The Golden Flashes head coach looks ahead to this week's trip to the Missouri Duals to face South Dakota State, Southern Illinois Edwardsville and host Missouri, and he reveals how the team passes the time on long bus trips.
Tuesday, December 16, 2014
Tuesday, November 25, 2014
Tough Start, Staying Positive
Ian Miller’s match at the NWCA All Star Classic, losing to James Green (Nebraska) 6-4 after exchanging takedowns, is indicative of how our season has gone so far! Ian was wrestling a great match but fell short when he couldn’t get out from bottom in the third period.
After four weekends full of matches and a dual with Ohio State, we have shown that we can compete with the best in the country, but are having a hard time beating the best guys in the country. Overall, we have been a little short-handed with juniors Ian Miller, Tyler Buckwalter, and Cole Baxter missing a good amount of the competitions so far for injury reasons. We are positive that once they all return, healthy and ready to go after Thanksgiving break, that we will start moving forward with the great season we expect out of this experienced team.
We understand that there will be ups and downs along the way, but our goals remain the same! We look for our guys to improve daily, learn to compete in the room and in the spotlight, represent the athletic department and university in a positive way and most importantly have fun during the process. Our student-athletes know that the wrestling season is long and grueling and will embrace it until the end!
After four weekends full of matches and a dual with Ohio State, we have shown that we can compete with the best in the country, but are having a hard time beating the best guys in the country. Overall, we have been a little short-handed with juniors Ian Miller, Tyler Buckwalter, and Cole Baxter missing a good amount of the competitions so far for injury reasons. We are positive that once they all return, healthy and ready to go after Thanksgiving break, that we will start moving forward with the great season we expect out of this experienced team.
We understand that there will be ups and downs along the way, but our goals remain the same! We look for our guys to improve daily, learn to compete in the room and in the spotlight, represent the athletic department and university in a positive way and most importantly have fun during the process. Our student-athletes know that the wrestling season is long and grueling and will embrace it until the end!
Friday, October 31, 2014
Most Memorable Matches of the Past Eight Years
With the official start of Kent State’s wrestling season just eight days away (Nov. 8), Head Coach Jim Andrassy looks back at some of the most memorable matches over the last eight years.
“St. John was a returning national champion, a two-time finalist and a four-time All-American. The way Ian manhandled him was pretty impressive to win a match in that manner. I’ve never seen the returning champion have that happen to them at the national tournament. It seemed like anything Ian did, worked. He just couldn’t be stopped.”
T.J. Keklak defeats Jarrett Jensen 9-7 in 2014 dual at Northern Iowa (Keklak entered the day 0-8 in dual meets)
“T.J. was filling in for Ian who was hurt. He was taking on a guy who was better than him on paper. It was a very exciting match and he won because he was able to do some of the little things we talked about. He figured out a way to win it in a hostile environment against the No. 5 team in the country.”
Mack McGuire defeats No. 6 Jon Morrison (Oklahoma State) 3-2 at NWCA National Duals at M.A.C. Center (McGuire’s win gives Flashes 6-0 lead over No. 1 ranked Cowboys)
“Mack went out there and controlled the pace against a guy that ended up finishing fifth at the national tournament. He battled and held position real well, snuck a takedown in at the edge of the mat and his defense was good.”
“That was one of the craziest matches I’ve ever been apart of. There was so much rolling around the refs didn’t know what to call. Nic had to win it three different times. It was an important match for him to become a two-time All-American and it kind of defined his career. It was just very, very good match."
“The Body Bar was the second weekend of the year and it was one of the greatest upperweight matches I’ve ever seen. And they met again in the semifinals and it was a very similar match back-and-forth. Both were very high-scoring. Simaz won the national title the next year …And then the final. Those three matches are three of the best matches I’ve ever been a part of.
