Your future, our focus
By DAVID DICKEY
Powell Tribune Sports Editor
The country's top wrestlers from the junior college ranks will begin their final step toward glory this Friday when the NJCAA National Championships get under way at the Rochester Community and Technical College Fieldhouse in Rochester, Minn.
Among the teams vying for strong finishes during the two-day event include the Northwest College Trappers, who are sending seven wrestlers into the competition. NWC was eligible to send eight wrestlers, but 133-pound entry Ryan Hecker was pulled from the lineup due to a injury suffered during the West Central Zone Championships.
"The team title was going to be a far reach for us as it was," said NWC head coach Jim Zeigler. "Losing Ryan made it that much harder. But even with just seven wrestlers, I think we can do well. If we can get a top-five finish, I'll feel like we did well considering the circumstances.
"We've got an opportunity to have some individual champions, and that's something we'd like to see through. As long as everybody wrestles as well as they can, the team score will take care of itself."
The Trappers' lineup this week will consist of Jeremy Ensley (125-pound weight class), Jeb Clark (157), Eric Coxbill (165), Julius Rios (174), Joe Woods (184), Nathan Barzee (197) and Michael Freeman (285). Of those, Rios is the only Trapper to enter nationals with a first-place finish in the West Central Zone Championships. Clark, Coxbill, Woods and Barzee posted runner-up efforts in Chanute. Ensley and Hecker were fourth-place finishers, and Freeman earned a wild-card berth during the West Central Zone Championships.
The Trappers failed to qualify wrestlers at 141 and 149.
Weigh-ins will begin Friday at 7:30 a.m., and the first round preliminaries are slated to begin at 9:30 a.m. The second round of preliminaries, the consolation pigtails and the consolation first round will start at noon.
NWC will carry a No. 3 national ranking into the event. They are ranked behind top-ranked Iowa Central Community College and No. 2 Labette Community College.
Those wanting to follow the Trappers progress Friday and Saturday can do so by visiting the event's Website at www.rochsports.org .
NJCAA Wrestling National Championships
Schedule of Events
Friday:
• Consolation, third round: 8:30 p.m.
Saturday:
• Championship finals: 7 p.m.