wrestling Nov. 22, 2008

Six place at Augsburg (Minn.) Invitational for Central

MINNEAPOLIS, MINN.—Six Central College wrestlers placed at the Auggie-Brutte-Adidas Invitational Saturday, led by sophomore Curtis Hobbs (Grinnell) who won the 141 pound Silver bracket.  

The tournament, hosted by NCAA Divison III power Augsburg College (Minn.), was divided into Gold and Silver brackets based on wrestlers’ individual records and experience at the meet. No team scores were kept.

Hobbs’ first-place finish at 141 pounds was an improvement on his performance at the tournament last year where he placed second. Fellow sophomores Kyle Ray (Greenfield, Nodaway Valley HS) and Nate Fell (Avoca, AHST HS) placed as well.

Fell placed second at 184 pounds in the Silver bracket, losing a 6-2 decision to Brady Meyers (unattached) in the championship match. Ray was eighth at 174 in the Gold bracket, placing for the second time at the tournament after winning the Bronze title at 157 pounds last year.                                                           

The freshman trio of Tommy Van Renterghem (Oskaloosa), Reid Imerman (Guthrie Center), and Erick Wilkerson (Toledo, South Tama HS) placed in the Silver bracket as well. Van Renterghem was third at 165, Imerman was fifth at 157 and Wilkerson was sixth at 125.                                                    

Head Central coach Eric Van Kley felt that it was to his young teams’ advantage to face competition closer to their own level.

“The biggest thing was that they were able to focus on the things we’ve been working on in practice,” Van Kley said. “We’ve talked a lot about getting our offense going, and it can be hard to get it going when we face a top-ranked team like Coe College.”

After taking his team to two tournaments and facing third-ranked in Division III Coe, Van Kley now has a clearer picture of what he needs to have his team work on.

“We need to work on our bottom position,” he said. “A lot of these guys weren’t on the bottom a lot in high school, so we just need to go over the technique of it more than we have.”

The Dutch will take time off for Thanksgiving but be back in action on Thursday, Dec. 4 when they host Iowa Conference rival Univ. of Dubuque in their second of three home appearances this season.