College Wrestling
McKendree Men Win Back-to-Back Midwest Classics
INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. – Dec. 15) – The McKendree University men’s wrestling participated in the two-day 41st Annual Midwest Classic this weekend in Indianapolis, where they defended their first-place title. The Bearcats scored 131.5 team points and three individual champions.
Along with first-place finished from Marcus Povlick (Plainfield, IL/Plainfield North), Nick Foster (Belleville, IL/Belleville West) and Ryan Vasbinder (Grand Rapids, MI/Grandville), Juwan Edmond (Bellwood, IL) made his debut as a Bearcat and placed sixth, Nate Smalling(Belleville, Ill./Belleville West) placed seventh, Caleb Gossett (St. Charles, MO/Francis Howell Central) Placed third, and Qian’te Wagner (Alton, Ill./Alton) and Michael Aldrich(Ballwin, MO/Parkway South) placed eighth in their respective weight classes.
Below are the individual results from Day 2:
125-lb. bracket:Marcus Povlick (Plainfield, IL/Plainfield North) headed into the semifinals with a 3-0 record where he would off against Tanner Cole of University of Central Oklahoma. Povlick’s 3-2 decision defeat over Cole sent him into the finals, where he would face Patrick Allice of Western Colorado University. Povlick defeated Allis in a 2-0 decision and placed first. Povlick had an overall 5-0 record on the weekend.
149-lb. bracket:Juwan Edmond (Bellwood, IL) headed into day two of the consolation bracket with a 2-1 record and would face off against Brady Mattida of Ouachita Baptist University. Edmond’s 3-2 decision victory over Mattida advanced him to face off against Tyler Stegalll of Maryville University. Edmond defeated Stegall in a 6-1 decision and advanced into the semifinals. Edmond faced off against Josiah Rider of Adams State College and was defeated by fall at 1:48. Edmond continued his fight in the tournament as me faces off against Dominic Mena of Gannon University in the 5th place match. Edmond was defeated in a 7-3 decision and placed sixth. Edmond had an overall 4-3 record on the weekend.
157-lb. bracket:Nate Smalling (Belleville, Ill./Belleville West) started off day two against Tyler Makosy of UNC-Pembroke with a 2-1 record. Smalling defeated Makosy in a sudden victory (SV-1 7-5) and advanced to face off against Austin Palmer of Newberry College, and was defeated in a major decision (Maj 12-4). Smalling advanced into the match to compete for the 7th place title against Tanner Sparks of Maryville University. Smalling battled with Sparks and won in a tie breaker (TB-1 3-2) and placed seventh. Smalling had an overall 7-5 record on the weekend.
165-lb. bracket:Nick Foster (Belleville, IL/Belleville West) started off day two with an undefeated 3-0 record to face off against Alex Farenchak of Gannon University in the quarterfinals. Foster’s 5-4 decision defeat over Farenchak advanced him to the finals against Logan Grass of Mercyhurst College. Foster defeated Grass in a 4-1 decision and placed first. Foster had an overall 6-0 record on the weekend.
174-lb. bracket:Qian’te Wagner (Alton, Ill./Alton) entered the consolation bracket with a 4-1 record to face off against Gleason Mappes of University of Indianapolis. Wagner defeated Mappes in an SV-1 7-5 decision, to advance to face off against Bret Heil of Maryville University. Wagner was then defeated by Heil in a 13-9 decision. Wagner advances to face off against Caleb Spears of Newberry College in the 7th place match. Wagner was defeated for a medial forfeit but placed eight. Wagner had an overall 5-3 record on the weekend.
184-lb. bracket:Michael Aldrich (Ballwin, MO/Parkway South) had a 3-1 record going into day two of the tournament. His first opponent was Aryus Jones of Fort Hays State and won by forfeit. Aldrich advanced to face off against Bailey Kelly of Maryville University and was defeated in a 6-3 decision. Aldrich still had a chance to compete against Brandon Sloop of UNC-Pembroke for the 7th place title. Aldrich was defeated in a 4-2 decision to Sloop and placed eighth. Aldrich had an overall 4-3 record on the weekend.
197-lb. bracket: Ryan Vasbinder (Grand Rapids, MI/Grandville) took his 4-0 record into day two of the tournament to face off against Elijah Seay of King University. Vasbinder’s win by medical forfeit advanced him to the finals to face off against Matthew Rudy of Limestone College. Vasbinder won a 6-1 decision over Rudy and placed first. Vasbinder had an overall 5-0 record on the weekend.
Heavyweight bracket:Caleb Gossett (St. Charles, MO/Francis Howell Central) entered the consolation bracket with a 3-1 record to face off against Gavin Nye of CSU-Pueblo. Gossett’s 9-5 decision victory advanced him to face off against AJ Cooper of Fort Hays State. Gossett defeated Cooper in an 8-2 decision and advanced him to the semifinals for the 3rd place title. Gossett faced off against Weston Hunt of Colorado School of Mines and won by medial forfeit. Gossett placed third and an overall 6-1 record on the weekend.
This was the last competition of the calendar year for the Bearcats. They will be back in action, along with the women’s team, for the National Wrestling Coaches Association (NWCA) National Duals. The teams will be traveling to Louisville, Ken., Jan 10-11.-McK-
The Perfect Match: The Midlands and The Marines
By Christopher Miller
NUSports.com Contributor
12/13/2019 2:45:00 PM
College wrestling’s 57th Annual Ken Kraft Midlands Championships will look a little different this year. Fans will see members of the United States Marine Corps out in full-force across the grounds of the Sears Centre Arena in Hoffman Estates, Illinois, on December 29-30. The service academy will sponsor the elite holiday tournament for the first time.
