On the following day, we made the 20-minute trip to the Sapp Fieldhouse in Omaha. Following weigh-ins and warm-ups we began arguably the toughest tournament of our season. Although many of our records suffered that day, we gained valuable experience against some of the best guys in the country and many guys are finding their groove.
Two Dana wrestlers had already found their groove by the start of the tournament. Freshman Brian Graham suffered only one loss as he brought home a second place medal. Graham also defeated two of the top recruited seniors of 2006 on his journey to the finals of the amateur division. Junior Burke Barnes also had a stellar day. Burke, wrestling in the elite division, mixed it up with some of the best college wrestling has to offer. After dropping a 5-2 decision to Mario Galanakis from the University of Iowa, Burke battled back and placed an outstanding fifth
Webster Farris
Our practice room has been overcome by an old, but familiar intensity over the past few weeks. As we began the season reviewing a lot of technique, we are now getting after it. Although technique is still a part of practice we have elevated our level of drilling tremendously and practice moves at a quick pace. Coach Fergola and his staff are challenging us with some new conditioning techniques and of course, still killing us with some of the old stand-byes.
A new implementation to our practice and program is our individual session time. A few weeks back, the wrestlers were divided up and assigned to different coaches. Each coach has six to seven wrestlers under his radar. The primary function of this division occurs one day per week (usually Monday or Tuesday) when practice consists of our team warm-up and the remainder of the time we are split into our groups. At this time, the coaches focus on their six or seven guys, and our responsibility is to problem-solve and work with our respective coach. I feel this is a great idea as I have already benefited from getting more one-on-one time with my coach Jimmy Rollins.
We arrived for practice on Monday (Nov. 20) and Coach Fergola notified us that we would be off until our two-a-days begin on Monday (Nov.27). However, that doesn't mean the Dana College wrestlers won't be at it over break, as we were given strict orders pertaining to our weight. Although the consequences weren't specified for not maintaining weight, I feel sorry for the person who doesn't. Anyway, I hope you all have a great Thanksgiving! Drive safely and eat some for us grapplers.
Train Hard,
Webster Farris
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