The Wrestling Mall Article - NJCAA National Wrestling Tournament - 2005! National Tournament Feb. 25-26 in Rochester, MN.
2/15/2005 10:52:00 AM
The Dream Is Over For 46-Year-old Leo Sawyer of Spartanburg Methodist College –But He Didn’t Go Down Without a Fight
By Matt Krumrie – Senior Editor
The NJCAA Regionals were held throughout the country last week, and 250 wrestlers qualified for the National Tournament, held Feb. 25-26 at the Rochester Civic Center in Rochester, Minnesota. Ellsworth, Iowa Central, Gloucester, Harper, North Idaho, Southwest Oregon, and Stevens Tech all qualified ten wrestlers for the national tournament. Labette, Lincoln, and Ridgewater all qualified nine, while six teams qualified eight wrestlers, and six teams qualified seven wrestlers.
Northwest College of Wyoming is the defending NJCAA Division I national champion, while Nassau Community College of New York is the defending NJCAA Division III national champion. Northwest qualified seven wrestlers for the national tournament, while Nassau qualified eight.
One wrestler who did not qualify was Leo Sawyer Jr. of Spartanburg Methodist College. Sawyer and his son, Leo Sawyer III, signed National Letters of Intent to compete at the South Carolina school last summer. Leo Sawyer III was an Oklahoma 3A state champion at 215 for Glenpool High School in 2004. However, he did not stay in school at SMC and returned home shortly after enrolling in school.
However, Leo Sawyer Jr., a 1978 Alaska state high school champion, and the 46-year-old father of Leo Sawyer III, stayed in school and competed with the team and also played a dual role as an assistant coach.
After high school Sawyer Jr. was competing at Umpqua Community College in Oregon (which no longer has a program) in 1979 when he had his season cut short because his father got ill, forcing him to return to Alaska to run the family construction business and appearing to end his wrestling career. But throughout that time Sawyer Jr. stayed active in wrestling and athletics – he was a volunteer assistant coach for Glenpool – while also competing in freestyle, Greco-Roman, sambo and judo tournaments. He was a national judo champ and was once invited to the Olympic Trials. He has also won national titles in senior and masters level Greco-Roman and sambo tournaments. When Caterisano was recruiting his son, the elder Sawyer joked about how he had one year of eligibility left. Turns out he wasn’t joking. Caterisano and SMC officials investigated and in Junior College there is no time limit to complete eligibility, as opposed to the NCAA Division I level, where you have five years to complete four years of competition.
The rest is history.
The elder Sawyer went 12-3 during the regular season competing at heavyweight and 197. He was 3-3 at heavyweight before dropping down to 197, where he went 9-0 entering last weekend’s Mid-Atlantic Region District Championships. However, Sawyer was injured in his second match at the District tournament and did not qualify for nationals, thus ending his collegiate wrestling career and dream of competing at the national tournament.
Sawyer was seeded second at 197 pounds and had a great first round match defeating Ben Robinson from Williamson Trade (Pennsylvania) by a score of 12-0. He then faced #3 seed John Cambra from Stevens Tech. During the first period, with the score still 0-0, Sawyer attempted a throw at the edge of the mat but both wrestlers landed awkwardly, with Sawyer’s head slamming into the mat. The match was stopped, and Sawyer was stabilized and taken to the hospital. Head coach Tony Caterisano said the initial thought was that Sawyer broke his neck, and he was mobilized and carted off on a stretcher. He is in stable condition now, and is in a neck brace with some strained ligaments in his neck. Robinson came back and finished third in the tournament, qualifying for nationals. Kyle Clearly of Stevens Tech, who was one match away from becoming an All-American last season and was ranked #6 in the nation at 157, earned the lone wild card berth from the District.
“We still don’t know if he would have been healthy enough to compete even if he did get a wild card,” said Caterisano, who was named District Man of the Year, and coached SMC to a fourth-place finish, qualifying seven wrestlers for nationals. “It’s a shame because it would have been a nice end to his story to get a shot at nationals. He got a lot of attention over the weekend and a lot of people came up to him and told him he was representing us older guys well.”