“We knew going into the final it wasn’t going to be his typical match. We knew Foster was going to try to slow it down. We also knew he couldn’t go seven minutes the way Dustin was able to. We knew we had to push the pace. I remember in the second period after a huge flurry, Foster put a knee down and signaled to the ref that he wanted injury time. The ref turned and didn’t see him. They went back to the center and I think at that point he had nothing left so I think that flurry is what really set things up for the pin.”
“They split earlier in the season and when Mytych won, it was on riding time. The funny thing was the kid put a boot in and flattened him out and they called a stalemate in the third period. Right after that Danny got away to tie it 1-1 and he ended up getting a takedown. That was an exciting time because Danny had been so close the year before. He outwrestled the kid the year before and ended up losing in that round. He was always in great position and he never ran out of gas.
“His final match of the MAC tournament was also a memorable one (8-2 win over Scotti Sentes, Central Michigan). He lost to him in the dual. We felt in the first match he didn’t open up enough. That was one of those matches that gave Danny the confidence going into the national tournament that he could be successful.”
Matt Cathell pins Tony D’Alie in Central Michigan dual (Cathell trailed 6-2 in the third, before rolling D’Alie to his back) Watch on Flo
“He got into some crazy roll, the kid held on and he caught him on his back and pinned him. He had a lot of moves like that, but that one came at the best time for us.”
Joe Tymoszczuk defeats Andy Hartshorn 11-10 to give Kent State 17-16 dual victory at Ohio. (Former football player joined team just two months earlier) Watch on Flo
“Brendan Barlow put a knife through his hand trying to separate frozen hamburgers two days before we’re supposed to wrestle. Our goal was to tape it up and go, but he literally put a hole through his hand.
“We didn’t want it to come down to heavyweight, because we didn’t think we could win, but we got upset at a couple of weights so it came down to heavyweight. We threw in Joe, who had never wrestled before for us in a dual meet. Ohio’s guy was a four-year starter in the MAC. And going into that last match, everyone thought Ohio was going to win that dual. It was a crazy back-and-forth match and we ended up getting riding time to win. It was a great win for Joe and a great win for our team. And it kept our winning streak against OU going.”
“There was about 20 seconds left. And they were in a crazy scramble, which Jermail wasn’t very good at. It was like watching two trees just fall. They both fell on their sides and some way or another Jermail got on top of him first because it could have went either way. And that kid went on to be a three-time All-American and a national champion.”
Porter defeats Jarod Trice 5-3 in overtime to give Flashes dual win over Central Michigan (Flashes clinch MAC regular season title after dropping 11 straight against Chippewas)
“It seemed like forever since we beat Central and we had to go up to their place. It came down to heavyweight. Jermail got a power double leg in overtime for the win. Trice went on to be a three-time All-American.”
Drew Lashaway pins J. Jaggers in dual at Ohio State (An unlikely upset of a defending national champion) Watch on Flo
“It was shaping up to be a good dual and Danny (Mitcheff) had just lost a close one, so we were a little down. Drew got in on a single-leg in the first period, picked it up, Jaggers dove under, Drew sat on him, cradled him up and pinned him. And Jaggers ended up winning another national title that year.”
“It was a crazy match. Hammel was the second seed. Blackwell had lost to him in the dual, but this time he went out there and made it a back-and-forth match. And he ended up winning in overtime with a takedown.”
“He was wrestling a guy who ranked eighth in the country. Jay had already upset the guy from Central in the first round, who was also ranked. And then had to beat this guy to go the national tournament. He just went out there and out-wrestled him and I don’t many people expected that. Jay was really strong for his size and that was the one year he was at the right weight class.”
Share with us some of your most memorable matches in the comments below.
2014
Ian Miller defeats Derek St. John (Iowa) 14-9 at 2014 NCAA Championships in consolation semifinals (Miller converts five takedowns on five different moves)“St. John was a returning national champion, a two-time finalist and a four-time All-American. The way Ian manhandled him was pretty impressive to win a match in that manner. I’ve never seen the returning champion have that happen to them at the national tournament. It seemed like anything Ian did, worked. He just couldn’t be stopped.”
