Mario Mason (N Jersey) vs. Tyler Caldwell (Kansas)

Mason scores 1 ... Caldwell turns up the heat but can't score ... Mason wins the period.

Caldwell scores on the push out ... Mason scores 1 ... Mason counters and scores ... Mason wins the period and the match.

Tyler is an accomplished wrestler and ran into a couple of rough draws!!

Cody Compton (MO) vs. Kyle Detmer (Kansas)

Compton scores 2 on the takedown ... Detmer scores 1 ... Compton wins the period.

Detmer scores 3 ... Compton scores 1 ... Detmer wins the period, 5-2.

Compton with the period win ... by fall.

Tyler Koehn (Kansas) vs. Alex Meade (Delaware)

Tyler loses 0-7, 0-3.

Sharky Slyter (Kansas) vs. Vinny Dellafave (N Jersey)

Sharky loses 2-straight periods.

Alec Ortiz (Oregon) vs. Tyler Koehn (Kansas)

This is a re-match of a loss in Greco for Tyler!

Josh Kindig (Pennsylvania) vs. C.J. Napier (Kansas)

Stephen Andrus (Kansas) vs. Jarret (bubba) Owens (Oregon)




This will be the match for 5th-place

Joe Colon (Iowa) vs. Sharky Slyter (Kansas)

Koehn v. Ortiz

Koehn with the takedown ... Koehn again ... Tyler wins the period, 2-0.

Again, Koehn with the takedown ... Ortiz with the Peterson for a 2+1 ... Ortiz wins the frame, 1-3.

Ortiz with the takedown ... Ortiz again ... suddenly, Ortiz with the pin.

Steve v. Bubba

Steve with 3 ... Bubba with the push out ... Steve with the push out and wins the period, 4-1.

Steve with the push out ... Steve with another ... Bubba with the snap and spin ... Steve with a huge win!!

... and a note of interest, Atticus Disney was sitting in the Kansas corner!!

Napier v Kindig

It was a great match! C.J. loses to Kindig, 1-1, 2-2.

Great job cadets, juniors and the ladies. At least 1 finalist in every group. Mutiple AA's and many great battles by all the wrestlers. One more day. My index finger is killing me from clicking back and forth between trackwrestling, usawks, & themat.

My Bronze training has taught me to apply the R.I.C.E. formula for those strains and sprains!!

I've learned from some up here that B.A.R.L.E.Y. works well too ... in fact I think I will try that tonight!

I must admit though that some of these wrestlers our boys were running into are a step above! If we ever hope to crack that top 5 we, as coaches and as a State, need to step it up!!

The final morning of the 2008 Cadet/Junior Championships!

Mike Juby has just received his award ... presented by Chuck Elvin!!

Junior 119 Finals (Bout 1979) - Joe Colon (Iowa) vs. Sharky Slyter (Kansas)
Junior 135 Finals (Bout 1991) - C.J. Napier (Kansas) vs. Nick Lester (Missouri)
Junior 160 Finals (Bout 2006) - Tyler Koehn (Kansas) vs. Corey Lear (Pennsylvania)
Junior 285 Finals (Bout 2025) - Stephen Andrus (Kansas) vs. Eric Thompson (Iowa)

... are your final matches of this season!

Joe Colon (Iowa) vs. Sharky Slyter (Kansas)

Colon gains 1 for the pushout ... Colon gets 3 for the exposure ... Colon with the takedown and a gut to close out the period, 0-7.

Sharky gains 2 on the head pinch but gives 1 back ... Colon with 3 on the lateral ... Colon wins the period.

Sharky Slyter is a double placer in the 2008 Championships. Slyter finishes 6th and is an All-American!

C.J. Napier (Kansas) vs. Nick Lester (Missouri)

After 2-minutes we go to the clinch ... Lester wins the flip ... Lester scores.

C.J. gains 1 for the pushout ... C.J. with the double leg for 1 ... Napier wins the period, 2-0.

Flip again, C.J. wins the coin ... C.J. gains the pushout and the win!!

C.J. Napier, who takes 5th is an All-American!!

Tyler Koehn (Kansas) vs. Corey Lear (Pennsylvania)

Tyler with the double leg for 1 ... double again for Tyler, this time for 3 ... Koehn wins the period!

The doubles are working well, for 1 ... Lear with a shuck for 1 ... Tyler doubles for 3 ... 6 seconds left ... Koehn with the win!!

Tyler Koehn is a double All-American, finishing 7th in this championship!!

Stephen Andrus (Kansas) vs. Eric Thompson (Iowa)

Coach Disney in the corner for Steve O.

A pushout for Thompson ... Thompson tosses for a 3+1 ... Thompson with a takedown to close out the period, 0-6.

1 for the pushout, Thompson ... Thompson again ... the takedown for the Iowan ... Andrus with the takedown ... too little too late ... Thompson wins, 1-3.

Steve Andrus is a double All-American, taking 2nd in this tourney!

A few quick observations ... the 2008 edition of Team Kansas represented the folks back home, with class, and a lot of hard work!

Even those that went 0-4 for the Fargo trip ... the experience should have been tremendous! Now, take a few days off ... then get in the weight room and work on your core strength exercises!

We had several wrestlers that made an impression in Fargo! We have a bunch that were just one or two matches short ... keep after it and improve in the technical areas!