Nassau won the Mid-Atlantic District with 96 points, followed by Gloucester with 80 points, Stevens Tech was third with 65 points, and SMC, in only its second year, was fourth with 49 points. Qualifying for SMC were 125 pounder Tony Butler (third); 149 pounder Charles Bugarin (fourth); 157 pounder Brian McFadden (fourth); 165 pounder Alonso Azumendi (fourth); 174 pounder Brent Poynter (second); and 184 pounder Mark Arnold (third).
Sawyer was also involved as an assistant coach, and it’s a role Caterisano said he excelled at.
“A lot of our upper weights qualified, and that’s a tribute to Leo,” he said. “He did a great job with those guys and it paid off in the end.”
Of Sawyer’s first 12 wins, eight were by pin.
SMC coach Tony Caterisano was named the Mid-Atlantic District Man of the Year
“He really has some great Greco skills and is tremendously strong in his upper body,” said Caterisano. “It’s too bad he ran into a bit of bad luck. It really could happen to anyone anytime they step on the mat, but it’s unfortunate because he had a good shot to do well at nationals.”
2005 NJCAA National Qualifiers NJCAA National Tournament: Feb. 25-26, Rochester Civic Center, Rochester, MN.
125
Vince Lipsey (Gloucester) 1st Mid-Atlantic
Jason Mulzoff (Nassau) 2nd Mid-Atlantic
Tony Butler (Spartansburg) 3rd Mid-Atlantic
Wesley Brenner (Stevens Tech) 4th Mid-Atlantic
Jeff Hedges (North Idaho) 1st Western
Johnny Rojas (Lassen) 2nd Western
Greg Widdicombe (Southwestern Oregon) 3rd Western
Kyle McCarron (Highline) 4th Western
Denis Kakrah (Harper) 1st Central
Rashad Riley (Lincoln) 2nd Central
Corey Bowers (Mercyhurst NE) 1st Eastern I
Jake Pessia (Jamestown) 2nd Eastern I
Ronnie Smith (Neosho) 1st West Central Seth Wright (NW Wyo) 2nd West Central
Dave Beagley (West Wyo) 3rd West Central
Kyle Patton (Colby) 4th West Central Brandon Pigorsch (Labette) 5th West Central Shamar Haynes (Ellsworth) 1st North Central
Eric Hoffman (ICCC) 2nd North Central
Brian Wood (Ridgewater) 3rd North Central
133
Pat Flynn (Nassau) 1st Mid-Atlantic
Anthony Castro (Middlesex) 2nd Mid-Atlantic
Paul Schliep (Gloucester) 3rd Mid-Atlantic
Brad Bechtold (Stevens Tech) 4th Mid-Atlantic
Chris Harris (Lassen) 1st Western
Darin Pestrikoff (Southwestern Oregon) 2nd Western
Cody Nicholson (North Idaho) 3rd Western
Vinh Tran (Highline) 4th Western
Rob Sherry (Meramec) 1st Central
Scott Kruk (Harper) 2nd Central
Keil Barnhisel (Lincoln) 3rd Central
George Horvath (Triton) 4th Central
Stephen Deterding (Wentworth Military) 6th Central
Ernie Curtis (Mercyhurst NE) 1st Eastern I
Greg Gelinas (Niagara) 2nd Eastern I
Micah Naylor (Springfield) 3rd Eastern I
Earl Jones (Labette 1st West Central Mark Frey (Neosho) 2nd West Central Cade Christensen (West Wyo) 3rd West Central