T.J. Keklak defeats Jarrett Jensen 9-7 in 2014 dual at Northern Iowa (Keklak entered the day 0-8 in dual meets)
“T.J. was filling in for Ian who was hurt. He was taking on a guy who was better than him on paper. It was a very exciting match and he won because he was able to do some of the little things we talked about. He figured out a way to win it in a hostile environment against the No. 5 team in the country.”
2013
Mack McGuire defeats No. 6 Jon Morrison (Oklahoma State) 3-2 at NWCA National Duals at M.A.C. Center (McGuire’s win gives Flashes 6-0 lead over No. 1 ranked Cowboys) “Mack went out there and controlled the pace against a guy that ended up finishing fifth at the national tournament. He battled and held position real well, snuck a takedown in at the edge of the mat and his defense was good.”
2012
Nic Bedelyon defeats Jesse Delgado (Illinois) in 2012 NCAA quarterfinals after a pair of sudden victories and tiebreakers. (Bedelyon hits 4-point move in final seconds of tiebreaker against eventual two-time national champion)
“That was one of the craziest matches I’ve ever been apart of. There was so much rolling around the refs didn’t know what to call. Nic had to win it three different times. It was an important match for him to become a two-time All-American and it kind of defined his career. It was just very, very good match."
2010-11
Dustin Kilgore defeats No. 1 Cam Simaz in finals of Body Bar 10-9 Watch on Flo
defeats Simaz again in NCAA semifinals 10-9
pins Clayton Foster in NCAA finals (becomes Kent State’s first national champion)
“The Body Bar was the second weekend of the year and it was one of the greatest upperweight matches I’ve ever seen. And they met again in the semifinals and it was a very similar match back-and-forth. Both were very high-scoring. Simaz won the national title the next year …And then the final. Those three matches are three of the best matches I’ve ever been a part of.
“We knew going into the final it wasn’t going to be his typical match. We knew Foster was going to try to slow it down. We also knew he couldn’t go seven minutes the way Dustin was able to. We knew we had to push the pace. I remember in the second period after a huge flurry, Foster put a knee down and signaled to the ref that he wanted injury time. The ref turned and didn’t see him. They went back to the center and I think at that point he had nothing left so I think that flurry is what really set things up for the pin.”
2010
Danny Mitcheff defeats Steve Mytych (Drexel) 3-1 at NCAA Championships Round of 12 (Mitcheff finishes sixth in bracket with three national champions and two other finalists)
“They split earlier in the season and when Mytych won, it was on riding time. The funny thing was the kid put a boot in and flattened him out and they called a stalemate in the third period. Right after that Danny got away to tie it 1-1 and he ended up getting a takedown. That was an exciting time because Danny had been so close the year before. He outwrestled the kid the year before and ended up losing in that round. He was always in great position and he never ran out of gas.
“His final match of the MAC tournament was also a memorable one (8-2 win over Scotti Sentes, Central Michigan). He lost to him in the dual. We felt in the first match he didn’t open up enough. That was one of those matches that gave Danny the confidence going into the national tournament that he could be successful.”
Matt Cathell pins Tony D’Alie in Central Michigan dual (Cathell trailed 6-2 in the third, before rolling D’Alie to his back) Watch on Flo
“He got into some crazy roll, the kid held on and he caught him on his back and pinned him. He had a lot of moves like that, but that one came at the best time for us.”
Joe Tymoszczuk defeats Andy Hartshorn 11-10 to give Kent State 17-16 dual victory at Ohio. (Former football player joined team just two months earlier) Watch on Flo
“Brendan Barlow put a knife through his hand trying to separate frozen hamburgers two days before we’re supposed to wrestle. Our goal was to tape it up and go, but he literally put a hole through his hand.