The final tallies for All-Americans were pretty good for Kansas! We have two National Champs!! But I for one, am greedy and want more!

The experience of Fargo is something every wrestling fan should experience! As a few of our coaches have said, "it's all about the stories!" And ... it truly is!

That's it for now ... ttfn

Cadet Greco

State---# of Wrestlers---point total

1. Pennsylvania---33----55.00
2. Minnesota------43----54.00
3. Illinois-------42----46.00
4. Florida--------33----40.00
5. Wisconsin------34----37.00
6. New Jersey-----18----32.00
7. Kansas---------25----30.00
8. Virginia-------30----30.00
9. Colorado-------20----28.00
10. Oregon--------34----27.00

Junior Greco

1. Illinois-------46----67.00
2. Minnesota------35----49.00
3. Pennsylvania---30----45.00
4. Missouri-------30----44.00
5. Oregon---------38----38.00
6. Ohio-----------43----31.00
7. Wisconsin------29----30.00
8. Florida--------33----29.00
9. Iowa-----------34----28.00
10. Kansas--------17----26.00

Cadet Freestyle

1. New Jersey-----31----63.00
2. Pennsylvania---46----44.00
3. Ohio-----------68----40.00
4. California-----56----39.00
5. Minnesota------57----32.00
6. Oklahoma-------16----32.00
7. Missouri-------45----31.00
8. Illinois-------57----26.00
9. Indiana--------40----22.00
10. Michigan------26----22.00
15. Kansas--------28----18.00

Junior Freestyle

1. Iowa-----------50----67.00
2. Missouri-------48----54.00
3. Ohio-----------65----46.00
4. Pennsylvania---44----45.00
5. Illinois-------48----43.00
6. New Jersey-----37----36.00
7. California-----50----28.00
8. Minnesota------53----24.00
9. Oregon---------43----23.00
10. Indiana-------34----22.00
13. Kansas--------25----16.00

I, for one, would like to increase our placing in these results! How do we accomplish that?

We need to increase the number of wrestlers we take to this tourney! My rough estimate would be that the top tier States are talking over 40 wrestlers each. For instance, Ohio had 133 entrants in the Freestyle-division alone. We had 53!

However, numbers alone do not mean success! New Jersey had 18 Cadets entered in Greco and they scored, 32-points. In Cadet Freestyle, Oklahoma had 16 entered and they also scored 32-points. Also in Junior Greco we had 17 wrestlers that scored 26-points!

We need to increase the numbers AND the quality! We all realize that Kansas left several quality wrestlers at home and perhaps that is a separate discussion. But as I said in an earlier message we have wrestlers that need to increase their core strength and we have a few that have plenty of stregth that got beaten by superior technique. However, we have a bunch that need, increased strength and technique.

But that takes decidacation! Maybe we need an increased level of dedication … and dedication beyond themselves! We need to make a serious effort to improve in all areas. Also, I am not sure in that past several years we have made a serious run at the team spirit award. Are we really supporting each other the way we should?

We also need increased dedication by our coaches! The level of commitment by our Cadet and Junior staffs is outstanding but they have wrestlers coming to them in June that have limited skills. This too, I have talked about before but overall, our coaches, whether kids level, middle school level or high school, need to develop a higher skill level in our wrestlers!

I guess I’ve said enough for now … it’s your turn!!

I think our biggest problem is dedication all around whether it be the kids, coaches or even in some cases the parents. I think one thing that would be a big help is if more clubs offered summer wrestling programs. That would make it more available to kids that may not be able to make it to the few cities with clubs. I think we also need more tourney's. It's hard to get mat time when there's only a handful of tournaments offered in the state before the big tourneys come up.

Another thing I think hurts our results is that it doesn't seem like our kids take as much pride in Fargo as some of the top tier states do. Our kids are focused on high school state a whole lot more than Fargo, which is understandable. Other states though like Ohio, New Jersey, Pennsylvania to name a few, have a lot more pride when it comes to Fargo.

I think we've got the wrestlers, and the coaches to be able to wrestle with any state in the country though. We just haven't made it over that hump yet. I think with a little more dedication out of everybody will get us up and over the hump and we'll be right there with the top 3 states.

I am new to Kansas Wrestling, a transplant from Montana. While Montana is not necessarily known as a hotbed for wrestling, the state has produced some exceptional talent. I won't pretend to know the training plan that was established for Team Kansas, so I apologize up front if I am speaking way out of turn. I just want to share a vignette on my experience with summer wrestling as it was one that I believe contributed to a great deal of success for me and my team mates. We used to pile into vans and go to 2 camps prior to leaving for tournaments in Vegas, Indianapolis etc.. The first camp was a week in Great falls Montana under the supervision of our very best high school coaches and other clinicians in the state. We would then move in our vans to a 10-day intensive camp in Oregon where we trained and wrestled against teams from Washington, Oregon, Idaho...even a few kids from Canada. The bottom line is that these camps were not one-a-day practices. They were intense camps with morning conditioning, technique and situation live sessions in the morning and afternoons, and live wrestling in the evenings. Iron sharpened iron in these sessions, and we were absolutely prepared to wrestle in the national tournaments. But, we also formed a tight-knit family of wrestlers based on the hardships we shared in these camps. I offer this because I think there are opportunities to partner with adjacent states to generate some pre-fargo training experiences that would improve performance. Just some thoughts...