Johnny Graham (NW Wyo) 4th West Central
Dan Prater (Colby) 5th West Central Jeremy Sogge (Ridgewater) 1st North Central
Steven Arceneaux (Ellsworth) 2nd North Central
Adam Kurimski (ICCC) 3rd North Central
Trevor Brady (Itasca) 4th North Central
141
Alex Binder (Gloucester) 1st Mid-Atlantic
Amin Queen (Middlesex) 2nd Mid-Atlantic
Russell Sykes (Nassau) 3rd Mid-Atlantic
Ryan Bunting (Stevens Tech) 4th Mid-Atlantic
Zack Flake (Lassen) 1st Western
Justin Pearch (North Idaho) 2nd Western
Jason Mendez (Highline) 3rd Western
Shane Slover (Clackamas) 4th Western
Cody Bender (Southwestern Oregon) 5th Western
Marcus Cobbs (Harper) 1st Central
Josh Hauk (Meramec) 2nd Central
Jon Sanchez (Muskegon) 3rd Central
Eric Pollard (Triton) 4th Central
John Heller (Lincoln) 5th Central
Josh Lange (Niagara) 1st Eastern I
Tim Crudden (Springfield) 2nd Eastern I
Tom Knapp (Morrisville) 3rd Eastern I
Mat Gilliland (Colby) 1st West Central Jeremy Spoon (Neosho) 2nd West Central Cory Allison (Labette) 3rd West Central Cody Moulton (NW Wyo) 4th West Central
Mike Zinnel (ICCC) 1st North Central
Clay Hoeck (Ridgewater) 2nd North Central
Richie Dixon (Ellsworth) 3rd North Central
Josh Sullivan (MN West) 4th North Central
Durand Kahn (Rochester) 5th North Central
149
Jake Warner (Stevens Tech) 1st Mid-Atlantic
Dan Collins (Middlesex) 2nd Mid-Atlantic
Eric Willis (Gloucester) 3rd Mid-Atlantic
Charles Bugarin (Spartansburg) 4th Mid-Atlantic
Derek Kipperberg (North Idaho) 1st Western
Jon Muri (Highline) 2nd Western
Gary Reid (Southwestern Oregon) 3rd Western
Jimmy Crisman (Clackamas) 4th Western
Emmanual Brooks (Lincoln) 1st Central
Kyle Swadley (Meramec) 2nd Central
Sam Masino (Harper) 3rd Central
John Schaffer (Muskegon) 4th Central
Larry Aceti (Niagara) 1st Eastern I
Ben Sills (Morrisville) 2nd Eastern I
Ben Kravitz (Jamestown) 3rd Eastern I
Pat Barnes (Springfield) 4th Eastern I
CJ Rathjen (NW Wyo) 1st West Central
Matt Schippers (Colby) 2nd West Central Luke Elmore (Labette) 3rd West Central Sam Allen (West Wyo) 4th West Central
Damian Swietlik (Ellsworth) 1st North Central
Matt Collum (ICCC) 2nd North Central
Brad Malum (Itasca) 3rd North Central
Dan Robb (MN West) 4th North Central
Dusty Meyers (Ridgewater) 5th North Central
Charlie Arendts (Rochester) 6th North Central
157
John Cummings (Nassau) 1st Mid-Atlantic
Jason Bilinski (Gloucester) 2nd Mid-Atlantic
Archie Guliashvili (Middlesex) 3rd Mid-Atlantic
Brian McFadden (Spartansburg) 4th Mid-Atlantic
Kyle Cleary (Stevens Tech) 5th Mid-Atlantic
Alex Fliaha (Lassen) 1st Western
Nick Wright (North Idaho) 2nd Western
Mike Elliot (Yakima Valley) 3rd Western
Steven McFall (Southwestern Oregon) 4th Western
Tyler Williams (Lincoln) 1st Central
Daron Cruinkshank (Muskegon) 2nd Central
Tom Willming (Harper) 3rd Central
