Rev Blog Entry 3: Marshall Marquardt, Dana College

Well, it's been two weeks since I last wrote to everyone, and there has been much going on here at Dana. We had our preliminary wrestle-offs two weeks ago and there I was somewhat surprised at many of the matches. We do our wrestle-offs like the Olympic Team Trials, where there is a No. 1 guy designated at each weight, and everyone else at the weight is seeded into a bracket. The winner of the bracket then wrestles the No. 1 guy in our annual Black/Red Classic. This year it is set for Friday, Oct. 28.

The last two weeks of practice have been very good. We have a somewhat different workout schedule than most, wrestling a designed practice on Tuesdays and Fridays, an open room practice on Mondays and Thursdays, and getting an alternative workout on Wednesday. Right now, we are lifting four days a week, which is hard to do. This is simply because it wears you out. If you lift before practice, you seem to have a little less energy when it comes time to get in the room, and if you lift after practice, it is hard to get everything out of your lift.

Last Tuesday, we had our hardest workout to date, grinding out a 45-minute match. This can be a very fun experience or a mentally breaking one. The object of wrestling a grind-match is to break your opponent mentally. If you can do this, the rest of the match seems like a walk in the park, but if you are the one that gets broken, the last 20 minutes can seem like an eternity. One thing many of our guys try to do is pace themselves through this match. These are usually the guys that get broken, and then beat on for the second part of the match.

The guys who are successful in grind matches are those who break their opponent in the first 10 to 15 minutes, then continue to destroy the guy for the remaining time. It seems like the guys who get tired are the guys who are broken, while the guys who break their opponent never get tired. I believe this is because they know they can do whatever they want to their opponent. The draw upon their opponent's weaknesses and capitalize, never thinking about their conditioning. Anyways, I am sure many of you have done these types of matches before, but if you haven't, you should try it -- as it is a great way to gain confidence in your abilities as a wrestler, deepen your wrestling conditioning, and strengthen your mental capabilities.

Last weekend, we went on our annual team retreat. This year we loaded up into vans and headed out to Valentine, Nebraska, where a wrestler on the team (Chancy Hansen) lives. His parents own a ranch up there, and there are many things to do. We arrived late Friday night to the sight of a huge campfire burning. We ate hamburgers grilled by Chancy's parents -- and then sat down for a little motivational speech by Jason Kelber, a three-time All-American and national champion for Nebraska. It was very interesting, as he talked about team unity, as well as the decisions he made as a collegiate wrestler. He also talked about beating both the Brands brothers and other big wins in his career.

We then headed off to bed around 12:30 a.m, sleeping in cabins, tents, or in a sleeping bag around the fire. Talk about roughing it, I just had to laugh when I saw these guys sleeping with no shelter in the 35-degree weather. A fire can only keep you so warm for so long. Anyway, Coach Costanzo kept his own tradition alive by putting on a "biker" mask and trying to scare the freshmen as they were going to sleep. Some were scared, while others went on the attack and began wrestling him. It was quite a site, seeing 4-5 scared freshmen trying to wrestle a three-time All-American coach who is still in good shape. I think they got the best of him, but he kept his dignity, not letting the mask fall off and revealing his true identity.

The next morning, we woke up to blistering cold weather and went on what was supposed to be an easy three-mile nature jog led by Chancy's father on horseback. I think the run ended up being about five miles, but it was very interesting. We got to see one of the few places in the world where there are six different ecosystems that meet. We also got to see a fully operational trout farm. The worst part about the run was playing "dodge the cowpies", which just happened to be about everywhere.

Marshall Marquardt helps Jimmy Rollins up a wall.

After the run, we embarked on a much better task, an obstacle course. The course had been made throughout the week by Chancy's dad, Kelber, and a few others. It was awesome. It reminded me of the show "American Gladiators," but we didn't have the cool music. There was a 10-foot wall, wheelbarrow race, pull-up station, push-up station, and a tractor-tire flip. There was also a 60-foot rope strung between two poles we had to climb across, and a set of barricades we had to go under and over, including a 6-foot crossbar we had to get over. In total, there were about 15 stations we had to complete. We did this in teams of four, and it was one of the funniest things I have ever witnessed. Watching our heavyweights try to get over the six foot crossbar or climb the rope was great, as well as seeing out five foot tall 125-pound wrestlers trying to leap to the top of the ten-foot wall, hit the wall and be sent flying backwards. It has been a long time since I laughed that hard.

After we completed the course as teams, there was a challenge made. (As there usually would be when dealing with competitive wrestlers.) Ben Henderson challenged Scott Taylor to a race on the course. Ben teamed up with Bryan Scrambler, while Scott teamed up with Terrance Almond. In the end, Scott and Terrence came out ahead, but it was fun to watch and jeer at our fellow teammates. However, the unofficial winner of the team race, according to Coach Costanzo, was my team of course, which included Willie Parks, Jimmy Rollins, Costanzo, and me.

After the races and then a great Subway lunch, we headed to the Niobrara River for a canoe trip. The trip was a two-hour journey in the freezing cold river. I know it was freezing because as we (Rollins and I) were racing down it in a solid third place, we decided to cut to the inside corner around a bend to take over second place. We both started paddling on the same side and I guess we leaned a little too much. We ended up fully soaked in the river, our canoe half-full of water and sinking, and our clothes and shoes soaked.

We were in the middle of the river by the time we got our feet under us and our things gathered up (our clothes and shoes tried to float away in the current). We made our way over to side to regroup, turned our canoe over to empty the water, and headed back down the river. Then we hooked up with another canoe paddled by Zach Loberg and Clinton Dale (mostly Loberg, though). We tied our boats together and tried to paddle as a team. After I realized we weren't in the hunt for the win, I proceeded to lay back and get some sun. It was a well-deserved break. Besides, Loberg wrestles 197 and really enjoyed paddling two canoes down river. We heard all kinds of falling in the water stories, but most of them came by way of someone tipping over someone else. Even Costanzo got tipped into the freezing cold water, and believe me, he was not happy about it.

After the canoe trip was over, it was time to head back to Blair and continue on our quest for greatness. The weekend was a great time and an experience I will never forget. Its amazing how much better you get to know people when you spend the night with them outside in the freezing cold weather.

Until next time, keep getting better.

Marshall Marquardt

Past Entries:

Entry 2 (10/13/05)
Entry 1 (10/1/05)

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Rev Blog Entry 3: Marshall Marquardt, Dana College

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