The Observer, December 9, 2005
Volume XXXVIII, Issue 13
Wrestlers on brink of joining elite following tournament
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In their last tournament untill after exams, the Case wrestlers performed up to expectations. Last Saturday, the team went to the Rochester Institute of Technology Tournament and finished sixth out of 18 teams.
The wrestlers liked how the team performed.
"I was definitely pleased, overall," Thomas Sanders said. "Seven more points, and we would have been in third place instead of sixth. For comparison, we beat the next highest team by five points, so we are definitely right up there in the running."
The team that was five points behind them was Rochester, one of Case's conference opponents. However, the other teams that Case beat might have been equally important.
"It is always great beating a team on its own turf, but I think that we have more confidence when we beat teams like John Carroll and Thiel College," Nathan Klingensmith said.
The team is not that far from moving into the very top echelon of wrestling teams.
"All we need is to get our lineup back to full strength and have everyone wrestle at the level that they have already proven themselves capable of," Sanders said.
Klingensmith felt that despite the team's solid performance, mistakes were still made.
"We need to keep working hard in the practice room and start eliminating the small mistakes," he said. "Personally, I need to remove the small mistakes because too many times, it costs me the match."
One of the strengths of the team was once again Drew Gardella at 133 pounds. He made it to the finals but lost there, 5-3. Joining him with particularly good performances were Sanders at the 197-pound weight class and Russ Tischer at 157 pounds. In the third place match, Sanders won resoundingly 8-0. Tischer lost his third place match 5-3 to finish fourth.
The team, though, is very close to turning those close losses into winning matches.
"Right now, everyone is working towards winning the close, one or two point matches when we are about evenly matched with our opponents," Sanders said. "Just a little bit more work at the grinding block, and our edge will be keen enough to cut through just about anything."
Klingensmith was even more blunt about his confidence in the team.
"Once we get some of our injured wrestlers back, we have so much potential to do many great things and really shock some people in Division III wrestling throughout the nation," Klingensmith said.
The team has a long layoff till their next tournament. They will not be competing again until December 28 at the Citrus Duals in Ft. Lauderdale, FL.
"Hopefully, [the break] will give everyone time to rest and recover physically," Sanders said. "This will be important, especially for the freshmen, who aren't yet used to the longer college wrestling season."
The wrestlers will be at home for less than a week after finals, but are still expected to train on their own at home.
"It is always hard to come back after that much time off, but we try to keep up workouts on our own back in our hometowns," Klingensmith said. "There really is no school work to worry about so once we get past the fact that there is so much good food around, there is nothing but wrestling."
When they get back, the team will be working to keep up the momentum they have built thus far this season.
