Your future, our focus
By DAVID DICKEY
Powell Tribune Sports Editor
After enduring a wrestling season filled with injuries, the Northwest College Trappers ended the 2006-07 slate with a solid finish at the NJCAA National Championships in Rochester, Minn., last Friday and Saturday.
Of the seven Trappers that competed in the event, four finished as All-Americans. As a team, the outmanned Trappers finished fourth in the Division I standings behind Iowa Central (154.5), Labette (105.5) and North Idaho (86.5). In the overall standings, the Trappers (67.5) were sixth. Division III competitors Gloucester (77.5) and William Rainey Harper (73.5) took fourth and fifth in the overall standings and finished just ahead of NWC.
"I'm really proud of this team," said NWC head coach Jim Zeigler. "They suffered through so much with all of the injuries we had this season. They went through a lot emotionally. Losing Ryan Hecker to an injury right before nationals hurt us because it forced us to compete with seven wrestlers instead of eight.
"It's been a stressful season because of all the injuries we've had. It really wore on the guys because they had to overcome so much to finish in a place we knew we deserved to be in."
The top finish by a NWC wrestler was turned in by Jeb Clark in the 157-pound weight class. The freshman from Spanish Fork, Utah opened the event with four straight wins before suffering a 6-5 setback to Iowa Central's Nate Carr Jr. in the finals of the championship bracket.
During that championship bout, Clark held his own against Carr Jr., the son of a two-time Olympian and a member of the U.S. Wrestling Hall of Fame.
During the third period of that match, Clark trailed on the scoreboard by a count of 6-4. Zeigler noted that the score was actually 6-5 when Clark's riding time was factored into the mix. As time wound down in the match, Clark appeared to record a takedown, but the referee saw it differently. Had Clark gotten the two points for a takedown, he would have secured the upset win.
"I talked to Jeb on the way home and I asked him if he would have done anything differently in that last match," Zeigler said. "His answer was, 'No.' He wrestled an almost perfect match. He just didn't get a call in his favor at the end. There wasn't anything else he could have done.
"He wrestled fantastic throughout the entire event. In every match he did something spectacular. He pushed past any fear he had, and he pushed through fatigue. Even when he looked like he had nothing left, he found a way to dig deep and get a little more. His performance throughout was special, and in my mind, he was a national champion."
Clark ended the event with a 4-1 mark.
Other Trappers notching All-America status were Nathan Barzee at 197, Jeremy Ensley at 125 and Julius Rios at 174. Barzee, a freshman from Terreton, Idaho, finished with a 4-2 record and notched a fourth-place finish. Ensley, a freshman from Wilder, Idaho, and Rios, a sophomore from Torrington, both went 4-2 and recorded fifth-place efforts.
Trappers who did not place during the tournament were Eric Coxbill at 165, Joe Woods at 184 and Michael Freeman at 285. Coxbill, a sophomore from Wright, finished with 2-2 mark, as did Woods, a sophomore from Enterprise, Utah.
Zeigler said he was disappointed for both Coxbill and Woods, stating that injuries to both severely hampered their efforts to notch top finishes at the tournament. Woods missed more than a month of wrestling time due to a broken hand suffered in December. Coxbill also missed considerable time at the start of the second half of the season because of a knee injury. Their plights were common for the Trappers this season.
"When you have major injuries like they had, it really takes away from your time on the mat and what you can do as far as training," Zeigler said. "But they battled through, and they gave it everything they had."
Freeman rounded out the Trappers' performances with a 1-2 mark in the heavyweight division.
Another highlight of the event came during the awards ceremony when Zeigler was presented the award for Man of the Year. The honor is given annually to the coach who has had a major impact on the sport of wrestling at the junior college level.
To top off the tournament, the Trappers saw one of their records spared. Iowa Central, the dominant team during this year's national championships, made a run at NWC's record point total of 155.5, which was set during the Trappers' title run in 2004. Iowa Central finished with a team score of 154.5.
NWC's finish also gave them their 13th straight top-10 finish at the national tournament.