2008 Woodie Awards
Young Wrestlers Gain Quick Experience
Muskie wrestling squad starts season out right
Martin Ringeisen and Ryan Rivera
Issue date: 11/20/03 Section: Sports
- Page 1 of 1
The Muskie wrestling team recently kicked off the fall sports season for Lakeland, competing in individually scored tournaments open to anyone who chooses to enter. This led some of Lakeland's wrestlers to compete against NCAA Division I, II, and III wrestlers. Some of the schools represented in the open included UW-Madison, UW-Oshkosh, and UW-Stevens Point.
For the first of the two opens, they traveled to UW-Oshkosh for the Dan Gable "Commitment to Excellence Open." The Muskies wrestled well at the open and placers at this tourney included Scott Toledo (2nd at 133lbs), Noe DeLeon (3rd also at 133lbs), Matt Preimesburger (2nd at 149lbs), Sonny Martinez (2nd at 157lbs), Tim Vallier (1st at 174lbs), Trevor Berndt (2nd also at 174lbs), Lee Sparks (2nd at 184lbs), and Mark VandenHoogen (3rd at heavyweight).
"We all wrestled pretty well at Oshkosh, and I think a lot of our younger guys walked away with some good experience," said sophomore Vallier, who is one of the team's two captains.
At the next open they traveled further north to UW-Stevens Point on November 8th. Here the team did not fair quite as well as in its first open; however, the team still managed to walk away with an array of placers once again. Among the placers for Lakeland was Vallier who finished with a 2-2 record and placed fourth in the 174lbs weight class. His only two loses were at the hands of the #1 ranked NCAA Division III wrestler in his weight class. Freshman VandenHoogen came away 3-1 and placed third in the heavy weight division. DeLeon went 2-3 placing 6th at 133lbs. Trevor Berndt went 4-1 and took third in the 165lbs division.
The team will officially begin their regular season with a match on November 20th at UW-Plattville. Platteville, the 26th ranked team in the preseason NCAA Division III polls, will be a good barometer of the team's skill and should feature some tough individual matches.
"Platteville has a pretty good team this year and we will all have to come out and wrestle physical with them, but if we do that and everyone steps up to the best of their ability, I think we can pull away with a victory," said Vallier of the upcoming match.
The Platteville meet will mark the first of a string of difficult matches on the road for the Muskies. The team will be consecutively competing against three teams ranked in the top 30 of the NCAA Division III preseason polls: Platteville (26th), UW-Stevens Point (9th) on December 2nd, and UW-Whitewater (30th) on the 4th of December.
"Having some of our most difficult completion this early in the season will definitely help us out in the long run, but it will also be hard on us going against that level of completion so close together," said Vallier.
With these matches under their belt the young team should have some good steam once they get to teams within their conference. This experience should make the team well prepared for whatever lies ahead of them.
For the first of the two opens, they traveled to UW-Oshkosh for the Dan Gable "Commitment to Excellence Open." The Muskies wrestled well at the open and placers at this tourney included Scott Toledo (2nd at 133lbs), Noe DeLeon (3rd also at 133lbs), Matt Preimesburger (2nd at 149lbs), Sonny Martinez (2nd at 157lbs), Tim Vallier (1st at 174lbs), Trevor Berndt (2nd also at 174lbs), Lee Sparks (2nd at 184lbs), and Mark VandenHoogen (3rd at heavyweight).
"We all wrestled pretty well at Oshkosh, and I think a lot of our younger guys walked away with some good experience," said sophomore Vallier, who is one of the team's two captains.
At the next open they traveled further north to UW-Stevens Point on November 8th. Here the team did not fair quite as well as in its first open; however, the team still managed to walk away with an array of placers once again. Among the placers for Lakeland was Vallier who finished with a 2-2 record and placed fourth in the 174lbs weight class. His only two loses were at the hands of the #1 ranked NCAA Division III wrestler in his weight class. Freshman VandenHoogen came away 3-1 and placed third in the heavy weight division. DeLeon went 2-3 placing 6th at 133lbs. Trevor Berndt went 4-1 and took third in the 165lbs division.
The team will officially begin their regular season with a match on November 20th at UW-Plattville. Platteville, the 26th ranked team in the preseason NCAA Division III polls, will be a good barometer of the team's skill and should feature some tough individual matches.
"Platteville has a pretty good team this year and we will all have to come out and wrestle physical with them, but if we do that and everyone steps up to the best of their ability, I think we can pull away with a victory," said Vallier of the upcoming match.
The Platteville meet will mark the first of a string of difficult matches on the road for the Muskies. The team will be consecutively competing against three teams ranked in the top 30 of the NCAA Division III preseason polls: Platteville (26th), UW-Stevens Point (9th) on December 2nd, and UW-Whitewater (30th) on the 4th of December.
"Having some of our most difficult completion this early in the season will definitely help us out in the long run, but it will also be hard on us going against that level of completion so close together," said Vallier.
With these matches under their belt the young team should have some good steam once they get to teams within their conference. This experience should make the team well prepared for whatever lies ahead of them.