Tiger Wrestling Holds Post-Season Banquet
April 21, 2008
The Fort Hays State wrestling program held its post-season banquet last Friday night inside the new Robbins Alumni Center. The event was co-sponsored by the Tiger Takedown Club and Whiskey Creek, who prepared the meal. Upon completion of the meal, head coach Cody Bickley announced several awards and a season-recap video was shown.
The following awards were presented and voted on by members of the FHSU wrestling team. The Hardest Worker Award went to Shawn Kuhlman. The Most Active Redshirt Award went to Ben Evans. The Most Improved Award went to James Annon. The Tiger Award, which goes to the most dedicated wrestler went to Tyler Gonzales. The Most Falls Award went to Danny Grater, who recorded eight this season. The Best Preseason Lifting Gains Award went to Travis Kuhn and the Best Winning Percentage Award went to Blake Malloy, who finished with a winning percentage of 70.6 percent after going 24-10 this season.
Next up, included the honoring of six Tiger wrestling seniors, who were recognized for their effort in the continued success of the FHSU wrestling program. Seniors recognized included Kyle Patton, Josh Pfannenstiel, Eric Johnson, Lyndon Wagner, Dustin Martin, and Ryan Phillips.
The next order of business included the presentation of certificates of the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference (RMAC) Wrestling Selections. Named to the All-RMAC First Team was Blake Malloy at 174 pounds. Named to the All-RMAC second team were James Annon (141 pounds), Danny Grater (157 pounds), and Tyler Gonzales (197 pounds).
Next came the presentation of certificates for those Tiger Wrestlers named to the RMAC Academic Team. These wrestlers included Josh Peterson, Dylan Loyd, Kyle Patton, Blake Malloy, Shawn Kuhlman, and Danny Grater.
The NWCA Academic All-American awards were presented next. Named to the First Team was Danny Grater. Other academic awards went to Blake Malloy, Shawn Kuhlman, Cody Gillespie, Dylan Loyd, Dustin Martin, Kyle Patton, and Josh Peterson.
Next up at the banquet included recognizing the NWCA All-Academic Team, in which FHSU finished 3rd nationally with a GPA of 3.243. Wrestlers honored for this award included Kyle Patton, James Annon, Danny Grater, Troy Lussenhop, Blake Malloy, Shawn Kuhlman, Tyler Gonzales, Dustin Martin, Brett Cypret, and Cody Gillespie.
Danny Grater (157 pounds), Blake Malloy (174 pounds), and Tyler Gonzales (197 pounds) were next presented with medals for qualifying for the NCAA Division II Wrestling Championships.
Lastly, James Annon was honored for being the lone Tiger All-American this season, in which he finished fifth at 141 pounds at the National Tournament. He went into the event unranked, but finished the tournament with a 4-2 record and defeated the #8, #7, and #4 ranked guys in the country to earn All-American status.
The special evening concluded by showing a season-recap video and special thanks again was sent out to the Tiger Takedown Club members and Whiskey Creek for sponsoring the banquet. It was also announced that anyone interested in becoming a future member of the Tiger Takedown Club should contact Cody Bickley or Les Brown.
