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Wrestling
Panthers Hit the Road for Badger CountryNov. 23, 2004 Cedar Falls, Iowa - Complete Release in PDF Format
This weekend the University of Northern Iowa wrestling team travels to Madison, Wis. to take on the Wisconsin Badgers. The dual meet starts at 2 p.m. in the UW Field House. Live stats will be available on Wisconsin's athletic site: www.uwbadgers.com. THE COACHES Brad Penrith is in his fifth season as the head coach of the Panthers. He has compiled a record of 40-28 over the last four seasons. Last year, he led UNI to a 10-6 dual meet record and a 21st place finish at the NCAA Championships. Having been affiliated with the Panther program since 1997, three of those years as an assistant coach, Penrith has been instrumental in securing six Top 25 recruiting classes. Prior to coming to UNI, he spent five seasons as an assistant at Nebraska, coaching the Huskers' lighter weights. He also served a one-year stint as an assistant at Boise State in 1991-92, spent two seasons at Arizona State from 1989-91 and was a graduate assistant at Iowa. Randy Pugh and Jose DeAnda are back for their fifth year as assistant coaches. Also assisting with the program are fourth-year veteran Tolly Thompson, third-year conditioning specialist Kyle Hansen and first-year conditioning coordinator Dylan Long. Barry Davis in his 12th season at the helm of the Wisconsin wrestling program. Davis has coached six individuals to nine Big Ten titles, including Tom Clum, who claimed the 125-pound championship at last year's tournament. In addition, 11 of Davis' wrestlers have earned all-American honors, while two have claimed NCAA titles. Davis is a former Iowa wrestler, graduating in 1985 with a career record of 162-9-1. He is a native of Cedar Rapids, Iowa and is assisted by three-time Iowa all-American Bart Chelesvig and Wisconsin all-American Cory Wallman. SCOUTING THE OPPONENT Wisconsin returns six wrestlers from its team that finished 29th at the 2004 NCAA tournament. The Badgers are ranked 18th in the NWCA/Intermat preseason poll. Wisconsin's incoming class is ranked first in the nation by W.I.N. Magazine with all seven wrestlers ranked in the top 15. The Badgers are led by junior Tom Clum, who won his first Big Ten Championship crown at 125 pounds last year. Clum moves up a weight class this season, wrestling now at 133. Two-time NCAA qualifier Ed Gutnik will wrestle at 141 this season, while redshirt sophomore Tyler Turner keeps his spot at 157. Turner earned one of the team's best records last season with a 23-11 mark. Three-time NCAA qualifier Brady Reinke returns for his senior season at 184 pounds and rounding out the returners is junior Ryan Flaherty (197), who led the team in pins last season with eight. This will be Wisconsin's second dual of the year. It defeated UW-Oshkosh 46-6 on Nov. 5. SERIES HISTORY: UNI leads the series 18-15-1. Last year, the Badgers defeated the Panthers 24-13 in the West Gym on Nov. 29. Senior Eric Hauan took down Wisconsin's Eric Flaherty 8-5, while sophomore Nick Baima is looking to revenge his loss to Tyler Turner. The last time UNI defeated Wisconsin (26-12) was during its 2001-02 campaign in the West Gym. PROBABLE LINE-UPS UNI Panthers 125 Chris Helgeson 3-4 Lake Mills, Iowa (Lake Mills) 133 Patrick Sharp 8-2 Vernal, Utah (Unitah) 141 Mark Manchio 4-0 Stratford, N.J. (Sterling) 141 C.J. Ettelson 6-1 Hudson, Iowa (Hudson) 149 Jeff Harrison 3-0 Sloan, Iowa (Westwood) 157 Chris Bitetto 5-1 Hackensack, N.J. (Hackensack) 165 Nick Baima 7-2 Glen Ellyn, Ill. (Glenbard West) 174 Eric Hauan 7-1 Sturgis, S.D. (Sturgis) 184 Alex Dolly 4-2 Mishawaka, Ind. (Mishawaka) 184 Dan Dunning 5-4 Waterloo, Iowa (West) 197 Sean Stender 8-1 Donahue, Iowa (North Scott) 285 Michael Shedek 1-0 Marion, Iowa (Xavier) Wisconsin Badgers 125 Collin Cudd 3-1 River Falls, Wis. (River Falls) 133 Tom Clum 1-0 Arvada, Colo. (Pomona) 141 Tyler Laudon 4-0 Tomah, Wis. (Tomah) 141 Tony Turner 4-1 Spring Valley, Wis. (Spring Valley) 149 Craig Henning 6-0 Chippewa Falls, Wis. (Chippewa Falls) 157 Tyler Turner 5-1 Spring Valley, Wis. (Spring Valley) 165 Tyler Clark 0-0 Beloit, Wis. (Turner) 165 Zach Menne 1-1 Richland Center, Wis. (Richland Cent.) 174 Kelly Flaherty 1-0 Big Lake, Minn. (Big Lake) 184 Matt Maciag 3-3 Sussex, N.J. (Blair Academy) 197 Ryan Flaherty 1-0 Big Lake, Minn. (Big Lake) 197 Lee Kraemer 3-2 DeForest, Wis. (DeForest) 197 Jared Massey 0-0 Champlin, Minn. (Centennial) PRESS LUNCHEON Each Monday, UNI's in-season coaches speak at Noon in the back room of Peppers Grill and Sports Bar , located on 18th Street in Cedar Falls. The public and the media are invited to attend and hear what the coaches have to say about the season. This season, KXEL will air Coach Brad Penrith's comments from the lunchon at 5 p.m. or fans can listen at www.unipanthers.com. SURF THE WEB The latest press releases, statistics, schedules, and results for all UNI sports are available on the UNI Athletics home page. Updated daily, you can catch all of the action at www.unipanthers.com. FLASH FROM THE PAST Wisconsin head coach Barry Davis coached UNI head coach Brad Penrith for two years when Penrith wrestled at the University of Iowa. DON'T