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Brought to you by EI Sports By JEREMY HINES jerhines@cinergymetro.net To say Wabash College’s wrestling program is like a family might be an understatement. Wabash has five wrestlers who have qualified for this weekend’s Division III Nationals, three of which are brothers. The Little Giant’s are hoping those brothers can catapult the team to their best ever finish in the National Championship. “Last year we finished ninth as a team, which was our best finish ever,” Wabash assistant coach Danny Irwin said. “Without a doubt we feel like we should do much better this year, just based on our seeds. All five guys are capable of getting on top of the podium.” Wabash is led by the Lefever brothers, who wrestled for Fort Wayne Carroll in high school. Twins Reece and Conner are seniors. Reece is the No. 2 seed at 157 pounds. Conner is the top seed at 174 pounds and younger brother Riley, a sophomore, is a returning champion who is the No. 1 seed at 184 pounds. Wabash freshman Devin Broukal and junior Ethan Farmer, both from Bloomington South High School, have also qualified for Nationals, but are unseeded. Riley won Nationals last season. Wrestling didn’t always come easy to the youngest Lefever brother, however. In high school he finished his freshman season with a dismal 11-18 record. He improved by his sophomore year, finishing 26-15. As a junior things really started to click. Riley was 38-3 his junior year, wrestling at 160 pounds. In his senior season Riley finished 46-1 and was a state runner up. “I didn’t really start to enjoy wrestling until my freshman year,” Riley said. “That’s when I found my love for the sport. I started wrestling all year around with my brothers. Because of that, I really started to improve pretty quickly.” The Lefevers are each others’ biggest supporters, but they are also highly competitive with one another – especially Conner and Reece. “With Riley being the little, big brother (he’s younger, but physically bigger) he doesn’t get into it as much as Reece and Conner do,” Irwin said. “I think those two would just assume kill each other then let the other guy win. We have to break them up all the time for the good of the team." “But as much as they fight, I don’t think anyone could be as supportive to each other as they are.” Conner admits that Riley is the toughest of the three right now, mainly because of his size. “Riley would beat the crap out of us,” he said. “He throws us around like rag dolls. We have had a lot of time to throw him around like that, until he got in college. We don’t like it, but it is what it is.” All three brothers credit their parents, Kent and Nancy, for pushing them to get better in the sport. “I know the way we were raised has had a big impact on how we wrestle,” Reece said. “My parents sent us to camps. They were always willing to spend the time and money it took to get us to tournaments and camps. They always made sure they gave us every opportunity in wrestling.” Even now, Kent and Nancy do not miss any matches. They travel all across the country to see their three boys compete. All three are hoping to take home a National Championship. They know that if they do, Wabash will place higher than it ever has before. “They all three can win,” Irwin said. “And hopefully get us some bonus points in the mix. If they do that, that will put us in contention for a National title.” Wabash finished the season with a 12-2 mark and was fourth at the National Duals. “We all love this school,” Reece said. “The team camaraderie is very good. We are all close friends and we all want our team to succeed. We are definitely a family at Wabash.” Click here to view the article

