Rev Blog Entry 1: Marshall Marquardt, Dana College

What's up everyone? My name is Marshall Marquardt and I wrestle for Dana College, which is in the NAIA. We are located smack in the heart of America, in Blair, Nebraska. I will be writing entries every other week during the collegiate wrestling season. Each entry will be a look into my life as a Dana College wrestler.

As much as I hate to admit it, I would have probably been considered a mediocre wrestler in high school, (never even placing at state, but finishing fourth on my high school's all-time win's list and going on to be a Junior Nationals Greco All-American).

When I was offered a chance to wrestle at the collegiate level, I jumped at the opportunity. I was part of a 20 wrestler recruiting class to Dana College in 2001, which currently had about 20 wrestlers total. My class was the beginning of a new era at Dana College. An era of elite recruiting classes and some of the hardest working athletes and coaches I have seen in the sport.

So I now enter my fifth year at Dana College, and my last year of eligibility (I redshirted in 01-02), I have a lot to prove to myself. Preseason started for us with a 12-mile run. Honestly, though, this is the easiest preseason practice we go through. This year it was a little different from the past, as we were assigned into groups of four. I did not know two of the three in my group, which I guess was the point because I got to know them much better in the time it took us to run 12 miles.

Blair Alderman and Wade Jordan push themselves during the 12-mile run

This run was a big test to see who actually did something over the summer, and it was more than evident that many of the guys didn't do anything. Personally, I was ready for it, but could have been more prepared. I lifted all summer and ran at least once per week, but wish I could have got in the room a little more for some drilling sessions. However, I accomplished many goals this summer. One problem of mine was that I was always really light. I wrestle 174 pounds, and last season I came in around 194 pounds, but towards the end of the year, I was weighing 168-170 after practices, and was weighing in two to three pounds light on tournament days. It is nice not to be sucking weight all the time, but there is definite disadvantage to being light.

I am coming in this year at 206, the heaviest I have ever been. I plan on wrestling 174 at some point in the season, just when that will be I am not sure. I started my wrestling diet the Monday before the 12-mile run, and after one week, I am down to 196. This is a very serious diet that I had a good friend and old wrestling partner, Sam Melendrez (seventh place at 2002 NAIA Tournament), help me put together. It basically consists of eating about 200-250 grams of protein a day strung out through 6-8 meals. I eat most of my carbohydrates in the morning and lunch meals, and very few at my evening meal. I eat 3-5 snacks throughout the day which usually contain 20-40 grams of protein with little carbohydrates.

The main goal is to eat every one and a half to two hours to constantly keep your metabolism running full throttle for maximum fat burning (as well as working out of course, but for wrestlers that usually isn't a problem). My goal was to lose 1-3 pounds per week, but 10 in the first week made me pretty happy, considering I wasn't cutting back the amount of food I was eating or my liquid intake, just my fat and carb intake.

Steve Costanza

Our second preseason practice of the year was insane. My coach, Steve Costanzo, broke the team up into three groups (we have 70 guys on the team, so we can't all fit in one place at the same time, including our wrestling room, but I'll talk about that sometime in the future.) There were three stations that we switched through, staying at each one for 20 minutes.

The first station assigned to my group was the weight room. We were basically assigned to do three different exercises, hang/power cleans, front squats, and lunges. My group of three in the weight room got through four sets of both power cleans and front squats (returning later to finish lunges). It was then time to move on to the second station. This was an extreme version of plyometric training, which included squat jumps, stance-in-motion, leap frogs, push-ups, stair-steppers, etc. for twenty minutes. I tried to push as hard as possible, but there comes a point when your body can no longer do one more movement. I was so close to reaching that point, when the whistle blew to hit the next station.

Jon Goodridge and Jason Bilinski run side-by-side down a dirt road

It was a nice break to have a 30 second jog to the next station, where we started immediately. This last station was extremely difficult (the worst of the three) and pushed everyone to the limit. I am sure that most of you reading this are familiar with wheelbarrows -- well this is a modified version of those. We do them up a hill that is only about 30 yards long but at a 45 degree angle. It is ridiculous. I made 15 minutes and threw up at the top of the hill. I kept going and as the whistle blew to quit and go run a cool down lap, it came again, then again, then again. However, despite vomiting four times, I felt good. I did not feel out of shape. I thought I was deepening my current condition and getting stronger both mentally and physically. I have to give props out to the whole team, though ... it was a serious test and everyone finished.

That is one thing that is interesting about an NAIA school and wrestling. Wrestling is a sport that has struggled in the last 30 years in the aspect of school support and maintaining programs. At Dana, everyone can come as long as they are willing to put in the time and effort, and many of them are.

Until next time, keep getting better.

Marshall Marquardt

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Rev Blog Entry 1: Marshall Marquardt, Dana College

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