks grapplers wrestled hard at the large 25 team tournament filled with four year colleges and weight classes that held 40 to 50 wrestlers each. In the end the squad, who came into the tournament a little banged up, had two wrestlers place in the top eight. “We are always excited to come to this tournament and show that a small junior college can compete well at this level,” said Coach Mark Brunger. “Although we didn’t have as much success in placements as we did a year ago, I’m very pleased at just how tough all the wrestlers competed. The guys just battled all day long.” Muskegon’s highest place winner was freshman 141 pounder Steven Ruppert of Reed City. Steven, who came into the tournament unseeded, drew the number two seed in his first match of the day and lost a tough 8-4 decision. In the double elimination format he wrestled back notching seven wins including impressive wins over the 9th, 8th, 5th and 1st seeded wrestlers en-route to a fifth place finish. Muskegon’s only other place winner was 285 pounder, Cody Wolever of Hesperia, who finished in eighth place. The Jayhawks had 3 other wrestlers finish the day with winning records in 157 pounder Eric Telford who was 5-2 on the day, 197 pounder Mat Henry who was 3-2 and 285 pounder Cody VanDonkelaar who was 3-2. Full brackets can be seen by following this link: http://cuwfalcons.athleticsite.net/CUW_Open_2011.pdf
Concordia Open: Muskegon Placers
141lbs – Steven Ruppert – 5th, 7-2 record for the day
285lbs – Cody Wolever – 8th, 3-3 record for the day
Other wrestlers with winning records for the day
157lbs – Eric Telford – 5-2
197lbs – Mat Henry – 3-2
285lbs – Cody VanDonkelaar – 3-2
3rd RANKED MUSKEGON WRESTLERS OPEN SEASON IN IMPRESSIVE FASHION
Muskegon Community College - Muskegon, MI – Muskegon Duals
The Jayhawks opened their season by picking up two dual meet wins on Friday night and rolled that momentum into Saturday when they placed 9 wrestlers in the top 4 of their respective weight classes and added 3 unattached teammates to the top 4 as well. Jayhawks winning championships were 157lb returning All-American Eric Telford of Durand, and fellow sophomore 174lb Jacob Brown of Coopersville. “The kids wrestled really well this weekend, we had a little bit of a slow start in our first dual but we just kept getting better as the weekend wore on. I’m looking forward to another great season,” said Coach Mark Brunger. Dual meet results and other wrestlers who placed are as follows and complete brackets can be found by following this link: http://intermatwrestle.com/Files/pdf/11-12/benmcmullenopen.pdf
Ben McMullen Open - Muskegon Placers
Unattached – 133lbs – John Cole – 2nd
141lbs – Steven Ruppert – 2nd
149lbs – Sean Turner – 2nd
149lbs – Luke Faultersack – 3rd
157lbs – Eric Telford – 1st
Unattached – 157lbs – Calib Rought – 2nd
Unattached - 165lbs – Rafael Rodriguez – 3rd
174lbs – Jacob Brown – 1st
184lbs – Tom Bolday – 2nd
197lbs – Mat Henry – 2nd
285lbs – Cody Wolever – 3rd
285lbs – Cody VanDonkelaar – 4th