Quantarrus Wilson (Meramec) 4th Central
Kevin Hunter (Waubonsee) 5th Central
Jeremy Stopa (Niagara) 1st Eastern I
Chuck Nix (Morrisville) 2nd Eastern I
Greg Davis (Alfred) 3rd Eastern I
Chad Wright (Jamestown) 4th Eastern I
Adam Ingram (Labette) 1st West Central Chase Walker (NW Wyo) 2nd West Central
Jason Schippers (Colby) 3rd West Central Greg Smith (Neosho) 4th West Central Mike Wells (Ellsworth) 1st North Central
Jarrett Hall (Ridgewater) 2nd North Central
Kyle Trout (Itasca) 3rd North Central
Jeremy Gabel (MN West) 4th North Central
Sean Curran (ICCC) 5th North Central
165
Jonathan Latona (Nassau) 1st Mid-Atlantic
Jim Sorrentino (Gloucester) 2nd Mid-Atlantic
Jeremiah Warner (Stevens Tech) 3rd Mid-Atlantic
Alonzo Azumendi (Spartansburg) 4th Mid-Atlantic
Josh Erickson (North Idaho) 1st Western
Ben Harris (Southwestern Oregon) 2nd Western
Matt McCinnis (Lassen) 3rd Western
Brad Lawrence (Yakima Valley) 4th Western
Larry Short (Triton) 1st Central
Kenny Trotter (Lincoln) 2nd Central
Mitch Casto (Harper) 3rd Central
Todd Davis (Meramec) 4th Central
Derek Cutter (Niagara) 1st Eastern I
Dan Burns (Mercyhurst NE) 2nd Eastern I
ZAne Wooten (Morrisville) 4th Eastern I
Eric Luedke (Colby) 1st West Central James Varner (Pima) 2nd West Central
Luke Kjar (West Wyo) 3rd West Central
Donnie McMillan (Labette) 4th West Central Tucker Michels (ICCC) 1st North Central
Matt Steffenson (Itasca) 2nd North Central
Dan Taylor (Ridgewater) 3rd North Central
Jacy Watts (Ellsworth) 4th North Central
Derrick Pomranky (MN West) 5th North Central
174
Mike Vingo (Nassau) 1st Mid-Atlantic
Brent Poynter (Spartansburg) 2nd Mid-Atlantic
Sal Barbuto (Gloucester) 3rd Mid-Atlantic
Zane Lamens (Stevens Tech) 4th Mid-Atlantic
Kyle Frawley (North Idaho) 1st Western
Ryan Jensen (Southwestern Oregon) 2nd Western
Joe Rosenkranz (Yakima Valley) 3rd Western
Michael O’Loughlin (Lassen) 4th Western
Dustin Gordon (Lincoln) 1st Central
Adam O’Neil (Harper) 2nd Central
Luke Furne (Meramec) 3rd Central
Cody Anderson (Muskegon) 4th Central
Kyle Schmelzle (Niagara) 1st Eastern I
Dan Fairbairn (Morrisville) 2nd Eastern I
Mike Linza (Alfred) 3rd Eastern I
James Amsley (Mercyhurst NE) 4th Eastern I
Mike Casperson (West Wyo) 1st West Central
Mark Vujovil (Pima) 2nd West Central
Zach Leudke (Colby) 3rd West Central Jasper Lockett (Neosho) 4th West Central Mitch Mistic (Itasca) 1st North Central
Antoine Love (ICCC) 2nd North Central
Harry Joseph (Ellsworth) 3rd North Central
Chad Minette (Ridgewater) 4th North Central
Brad Swanson (Rochester) 5th North Central
Joe Rodman (MN West) 6th North Central
184
Kyle MacCargar (Nassau) 1st Mid-Atlantic
John Horn (Gloucester) 2nd Mid-Atlantic
Mark Arnold (Spartansburg) 3rd Mid-Atlantic
Terrill Leech (Stevens Tech) 4th Mid-Atlantic