By Brent Harris Wabash captured fourth place on the final day of the 2015 National Duals, while the remainder of the Little Giant team took second place at Saturday's Spartan Mat Classic. Wabash advanced to Saturday's showdown of nationally-ranked Division III teams in the semifinals and finals of the National Wrestling Coaches Association's showcase event at the Allen County War Memorial. The Little Giants, ranked third in the latest NWCA poll, lost to second-ranked Wartburg 34-9 in the semifinals. Fourth-ranked Concordia-Moorhead edged Wabash in the finals 21-19 to take third place. Wartburg went on to defeat number-one ranked Wisconsin-Whitewater 20-13 to claim its fourth consecutive Duals title and ninth championship overall. Wabash scored three decisions against Wartburg in Saturday's semifinals, with all three wins coming from the Lefever brothers. Reece Lefever, ranked fifth at 157 pounds by the NWCA, fought to a 4-3 victory over fourth-ranked Drew Wagenhoffer in their second meeting of the season. Wagenhoffer scored a 9-6 win earlier this season against Lefever at the Concordia Open. "It's nice to avenge my only loss to another Division III competitor from earlier in the season," Lefever said. "Defeating Wagenhoffer shows I'm improving and doing the right things every day." Twin brother Conner Lefever, ranked second at 174 pounds, scored an equally impressive win with a 7-6 decision against fifth-ranked Brandon Welter. Younger brother Riley Lefever scored a 6-3 win against Devin Peterson at 184 pounds. The Little Giants battled back and forth against Concordia-Moorhead in the finals before the deciding final bout. The Cobbers opened with three consecutive wins before Nick Bova scored a pin at 2:31 of his 149-pound bout against Yonas Gebreab. Reece Lefever added four more team points to the score with an 11-1 major decision at 157 pounds versus Ben Cousins. Conner Lefever's 5-3 victory against Sebastian Gardner at 174 pounds put Wabash up a point at 13-12. Riley Lefever scored six points for the Little Giants when his opponent at 184 pounds, Dane Ringquist, was unable to continue their match due to an injury. However, the Cobbers scored nine points in the final two bouts to take the two-point victory and third place overall. "I always look forward to wrestling talented competition, and every team at the National Duals is tough," Riley Lefever said. "I don't necessarily know each and every opponent I wrestle or their ranking, but I step on the mat with the same mindset --- to beat my opponent physically and mentally in order to score as many points possible. Looking back, you can always learn things from any match, but you learn more when you wrestle tougher opponents." "While we would have preferred placing higher, we're happy to have improved from our fifth-place finish last year," Conner Lefever said. "All of the teams here are top-notch. We lost against two of the best teams in the nation. We look to get better so we can avenge these losses later in the season." Wabash head coach Brian Anderson echoed his senior wrestler's comments. "We learned quite a bit from last year's fifth-place finish and used that to perform better this year. While it's nice to know this year's team produced the highest finish in Wabash history at the National Duals, I know we are not satisfied with the overall result. "This was a big weekend for many reasons but most important was putting these guys in the toughest situation possible to know exactly where we are at as a team. We know our weaknesses and our strengths after the last two days of battle which we will use to keep building toward our goals in March as individuals and as a team. Several different individuals stepped up in each of the duals, however all three Lefevers showed why they will be contending for individual national titles at the end of the year." While several of the Wabash wrestlers competed at the National Duals in Fort Wayne, another portion of the Little Giant team wrestled at the Spartan Mat Classic at Manchester University. The Spartans won their home tournament with a total of 131 points, while Wabash took second with 87.5 points in the five-team event. Pat Parham won the 149-pound individual title with a 3-0 record, opening with a pin at 2:04 against Manchester's Ryan Gossett. Parham fought to a 2-1 victory against Luis Godines from Mount St. Joseph University in round two before defeating teammate Mack Neal in the final by a score of 8-3. Neal took second with a 12-2 major decision over Paul Mikesell from Manchester before his loss to Parham in the finals. Jeremy Chen scored a 12-0 major decision against Gossett in the finals to take fifth place. Christian Rodriguez won the 157-pound weight class with a 9-2 win over Alex Arney from Manchester before picking up a 5-4 victory over fellow Wabash wrestler Chance Brown in the finals. Brown advanced to the finals after scoring a 5-4 victory against teammate Jeff Mucha in