Freshman Jarrett Morrill (top) forces his opponent, freshman Derrick Booth, to eat the mat on Saturday night.
The NJCAA runner-ups now have a better idea of what their squad will look like for the 2011-12 season. North Idaho College wrapped up the Red vs. Grey Duals on Oct. 21-22 and 10 hopefuls now stand ready to claim a national victory.
The competition started at Mead High School in Spokane on Wednesday, Oct. 19 and moved to the Christianson Gymnasium for the final two days of the event.
The Grey team, headed by assistant coach Keri Stanley, won eight duals while the Red team, headed by assistant coach Chris Harris, won two duals.
“Not only are our starters ready, but our guys right behind them who redshirt are going to be set up for the next year and the following year,” said head coach Pat Whitcomb, the commentator for the event . “That is always good news for us.”
If a wrestler redshirts for the year, he is taking the season off to reserve game play for future competitions. In NCAA rules, a student athlete is only allowed a total of four seasons of official competition during their collegiate career.
At the 125-pound level, freshman Joaquin Calderon took victory in both matches over freshman Gabe Kruse. Kruse said that Whitcomb has held the men to a “really intense” weight practice since they started training for the season.
At the 133-pound level, freshman Mikie Rodriquez obtained a 6-3 point victory over sophomore Brock Banta on the NIC mats. Since Rodriquez also won at Mead, Whitcomb said he will be the starter for his weight bracket. Rodriquez has won four times at the Oregon state level in his high school career.
At 144 pounds, freshman Jarrett Morrill won both matches against Derrick Booth and will be the starter this year for the Cardinals.
“[Morrill] is coming back off a religious mission, so he is a little bit older and a little bit more mature physically,” Whitcomb said. “A solid wrestler, he is going to keep getting better and better as the year goes on.”
Bryce McMahon took the 149-pound starting position over Connor Pelzel after winning both matches. Whitcomb said that both wrestlers are likely to battle back and forth all year since Pelzel has already redshirted in the past.
At the 157-pound level, Ryan Zumwalt won by fall over Kyle Boss in the first period of the second day of competition and will be the starter. Zumwalt transferred from Division I Cal State-Fullerton after the college dropped their wrestling program.
“One thing that I know is different from other programs is that other schools have these long, ridiculous practices that are strenuous and wear on your head,” said Zumwalt, 20, kinesthesiology. “Our practices have been really intense, short and to the point.”
W.V. Meyer of Pretoria, South Africa, won both matches against Johnny Peregrina in the 165-pound level. On Oct. 21, he had more than 5:40 minutes of control time and dominated his opponent 10-0 in points.
Returning wrestler Jake Mason won both matches at the 174-pound level against Kyle Sweedman, but will redshirt for the Cardinals this year.
Sophomore Justin Korthuis won both matches by pinning his opponent Christopher Kramer and will be the starter in the 184-pound level. Korthius qualified at last year’s NJCAA tournament in Spokane.
The battle for the 197-pound starting position went into three rounds before Caleb Rivera was able to secure the spot from Justin Gillespie. Gillespie claimed victory at Mead High but couldn’t takedown Rivera on the home mats.
At the 285-pound level, sophomore Matt Foxworthy will be the starter after beating his opponent Kabe Fluaitt.
Foxworthy won by fall 47 seconds into the first period of the second day of competition.
NIC begins wrestling other schools starting with the University of Great Falls on Oct. 28 and Montana State Northern on Oct. 29.
“I would say that Great Falls probably has more individual talent but in a dual match Northern is solid all the way through,” Whitcomb said. “We took it to both of them last year and they are going to be looking get some revenge. Even if we are young, we have to be ready for those four-year schools when they come back.”