Josh Edmondson (North Idaho) 1st Western
Dan Caldwell (Highline) 2nd Western
Nick Stacks (Clackamas) 3rd Western
Michael Croffut (Southwestern Oregon) 4th Western
Israel Martinez (Harper) 1st Central
Neal Kemp (Triton) 2nd Central
Ryan Thomas (Waubonsee) 3rd Central
Zak Cummings (Meramec) 4th Central
Gennady Belyshev (Springfield) 1st Eastern I
Kevin Kinnear (Morrisville) 2nd Eastern I
Mitch Sherman (Niagara) 3rd Eastern I
Dustin Bloom (Jamestown) 4th Eastern I
Alex Saunders (Labette) 1st West Central Craig Mock (West Wyo) 2nd West Central
Shawn Vincent (NW Wyo) 3rd West Central
Zach Gutenson (Pima) 4th West Central
Dallas Mitchell (MN West) 1st North Central
Nick Wilkes (Itasca) 2nd North Central
Kyle Olson (Ellsworth) 3rd North Central
Ethan Vogt (Ridgewater) 4th North Central
Kevin Trullinger (ICCC) 5th North Central
Luke Proper (Rochester) 6th North Central
197
John Cambra (Stevens Tech) 1st Mid-Atlantic
Alex Aquinto (Gloucester) 2nd Mid-Atlantic
Ben Robinson (Williamson Trade) 3rd Mid-Atlantic
Josh Conlin (Bergen) 4th Mid-Atlantic
Yura Malamura (Highline) 1st Western
Evan Mattingly (North Idaho) 2nd Western
Chaz Cointment (Clackamas) 3rd Western
Justin Eldred (Southwestern Oregon) 4th Western
Aaron Olson (Muskegon) 1st Central
Nick Adams (Lincoln) 2nd Central
Pat Rigdon (Harper) 3rd Central
Dwayne Coleman (Triton) 4th Central
Tyler Shephard (Alfred) 1st Eastern I
Daryl Labour (Morrisville) 2nd Eastern I
David Bush (Jamestown) 3rd Eastern I
Nate Gold (Niagara) 4th Eastern I
Jared Shelton (Labette) 1st West Central Colt Hamilton (West Wyo) 2nd West Central
Jesse Forbes (Pima) 3rd West Central
Jon Quinton McGill (Neosho) 4th West Central Kevin Raasch (Rochester) 1st North Central
Vernon Roberts (Ellsworth) 2nd North Central
Scott Kaminski (MN West) 3rd North Central
Chris Thoreson (Itasca) 4th North Central
Brandon Israels (ICCC) 5th North Central
285
Jonathan Andriac (Nassau) 1st Mid-Atlantic
Josh Sabath (Spartansburg) 2nd Mid-Atlantic
Tony Miller (Stevens Tech) 3rd Mid-Atlantic
Marcus Miller (Gloucester) 4th Mid-Atlantic
Dustin Rogers (Southwestern Oregon) 1st Western
Jake Peterson (Highline) 2nd Western
Garret Johnson (North Idaho) 3rd Western
John Basting (Clackamas) 4th Western
Marino Eatman (Harper) 1st Central
Cedric Powell (Meramec) 2nd Central
Kyle Stevenson (Lincoln) 3rd Central
Mike Dean (Muskegon) 4th Central
Zach Dutton (Triton) 5th Central
Tim Paige (Morrisville) 1st Eastern I
Gabe Biebel (Mercyhurst NE) 2nd Eastern I
John Pereira (Springfield) 3rd Eastern I
Spencer Bowles (NW Wyo) 1st West Central
Dustin Martin (Labette) 2nd West Central James Arbertha (Neosho) 3rd West Central Reagan Williams (West Wyo) 4th West Central
Tim Johnson (Ridgewater) 1st North Central
Joe Facchinni (Itasca) 2nd North Central