the semifinals. Mucah took fifth place, scoring a pin a at 48 seconds in first match of the day against Joe Kammerer from Mount St. Joseph before adding a pin at 2:35 in the final versus Arney. Jacob Cottey won a round-robin matchup at 133 pounds with three victories. He scored an opening round 4-2 decision over Chase Wilson from Manchester, followed by a pin at 4:48 versus Brennen Storey of Manchester in round three. A final pin round five gave Cottey the first place finish. Robbie Carter posted a pair of wins in the weight class to finish fourth overall. He pinned Storey at 3:45 in the second round before handing Cottey his only loss by a score of 5-2 in round four. Mak Maldonado earned a third-place finish at 174 pounds, opening the tournament draw with a pin at 3:21 versus Taylor Ferrill from Manchester. After a two-point loss in the semifinals, Maldonado rallied for a 16-1 technical fall against Jack Knoll of Heidelberg before a forfeit by teammate Luke Davis provided the final victory. Davis advanced to the finals after a 9-5 win against Ferrill and an 8-6 decision over teammate Grant Gough in the consolation semifinals. Gough won his opening bout by a major decision of 13-2 against Knoll, then defeated him for a second time in the finals by a score of 7-0 to finish fifth. Corey Hawk added a third-place finish in the round robin 141-pound weight class after scoring an 18-1 technical fall in the opening round versus Clayton Capes from Manchester. Nolan Fenwick won 7-6 in the consolation semifinals at 197 pounds on the way to a fourth-place finish. The Little Giants return to action Saturday when Wabash will serve as host for the annual Max Servies Duals. Competition begins at 9 a.m. at Chadwick Court. Click here to view the article

There is nothing quite like a little homecoming especially when you are away at college. While the three Lefever brothers didn't get some of ole Nancy's home cooking or their laundry done they got to wrestle in front of a big crowd one last time in their home gym. Back where it all started all three had dominating wins with the twins(Reece at 157 and Conner at 174) both earning pins, while returning national champion Riley had a major decision. Those three wins helped the Little Giants cruise to a 33-7 victory over the visiting Olivet Comets. The night started out with former Perry Meridian Falcon Jacob Cottey taking the mat and losing a tough 7-2 match after getting the first takedown. At 133lbs, Chandler Moore had an impressive 11-5 decision in his first collegiate action. He narrowly missed the major giving up a late reversal. With the team score knotted at 3, Michael Venezia came away with a 9-1 major decision for Wabash’s first lead of the night. From there, another Perry product, Nick Bova squeaked out an 8-7 victory on riding time at 149lbs. At 157lbs, returning two-time All-American Reece Lefever had very little trouble disposing of his Comet opponent in just under two minutes. With Wabash up 16-3 the victories kept pouring on with Ethan Farmer tilling up an 11-3 victory at 165lbs. The 174lbs match was supposed to be one of the better ones of the night with two top 5 ranked wrestlers butting heads. However, Conner Lefever didn’t waste much time and disposed of Nicholas Allen in 1:33 to confirm his higher ranking and get a little edge on twin brother Reece. After an undefeated freshman season Riley Lefever took the mat looking to build upon his success. He garnered four first period takedowns en route to a 16-4 major decision. At 197lbs, Wabash’s Brett Thumm overcame a 6-2 first period deficit to win 11-9 on a late takedown and nearfall. Olivet’s Jesse Judge cruised to a 11-1 major decision at heavyweight to give Olivet their second win on the night. 125- Michael Schmidt (Olivet) over Jacob Cottey (Wabash 133- Chandler Moore (Wabash) over Matt Darling (Olivet) 141- Michael Venezia (Wabash) over Dominick Trevino (Olivet) 149- Nick Bova (Wabash) over Kyle Witgen (Olivet) 157- Reece Lefever (Wabash) over Ross Pennock (Olivet) 165- Ethan Farmer (Wabash) over Frederick Findeisen (Olivet) 174- Conner Lefever (Wabash) over Nicholas Allen (Olivet) 184- Riley Lefever (Wabash) over Justin Johnson (Olivet) 197- Brett Thumm (Wabash) over Thomas Hall (Olivet) 285- Jesse Judge (Olivet) over Conner Smith (Wabash) Click here to view the article