Ted Dirkx Feb. 21, 2008

Central wraps up season at league meet

 

 

WAVERLY--Central College's injury-battered wrestling squad completed its season at the Iowa Conference tournament Thursday, but under energetic first-year coach Eric Van Kley, the Dutch are already looking ahead to 2008-09.

Rapidly improving freshman Ted Dirkx (Alleman, North Polk HS) placed eighth. Hescored a first-round victory at 285 pounds. For the second time in 10 days, Dirkx and Simpson’s Caleb Shaeffer went into overtime and for the second time, Dirkx came out on top with a 7-5 win. Dirkx then met the top seed, Wartburg’s Brian Borchers, and was pinned in 2:59. In the consolation round, Dirkx was defeated by the fourth seed, Jeremy Klein of Loras, 7-1 and in the seventh-place match was pinned by the third seed, Dubuque’s Gordon Johnson, in 4:12. Dirkx was leading Johnson 5-2 before suffering the fall. He closed the year at 5-11.

 “Ted is really coming into his own,” Van Kley said, noting that Dirkx’s season got a late start because of football. “He just keeps getting better and better.”

Central had three other entries but each was ousted in two matches. Nick Johnson (sophomore, San Antonio, Texas, James Madison HS) was at 141 pounds, Kevin Yeoman (sophomore, San Antonio, Texas, Judson HS) was at 165 and  Christopher Keeran (freshman, Redfield, Panorama HS) was at 197.

“I’m extremely proud of each of them,” Van Kley said. “The scoreboard doesn’t show it, but Kevin and Nick definitely put together their best tournaments of the year.”

Van Kley, who built a powerhouse at the University of Great Falls (Mont.),  leaped head first into the recruiting process when he arrived on campus in  June and he and assistant Jason Zastrow have been working at a furious pace. While this fall’s freshman class is far from being wrapped up, early returns are promising.

“We’re in a good position,” he said. “We’ve got to have a good two months ahead to make sure we get the right guys on campus and in our program this fall. But I feel real good about the effort our staff and the admission staff members are putting in.”

But Van Kley said the Dutch also laid some important groundwork in his first season.

“Two words I use to describe the season are challenging and successful,” he said. “It was definitely challenging because we were short on numbers and extremely young. But It was successful because every guy on the team was much improved and the team improved every week. That doesn’t always happen. The record doesn’t reflect it but we’ve got something to build on.”