Warrior Wrestling

Off season will determine your level of success

Use the resources available to you this off season. Coach Bode just opened a new facility on Airline near Goodwood Blvd. just south of the old Woman's Hospital. There are several camps coming to Louisiana and I encourage you to attend as many as you can. If you need guidance please let me know.

The 2013 State Tournament was a new experience for 9 of the 14 wrestlers competing. Only 5 wrestlers on this year's team had experience wrestling on the big stage and it showed. 7 Wariors lost one round before the medal rounds of the tournament. As a team that left us in 7th place. Only two Warriors were able to make it on the medal stand this year. Mitchel Youngblood placed 4th at 160lbs. and Donnie Berg placed 4th at 182 lbs. Whay a strange feeling it was this year not to be sitting in a chair for a finals match. We did have a good showing from some of the younger wrestlers and they progressed well throughout the season. I am hopeful that with a good off season they will return this program to the level it deserves to be. Returners for next season will be 106 lbs. Anthony Washington, 113 lbs. Mason Maddie, 120 lbs. Jonathan Adamski, 126 lbs. Michael Ensminger, 132 lbs. Jesse Zeringue, 145 lbs. Dylan Verret, 152 lbs. Logan Knox, 160 lbs. Mitchell Youngblood, 170 lbs. Christian Frey, 195 lbs. Ian Harter, 220 lbs. Brady Aucoin, others that should be in the mix are Christian Nguyen, Nick Adams, Jonathan Cullivan, Jordan Dudley, Cody Fife, and Anthony Schiro. I look  forward to a great season.

 The third seeded Ben Willeford, one of Cleveland State's top wrestlers all season long, continued that trend Saturday night, taking home the EWL 125 pound title.  Ben led CSU with 20 wins on the year and finished fifth at last year's Championships. Following a first round bye Ben scored a 6-4 upset win over second seeded Tyler Fraley of Clarion. Willeford took the re-match vs. Fraley, after falling 3-2 earlier this season at home in Woodling Gym. The upset win paved the way for a championship match-up with fourth-seeded Kory Mines of Edinboro. The Viking junior continued his winning ride with a pin victory at the 4:32 mark to become a champion. With the win Willeford became the first Viking to take home a EWL Championship crown since Rashard Goff took home first place in 2009 at heavyweight for the Vikings. With the win Ben now advances to the NCAA Championships in Des Moines, Iowa.

  The Warrior Nation is so proud of Ben. Ben is in elite company by making it to the NCAA Championships. I know all of you will be cheering him on as he tries to make All-American.

Panther Duals 

We were shorthanded on Saturday, missing 5 starters. This led to us losing 2 duals of the 5 wrestled. We wrestled Mandeville, Thomas Jefferson, Northshore, Fountainbleau, and Lakeshore. We were 2-1 in our pool and then went 1 and 1 in our breakout pool. It was disappointing to lose due to lack of participation. The young guys present wrestled hard as a whole and will benefit from their participation at this tournament. I hope that in the coming weeks we will sort out all of the weight classes and start to perform at a higher level.

Dylan Corsentino filled in for Charlie Morgan at 119 and went 4-1. Erik Wallin (125) and Mitchell Youngblood (130) both managed to go 3-2 while newcomer Grant Chenevert had 2 wins at 135. William Seefield (140) wrestled a good 9-8 match and ended his day with 3 wins. Chase Dunlap was a little heavy for 171, but still wrestled 4 matches and blistered his way to 4 wins by pin. Our MVP of the weekend had to be C.J. Patton(189). He went 5-0 and notched 4 wins by fall. Blake Bellefontaine(215) wrestled his first meet since football and had 3 wins and "Dino" Scardina(HWY) had 5 wins including 2 pins in 0:24 and 0:29. By and large for the guys that wrestled we wrestled an average tournament. There is a lot of work to do on both technique and conditioning and over the holidays and into December we will do just that.

Geaux Warriors!!!!!