“We didn’t want it to come down to heavyweight, because we didn’t think we could win, but we got upset at a couple of weights so it came down to heavyweight. We threw in Joe, who had never wrestled before for us in a dual meet. Ohio’s guy was a four-year starter in the MAC. And going into that last match, everyone thought Ohio was going to win that dual. It was a crazy back-and-forth match and we ended up getting riding time to win. It was a great win for Joe and a great win for our team. And it kept our winning streak against OU going.”
2009
Jermail Porter defeats Zach Rey (Lehigh) 4-3 in quarterfinals of NCAA Championships (Porter becomes Flashes’ first All-American in 23 years)
“There was about 20 seconds left. And they were in a crazy scramble, which Jermail wasn’t very good at. It was like watching two trees just fall. They both fell on their sides and some way or another Jermail got on top of him first because it could have went either way. And that kid went on to be a three-time All-American and a national champion.”
Porter defeats Jarod Trice 5-3 in overtime to give Flashes dual win over Central Michigan (Flashes clinch MAC regular season title after dropping 11 straight against Chippewas)
“It seemed like forever since we beat Central and we had to go up to their place. It came down to heavyweight. Jermail got a power double leg in overtime for the win. Trice went on to be a three-time All-American.”
Drew Lashaway pins J. Jaggers in dual at Ohio State (An unlikely upset of a defending national champion) Watch on Flo
“It was shaping up to be a good dual and Danny (Mitcheff) had just lost a close one, so we were a little down. Drew got in on a single-leg in the first period, picked it up, Jaggers dove under, Drew sat on him, cradled him up and pinned him. And Jaggers ended up winning another national title that year.”
2008
Michael Blackwell defeats Jimmy Hammel (Buffalo) 7-5 (SV2) at MAC Tournament semifinals. (With a bandaged bloody head, Blackwell advances to finals)
Watch on Flo“It was a crazy match. Hammel was the second seed. Blackwell had lost to him in the dual, but this time he went out there and made it a back-and-forth match. And he ended up winning in overtime with a takedown.”
2007
Jason McGee defeats Mike Grimes (Northern Illinois) in MAC Tournament semifinals (Former walk-on pulls two upsets at conference tourney)
“He was wrestling a guy who ranked eighth in the country. Jay had already upset the guy from Central in the first round, who was also ranked. And then had to beat this guy to go the national tournament. He just went out there and out-wrestled him and I don’t many people expected that. Jay was really strong for his size and that was the one year he was at the right weight class.”
Share with us some of your most memorable matches in the comments below.
Thursday, May 8, 2014
Transitioning to Freestyle (Jim Andrassy)
Along with our own guys, we have guys from other colleges and kids from area high schools. Anyone from within 50 miles can join. It’s a much different environment from our regular season practices. Not many of our guys wrestled freestyle in high school so we really have to get to the core of how things work in freestyle and how to be successful. Of the incoming freshmen, Anthony Tutolo has joined the club and I think a few more will join once school is done for them. The club goes until August and we’ll go back collegiate style at some point during the summer.
University Nationals is the largest freestyle event around. There’s 800-900 kids at this tournament and we’re fortunate that it’s right next to us in Akron May 23-25. Two years ago, Dustin Kilgore and Ian Miller each won it. Last year, Ian took fourth at a higher weight class, but he’ll back down at 154 this year and we’re expecting really big things from him. He’s a really talented freestyle wrestler. It’s about athletic ability and explosion and that’s all the things Ian has. If he wins, there’s a lot of events we can send him to and he can work out at the Olympic Training Center.
I think Sam Wheeler can do really well at University Nationals because he’s pretty explosive. Cole Baxter just started freestyle last year. Now that he’s getting the gist of it, I think he could do really well. Caleb Marsh is another guy that could do well just because of his style. Mike DePalma is a very good freestyle wrestler, but he’s still recovering from an injury. The weight classes are all different than college weights so it gets tricky for some guys.
For the future we’re talking about hosting a University Dual Meet Championship around this time of year as we continue to grow as a sport.