BLINK In the blink of an eye, senior Eric Hauan pinned Iowa State's Grant Turner on Nov. 13 at the Harold Nichols Open. It only took Hauan 37 seconds to seal the deal, his fastest pin in collegiate action. The last time a Panther closed out a match that fast was Dec. 7, 2002, at the UNI Open when Mark Manchio pinned Anthony Byers from Dana College in 18 seconds. LOOKIN' SHARP Junior college transfer Patrick Sharp is nearly undefeated as a Panther. The Utah native went 4-0 at the Harold Nichols Open and 4-2 at the Kaufman Brand Open. He has defeated Mitch Waite twice, who is ranked third among 133 wrestlers in the D-II NWCA/Intermat preseason poll. Sharp tranferred from Northwest Wyoming Community College with a 38-9 record. MOVING ON UP National qualifer, sophomore Nick Baima, will wrestle at 165 this year. He competed at 157 last year, sacrificing weight for the team. Baima proved he has no trouble with the new weight, dominating in Panther wrestle-offs and the Harold Nichols Open. He pinned his first three opponents of the season at the Open. "[Baima] is an extremely hard worker, probably the hardest worker on the team," Penrith said. "He puts his head down, he gets in there and gets the job done. He is also a very bright kid on the Dean's List." OH BABY Patrick Sharp and his wife Brianna gave birth to their first son, Dalton Wayne Nov. 2 at Covenant Home Medical in Waterloo. Dalton weighed in at 7 lb. 3 oz and was 21 inches long. The baby boy arrived healthy and ready to take to the mats. JERSEY BOYZ UNI has three wrestlers from the East Coast state of New Jersey on its roster. Two are challenging each other for the starting spot at 157 -- junior Chris Bitetto and redshirt freshman Ivan Wiggins. The third is junior Mark Manchio, who qualified for nationals two years ago at 133 and redshirted last year. QUOTING THE COACH These quotes were taken Monday, Nov. 22. from Brad Penrith. "It was actually a pretty positive weekend for us. We wrestled extremely hard, and it's a pretty grueling tournament. "CJ Ettelson wrestled extremely well, defeating the kid from Hofstra in the quarterfinals. Then, C.J. beat a kid in the semifinals, who beat him by tech fall [at the USA Wrestling Junior Nationals]. That just the improvement C.J. has made since he's been here. "Eric Huaun made the finals at 174. He wrestled well, but he just got into a little scramble situation and tried to roll through something that cost him back points. He ended up losing 7-3 to the national champion. Right now, Pendleton is a great athlete. He's the defending national champ, his confidence level is high and he's just a hurdle that Eric is going to have to overcome. [Eric] will have another shot at him at the dual. "Chris Bitetto lost 3-1 to the sixth ranked guy from Nebraska. He came all the way back and took third, a very hard fought endeavor. He outshot the Nebraska kid probably 15-2. There was a questionable call with the new rules on the takedown, but that's just something that happened. He came back and took third and I'm extremely proud of him. "Sean Stender is another kid who needs to close out his match. He lost in overtime to Skretkowicz from Hofstra, a two-time all-American. That match could have gone either way. Sean came back and ended up taking third. He wrestled B.J. Patten from Nebraska for third and Sean was up and he put up a body and tried to throw, but got bear hugged for five. He was then down and had to wrestle. He stuck to it and got a takedown with about four or five seconds left on the clock. That's what he needs to do. He needs to get after kids and that's exactly what he did to score that takedown. "Patrick Sharp took fourth at 133. Once the kid learns some defense, he is going to be pretty tough because he is hard-nosed. "Nick Baima lost in the semis 2-1. Then he came back and he ended up taking fourth, losing to Mark Perry from Iowa in a good match. [Perry] is very dangerous. He had things tied up and did some cradles. He had some stuff I've never seen. Nick ended up giving him four or five points at the end. "Jeff Harrison made the semis at 149. I promised Jeff that if he wrestled a couple of matches, we would withdraw him. So he made the semis and we injury defaulted him down to sixth. "Eric Pedretti took sixth at 184. He wrestled well but lost a couple of one-point matches to Oklahoma kids. "Michael Shedek went down there and wrestled one match, won it and then we withdrew him. We just wanted to give him one match to get his feet wet. "In the freshman/sophomore division, Moza Fay won the 157 weight class. He wrestled extremely well. Andrew Anderson lost in the first round and then came all the way through wrestle backs to take third at 197. Then, Jeremy Meyer took sixth at 133. "We wrestled well, and we got exactly what we wanted out of it. We wanted our kids to go in there and battle and we knew it was gonna be a hard tournament. This weekend, we have Wisconsin and right now if you look through the rankings, they're favored by six. It's going to be a tough dual because they wrestle extremely hard and it's our first one out. They've already wrestled one dual so we need to make sure we have our shoes tied on tight."
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