hook and half

The Wildcats traveled to Columbus, Ohio on January 18 to compete in the National College Duals. Mater Dei rolled over, Lisbon, 56-12 in the first round, and Cincinnati Lakota East, 58-13, in the second round. Their last opponent, St. Paris Graham, was much more formidable. The national polls had Mater Dei at 11th, while St. Paris Graham was ranked second. St. Paris Graham was a buzz saw and defeated the ‘Cats, 39-15. The loss broke Mater Dei’s 116-match winning streak and handed Mater Dei its second dual loss in 253 matches. "If our streak mattered, we wouldn't have accepted this challenge,” said Mike Goebel. “We never talk about that. We just saw this as a chance to wrestle a quality opponent, somebody who will make us better in the long run.” St. Paris Graham was the real deal. Standard-bearer Blake Maurer lost only the second match of his career, a 3-1 decision to Joe Dennis. "It was a great match," said Goebel. “He (Dennis) got a takedown with two seconds left. We didn't question it when we were there, but when we watched the tape, Blake was clearly out of bounds and Dennis' foot was on the line. The match should've gone overtime, I guess. But that doesn't necessarily change the outcome. The guy was a bear. Blake will learn from it, go on and get better." "The guys came back to the room and decided they needed to work harder, and that's what they've done," said Goebel. "We didn't lose anything that really mattered, we just lost a match. But even at that, if we win all four of our close matches, it's a tie. And if we get those and Craig Weinzapfel gets the pin at 145, which we thought he had, well, we could conceivably win." Maurer faced an unfamiliar foe in his match with Dennis: Nerves. “To be totally honest, I was very nervous,” said Maurer. “The match was at Ohio State. I really wanted to go to Ohio State. After my warm-up, I look in the stands and there is Russ Hellickson (Ohio State’s wrestling coach) setting next to my dad. I’m like, ‘Holy crap, I need to get it done out here.’” Mater Dei tallied wins from Matt Coughlin, Craig Weinzapfel, Sam Wildeman and Chaz Schwartz. Schwartz won with an eight-second pin at heavyweight. The Wildcats were disappointed with their performance. “The whole dual was about ‘What ifs?’” said Craig Weinzapfel. “We had a bunch of one-point matches that went the wrong way. To not do our best was a real let-down.” In Paris St. Graham, Mater Dei found themselves sampling their own medicine. “Everywhere we wrestled, people always talked about what good shape we were in,” said Craig Weinzapfel. “That team (St. Paris Graham) was in incredible shape; incredibly strong. It seemed like they had the mentality that they were going to go as hard as they could no matter what.” “We were at the weigh-in,” said Wildeman. “I’m looking at this guy, and he is around my size (160 pounds). One of the guys on the team, said ‘No, that’s who Macke (125 pounds) has. The guy was huge. He was a man.” “Graham won all of the close matches,” said Maurer. “Their conditioning was better than ours. We had our opportunities; we just didn’t get it done.”

There is an even bigger difference in the big ten programs. The bottom teams are not competitive with the top teams.

In the 2000 team semi-state, Mater Dei faced the Plainfield Quakers for the title. Mike Goebel's gamesmanship was on full display when he inserted reserve freshman Sam Wildeman into the lineup against Plainfield's undefeated Derek Donelson. Assistant coach Randy Helfrich had a plan for Wildeman.... Donelson had his hands full. Wildeman scored a reversal in the third period to make it 5-3. in a wild "pick 'em" scramble at the end of the match, Donelson came out on top and won by six. Plainfield's coach, Paul Nicodemus, was impressed, telling Wildeman "he was going to have a great career."

In 1981, Mater Dei's Chris Wildeman was a one-trip wonder. Not only that, he won the state title... Trailing. In overtime. With a defensive pin. Twenty-two years later, his son, Sam, became a one-trip state champ. Sam beat a very tough Marc Bennett from Martinsville, albeit in less dramatic fashion.

While I appreciate The data and logic, I think you overlooking the simple fact that people tend to dislike Boonville. I get it. How long are they going to ride the “young Abe Lincoln studied the law here” train? It’s exhausting. Pioneer this.

Bold picks- cathedral, emd, browns burg,and pm will do very well

How well do you think memorial’s team would stack up against union county’s A?

What happened?

Maligned, these are great changes. The overall number of teams are reduced by a total of four, however, the quality of each division will improve. not really sure about bumping up. I think that cathedral and MD will do so, but doesn’t that knock out otherwise deserving 4a teams?

How about some Match by match updates?

I can’t believe that you have not mentioned the fact that not one, but TWO #thecounty schools were beaten in the same day...By the same team! has this ever happened??? #refscheated #countyhaterbias #checktherecordbooks #hashtag

What is the name of the move where the bottom guy grabs the top guy's wrist with a baseball grip and sucks it to his chest and hangs on? A variation is when you grab the wrist and the fingers with the same finish (suck it to your chest and hang on). #keepsyoufromgettingturned from the feet, i also like the grabbing fingers and backing out of bounds. #dontgiveupatakedown

Two seeded teams down.

Unseeded Mishawaka upsets #7 Avon! #newcounty? I dig the Cavemen's new singlets!

Well done, blue and gold! This was fun!