“I think [this partnership] brings excellence to the event,” said Tim Cysewski, director of the Ken Kraft Midlands. ‘Our byline, “Where the elite meet to compete sells it.’ It appeals to a lot of people and fits what the Marines want. They want the elite.”
For the Marines, this sponsorship is about further planting their roots within the wrestling community and raising the overall awareness of the Corps brand both locally and globally with the event being streamed online through multiple platforms. Fans will see promotional videos, signage throughout the arena, mats showcasing the emblem of the service academy. Most important, the event title will read, “The 57th Annual Ken Kraft Midlands Championships presented by the United States Marine Corps.”
“You have such a small minority of young men and women that actually volunteer and join any branch of service, let alone the Marines,” said Col. David Fallon, a Marine and former Boston College wrestler who helped facilitate this partnership. “In the Midwest there is the absence of any large, major base or military presence. This does give us an opportunity to make Midwesterners aware of the Marines and what we do.”
The Midlands Championships has built a reputation as one of the most prestigious folk-style tournaments. The event routinely showcases some of the highest-ranked individual wrestlers and teams in the nation. It is likely that potential 2020 National Championships finals matchups will happen at Midlands first, before unfolding once again at the Nationals in Minneapolis in March.
Northwestern grappler Sebastian Rivera understands this likelihood well. At the 2018 Midlands, Rivera bested the reigning two-time 125-pound NCAA Champion Spencer Lee of Iowa, 7-3, to be crowned a 2018 Midlands Champion on his way to also taking home the Dan Gable Outstanding Wrestler & Art Kraft Champion of Champions awards handed out each year to the tournament’s top performers.
“I’m a big tournament guy. You put me in a tournament, I feel like I thrive,” Rivera said. “You weigh in once and get to wrestle four matches instead of weighing in before every match. It’s just a different feel. I like the tournament feel.”
But for Rivera, the tournament is also special for reasons off the mat.
“The Midlands is at home,” the Jackson, New Jersey native Rivera said. “It’s the one event my parents come out to, which is a big deal, and you want to wrestle good for them. Just the aspect of being at home, you don’t want to lose on your home turf.”
This year, 43 schools will grapple in the signature event. Of those squads, 12 appeared in the latest NWCA Coaches Poll, which ranks the top-25 teams. Additionally, four of those teams fell within the top-nine of that poll.
Fans can purchase tickets to this year’s Midlands’ tournament here.
The difficulty of both wrestling and the Midlands in particular encompasses exactly why the Marines have become an official sponsor of the two-day event and embraced the sport.
“The Marine Corps continues to distinguish itself as the world’s elite fighting force,” said 1st Lt. Emma Thompson, an assistant marketing and communication strategy officer with the United States Marine Corps. “We believe the degree of adversity, both mental and physical that wrestlers face is not unfamiliar to Marines.”
While the Midlands signifies the latest in a constantly evolving list of wrestling events and organizations that the Marines are associated with, their formal endorsement of the sport dates back more than 25 years. A few of the more prominent, longstanding pairings have included the National Wrestling Coaches Association’s All-Star Classic, the Cadet and Junior National Championships and numerous USA Wrestling events.
The driving force behind the Corps’ deep involvement in the sport, at all levels from high school to collegiate to international, is that many Marines, past and present believe that participation in the sport prepares individuals for a similar type of military service.
“We have partnered with other sports; however, we have not had the same results that we’ve had with wrestling,” Fallon said. “Wrestlers and Marines were cut from the same cloth – we share the same DNA. While wrestling doesn’t corner the market on toughness, discipline or resiliency, they certainly do bring an aspect of that that translates over well. I think [this sponsorship] was just acknowledging that we are disproportionately over-represented by Marines that have wrestling backgrounds.”
Conversations with colleagues at a 2017 United States Wrestling Foundation Gala caused Fallon to ponder what role the Corps could play to help the community that gave him so much during his adolescence and collegiate years.
“It became very clear that some of the recruiting strategies we use could be applied within the wrestling community,” Fallon said. “If we’re using strategies to find the next generation of Marines, then why can’t the wrestling community use those same strategies to find the next generation of wrestlers?”
1st Lt. Terrence Zaleski, a 174-pounder on the All-Marine Team, is a prime example. After a standout career as a North Carolina prep, he pursued a collegiate career at the University of North Carolina-Greensboro. His collegiate career never got off the ground due to injuries, coupled with UNCG’s decision to drop the program in 2011.
Zaleski’s former coach at UNCG, Jason Loukides, found his way to in Camp LeJuene, North Carolina, to take over the reigns of the All-Marine Team, where he recruited Zaleski and other UNCG wrestlers to join the squad. For the former NCHSAA 3A 152-pound State Champion, whose father was a fellow Devil Dog, the offer was too good to pass up.
“When I went through training, I dealt with some of the same feelings that I felt when I used to train for wrestling,” Zaleski said. “The hardship, the strict diet, the hard physical training, the exhaustion. At the end of the day, no one really cares [how exhausted you are], as long as you can do your job. So, the Marines really translates to how wrestling is.”
So far, the mutual respect and support that exists between the wrestling community and the Marines has Fallon optimistic for what the future holds.
“I think this is the beginning of what I hope to be a long-term relationship,” Fallon said. “The Midlands isn’t going anywhere and neither is the Marine Corps.”
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