Derrick Mehmen (Ellsworth) 3rd North Central
Jesse Kahn (Rochester) 4th North Central
Matt Christiansen (ICCC) 5th North Central
Team - Qualifiers Iowa Central 10
Ellsworth 10
Gloucester 10
North Idaho 10
Harper 10
Southwest Oregon 10
Stevens Tech 10
Labette 9 Lincoln 9
Ridgewater 9
Itasca 8
Meramec 8
Morrisville 8
Niagara 8
Nassau 8
West Wyoming 8
Colby 7 Highline 7
MN West 7
NW Wyoming 7
Neosho 7 Spartansburg 7
Muskegon 6
Rochester 6
Triton 6
Clackamas 5
Lassen 5
Jamestown 5
Springfield 5
Mercyhurts 5
Middlesex 4
Pima 4
Alfred State 3
Yakima Valley 3
Waubonsee 2
Bergen 1
Wentworth Military 1
Williams Trade 1
NJCAA Individual Rankings – 2/8/05 125
1 Seth Wright Northwest Wyoming
2 Vince Lipsey Gloucester
3 Ronnie Smith Neosho 4 Jeff Hedges North Idaho
5 Eric Hoffman Iowa Central
6 Kyle Patton Colby 7 Rashad Riley Lincoln
8 Corey Bowers Mercyhurst
133
1 Earl Jones Labette 2 Chris Harris Lassen
3 Mark Fisher Western Wyoming
4 Pat Flynn Nassau
5 Daniel Prater Colby 6 Mark Frey Neosho 7 Scott Kruk Harper
8 Kyle Barnheisel Lincoln
141
1 Zach Flake Lassen
2 Justin Pearch North Idaho
3 Cory Allison Labette 4 Marcus Cobbs Harper
5 Mike Zinnel Iowa Central
6 Matt Gilliland Colby 7 Clay Hoeck Ridgewater
8 Daniel Virtue St Louis Meramec
149
1 Damien Sweitlik Ellsworth
2 Derek Kipperberg North Idaho
3 Luke Elmore Labette 4 Matt Collum Iowa Central
5 Sam Allen Western Wyoming
6 Jacob Warner Thaddeus Stevens
7 Emmanuel Brooks Lincoln
8 Jason Schippers Colby 157
1 Jason Bilinski Gloucester
2 Tyler Williams Lincoln
3 Adam Ingram Labette 4 Chase Walker Northwest Wyoming
5 Mike Rogers North Idaho
6 Kyle Cleary Thaddeus Stevens
7 Mike Wells Ellsworth
8 Alex Fliaha Lassen
165
1 Eric Luedke Colby 2 Jeremiah Warner Thaddeus Stevens
3 Donnie McMillen Labette 4 Josh Erickson North Idaho
5 John Latona Nassau
6 Tucker Michels Iowa Central
7 Larry Short Triton
8 Todd Davis St Louis Meramec
174
1 Kyle Frawley North Idaho
2 Dustin Gordon Lincoln
3 Mike Casperson Western Wyoming
4 Chad Minette Ridgewater
5 Joe Rodman Minnesota West
6 Zach Luedke Colby 7 Harry Joseph Ellsworth
8 Antoine Love Iowa Central
184
1 Craig Mock Western Wyoming
2 Nick Wilkes Itasca
3 Ethan Vogt Ridgewater
4 Dallas Mitchell Minnesota West
5 Alex Saunders Labette 6 Josh Edmondson North Idaho
7 Kyle Olson Ellsworth
8 Kevin Trullinger Iowa Central
197
1 Jared Shelton Labette 2 Colt Hamilton Western Wyoming
3 Pat Rigdon Harper
4 Chris Thoresen Itasca
5 Kevin Raasch Rochester
6 Dwayne Coleman Triton
7 Jesse Forbes Pima
8 Joe Scioli Nassau
285
1 Joe Andriac Nassau
2 Dustin Rogers Southwest Oregon
3 Marino Eatman Harper
4 Cedric Powell St Louis Meramec
5 Spencer Bowles Northwest Wyoming
6 Garrett Johnson North Idaho
7 Kyle Stevenson Lincoln
8 Tim Johnson Ridgewater
