2takedown

Also, in 1968 it was not Elkhart Central as the State Champions. It was Elkhart High School as the State Champions. Central and Memorial did not split until a few years later.

This would be a shallow topic if we did not expound upon the toughest tournament in the state and and arguably the best in the nation, if we leave out the Al Smith Wrestling Tournament. For those of you who don't know who Coach Al Smith is, I will start out with just a few staggering statistics. Coach Smith has close to 100 former wrestlers that are, or have coached at the Elementary, High School, Collegiate and International levels. Coach Smith has coached several athletes who have gone on to become National Freestyle Champions and Collegiate All Americans. Coach Smith is also respon

Al Dover was Penn's 1st State Champion, not Jeff White. Jeff won the next match at 138lbs, while Al won a 132lbs. in the 1971 State Championships.

Only 12 weight classes in the 60's and mid '70's! 7 wts. in the early 20's! 10 wts. in the late 20's!!!!!!!!!!!

Sarah Hildebrandt won her 1st match vs. Russia's Mariia Gurova 6-3 and Kayla Miracle lost her 1st match 6-8 to Veronika Chumikova as the US edged Russia 4-4 on criteria. In the second round vs. Sweden both girls won: Hildebrandt by TF 12-1 over Szilva Peter and Miracle won by dec. 5-0 over Eliln Nilsson. The team takes on Japan on in the pool finals at 10:30 ET. Japan defeated Russian 5-3 in the 2nd round. Shoud be a barnburner!

1969 South Bend Sectional. The late Robert L. Foster, Indiana State Wrestler, Hall of Fame Official, was a 2nd place finisher at Heavyweight for South Bend Riley in the sectional. South Bend Washington Heavyweight Jerry Demeyer defeated Bob in the finals of the 16 team event. Now in those days, only the champion moved on and only the regional champion moved on to the state. Regional champions were at worst a fourth place finisher. To make a long story short, Demeyer came up sick early in the week prior to the EC Regional and Riley was contacted to have Foster ready. This regional was

Correction: Tomiyama won the '84 Olympics in LA over Barry Davis. Sergei Beloglazov was the '80 Champ at 125.5#.

Two more 2x All-Americans from yesteryear! NAIA 5th place 1976 @126; NAIA Runner up 1977@126 Doug Stoll from Elkhart High School (State Champion 95# 1968). Anderson College NAIA 5th place 1972 @118#; NAIA Runner up 1973 @118# Henry Wilk from Mishawaka High School (State Runnerup 1968, State Champion 1969 @95#). Anderson College Both wrestled at Anderson College for one season 1974. Stoll defeated Wilk in the 1968 state championship match. Another major bit of trivia =Stoll defeated Tomiyama of Japan on an NAIA cultural exchange to Japan in the summer of '77. Tomiyama was la

I would like to take the time commend Coach Harper and his program staff for a very successful tournament despite the talk of it being canceled. Someone mentioned on another thread: Is summer wrestlling dead? Well in my opinion, opportunities to develope wrestling in the northern part of the state just took a giant leap forward with an interesting concept that Coach Harper has introduced. Coaches' "Mat Time Practice" puts an emphasis on getting as many matches as possible in a three hour period in "triple threat matches" (1st per.=Freestyle, 2nd per.=Greco, & 3rd per.=Folkstyle if

Amen, Diamond!

Chad Hershberger -Penn (6-5). Hershberger went on to finish 6th and Sheets went on to win.

There has to be a healthy balance in the life of an elementary & middle school athlete/wrestler. You are absolutely correct, the sport is too demanding both physically and more importantly mentally. There is a national tournament every weekend for heavens sake! The pressure on these youngers garnered by success at lower levels puts unrealistic expectations by the time they reach HS. These high placings and championships at the lower levels mean absolutely NOTHING! Parents, wake up! They mean nothing. Let your kid be a kid! Participation in these never ending national tournament

sb25 you are right on. '67-'68 riding time for each min. more than your opponent. '68-'69 rt was taken out. We use to keep it with those red clocks that someone mentioned earlier and we always had some brain surgeon run them but we were really unaware of home much time was accumulated. Rides such as the navy, sailor, crossbody, etc. were rampant and I think pinning was more prominent and kids worked to get out from underneath.