Wednesday, February 12, 2014
Matt Hill Looks Back at Northern Illinois/Northern Iowa Trip
This past weekend we ventured to
the far Midwest to battle Huskies of Northern Illinois University on Saturday
and the Panthers of Northern Iowa on Sunday. The total time in the bus
was about 24 hours. We left Friday Feb. 7, at 11a.m. and got home Monday
morning at 4am.
Bus Movies:
The first thing I want to share
with you is the movie selection for the 24 hour bus adventure. Coach
Andrassy decided rent some modern classics. On our way to NIU we started off
with one of my favorites The Shawshank Redemention, followed by The Gladiator,
which ate up about 5.5 hours of the long bus ride. We had about 40 minutes left
in the trip so we I snuck in a movie from my own collection “300” (a
great bus movie). After the Northern Illinois Dual on Saturday we hit the road
and finished the rest of “300” and watched Rain Man. For our 12-hour ride home
from UNI we watched Good Will Hunting, Forrest Gump and I think the Usual
Suspects. We shut down the movies at 11pm…And as coach Moore would say: “It’s
Sleepy Sleepy time.”
Northern Illinois
Thoughts:
To sum up our performance at NIU I
would say we wrestled very flat. Our intensity and sense of urgency to score
was simply not there. We waited around to score points, relaxed on
bottom, hung on in the top position and gave up two pins. We ended up winning
6-of-10 matches and won by criteria. In my opinion our guys were upset
and completely unsatisfied with their performances at NIU. The great
thing about wrestling is that it’s a very honest sport. Recognizing what
you need to change is essential to be successful. Even though we won, our
guys licked their wounds against a tough scrappy NIU team and prepared to face
a very, very good Northern Iowa (Ranked 5th) team the next day.
Northern Iowa Thoughts:
First, I want to say, “what a great place to wrestle”. The
West Gym is entirely dedicated to wrestling and wrestling only. It’s very
vintage and the walls are covered in wrestling history. The fans were
hardcore wrestling people and truly love their home team. They were
brutal hecklers but respected our competitive efforts on the mat.
Our overall our energy and
determination was completely different from the previous day. The
guys showed passion and welcomed the challenges they faced in the West Gym at
UNI. At heavyweight, Mimmo Lytle showed some grit riding his opponent out
most of the third period to get the riding time point advantage, capturing the
win. Cole Baxter at 197 lbs fought hard to get a major decision adding 4
team points instead of 3. Mike DePalma (149) flipped a switch in his head
in the second period and score 15 points worth of near fall to get a tech-fall.
Senior TJ Keklak (157) secured a victory against a favored opponent and Tyler
Small fought back from a two point early deficit to win 7-2. Even the
guys who lost showed extreme effort and battled every second in each
match.
As a team we showed
pride in our wrestling. We always preach to our guys that every point
earned or given up in a match is very crucial as a team. We end up in an
18-18 tie but lost by criteria 19-18. We had to go far down the criteria
list to find who the winner was. It came down to total points scored during the
match. (UNI-59 and KSU-58) Looking back as coach I can pick out many
different things that happened during that match that eventually could have
affected the total points scored. But that’s a waste of time. We lost to a tough opponent and need to focus
on our next one. Getting better every day is the key to winning in this
sport. It’s about learning from our failures and using that painful feeling to
fuel our next challenge. I was proud of our guys overall and I
look forward to seeing them compete this coming weekend at the NWCA National
Duals in Columbus.
Interesting things about
the weekend:
· -
Both Dual meets ended
up in a tie. The score for each dual
meet was 18-18 before criteria
·
- Both teams names start
with Northern
·
- The
Northern Iowa match came down to the second to last criteria (total match
points.) The interesting thing is very last criteria is the first takedown of
the match to decide the winner, which was by Mack McGuire at 133lbs who took
down the #1 guy in the country Joe Colon in the 1st period.
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