UPCOMING EVENTS
Being as the season just ended, we don't really have anything to "Preview," per se, as we usually would here. But we do have some upcoming events you should be aware of! Lockport's seasonal Winter Sports Night is on Wednesday, March 15 at 7:00pm. Additionally, in light of our fantastic achievements, we're being honored by three other groups - Crest Hill City Hall, Lockport City Hall, and the LTHS Board of Education. Here are the dates and times for these. Contact Coach Oster with any questions.
- Monday, March 6: Crest Hill City Hall - begins at 7:00 PM. City Hall is located at 1610 Plainfield Road, Crest Hill, IL 60403.
- Wednesday, March 15: Lockport Winter Sports Night - Begins at 7:00 PM at East Campus
- Monday, March 20: LTHS Board of Education - Begins at 7:00 PM in the Maroon Room at East Campus.
- Wednesday, April 5: Lockport City Hall - Begins at 7:00 PM. City Hall is located at 222 E. 9th St., Lockport, IL, 60441.
Also, we will have our own separate awards banquet for wrestling, as always. Stay tuned for the details and information for that.
COLT WRESTLING IS STARTING ON MARCH 20!!! Here's your basic information:
- WHEN: Mondays and Wednesdays from 6:00 - 7:30 PM
- WHERE: Wrestling Room, East Campus
- WHAT: Freestyle. And some Greco too, here and there.
- COST: $20 "to cover the cost of whatever weird unicorn shirt we come up with this year"
- OTHER: Wrestlers MUST have a USA Wrestling card in order to participate. The card costs $40 per year, and is valid until 8/31/2017You can take care of this at http://www.usawmembership.com/. When selecting your club, it goes under "Junior Porters WC," not Colt. If you need assistance, contact Coach Oster.
WEEK 16 RECAP
Well, we won a state title, so that's a pretty big deal. We beat Edwardsville on Tuesday, which you can feel free to catch up on here. Then, Saturday, we achieved the goal we set out towards at the start of the year, winning our first team state championship! As an added bonus, we also finished the season undefeated; 29-0. (Sealy note: If only we had one more dual, to make it a perfect 30-0. I like round numbers. Shame that one team dropped out of a quad, or we'd have had it! (Double side note: The cancellation by Deerfield is 100% fine by me and everyone else. Appreciated, actually. Last thing we want is to have a sick team heading into Regionals.))
If you'd like to read all about the amazing day that was Saturday, and our three victories that earned us our state championship, click here for the recap!
Oh, and here, have some other imagery. Dual-Team State banner that was on Twitter... and the Individual State poster I made that never got tweeted (It was in the drafts, but never made it to the timeline!)
ALUMNI RECAP
All of our DI alumni were not in competition, so no news to report on that front. DII, DIII, and Haley are up to things, however.
Vince Dietz (St. Cloud State University): Dietz was one of the ten starters for SCSU competing at the 2017 NCAA Division II Super 3 Region tournament in Moorhead, MN last Friday and Saturday. And this one is truly painful to write, but Dietz came up one spot short of qualifying for the NCAA Division II National Championship Tournament. In DII, there are no wildcard spots - only wrestlers who finish in the top 4 at their Regional Tournament qualify. Dietz, ranked 5th nationally by InterMat at the start of February, was seeded 3rd. He picked up wins by technical fall and major decision in the first round and quarterfinals, before dropping a 2-1 decision to Augustana's Ben Goodwin, the #2 seed, in the semifinals. Dietz then dropped his semifinal wrestleback to Minnesota State Mankato's Matt Blome by a score of 5-2, before rebounding in the 5th place match with a fall in 2:25 over Drury's Jared Rennick. Fortunately, DII Regionals have a "True 4th-place" match, so if the 5th place finisher and 4th place finisher have not wrestled each other, one does not benefit from having an "easier" side of the bracket. Unfortunately, Matt Blome, whom had beaten Dietz, lost in SV for 3rd place, thereby finishing in 4th. As a result, Dietz lost the 4th place match by previous decision, and won't be making an appearance at DII Nationals next weekend. Keep your head up Dietz, you've got two more years to pickup that national title.
Dan Radcliffe (Central College): On the other end of the spectrum, we've got one national qualifier this year! Competing at the NCAA DIII Central Regional, Radcliffe finished 3rd at 131 pounds to qualify for DIII Nationals, which are held on Friday, March 10, at the University of Wisconsin - LaCrosse, if you find yourself wanting to go watch. Dan, seeded 3rd, picked up a win by technical fall in his opening match, followed by a 10-6 decision in the quarterfinals. In the semifinals, however, Radcliffe lost by fall to Clint Lembeck of Loras College (who, as the #2 seed, pinned his way through the tournament). With only the top three wrestlers qualifying, Dan had to win not only his semifinal wrestleback, but also the 3rd place bout, which, thankfully, he did - albeit closer than anyone hoped. Radcliffe's semifinal wrestleback win came by a narrow 3-2 margin, while his 3rd place victory was by a 7-5 score. In any case, he got the job done, and will be making his first appearance at DIII Nationals in a week and a half. Congratulations Dan!
Eddie Ginnan (Central College): Eddie didn't wrestle this week, so you may wonder why I'm including him right now. He did something that was even better - he's the athlete featured in the Central Close-Up this week. Eddie gave an absolutely fantastic interview. If you know Eddie, you'll love it. If you don't know Eddie, you'll still probably love it, and think that he's a really weird dude. And he is, but in the best of ways. I mean c'mon, look at this face. Click the link, read the article - you will NOT be disappointed... especially when they ask about his bucket list.
Haley Augello (USA): Haley is in the Ukraine letting birds land on her arms in front of intimidating warrior statues. No, seriously, look:
In all seriousness, Haley is in Kiev, Ukraine, preparing to step on the mat at what I believe is her first international level competition since the Olympics. She will be competing on Saturday, March 03, at the awesomely-named "XXI OUTSTANDING UKRAINIAN
WRESTLERS AND COACHES MEMORIAL" tournament. 53kg starts at 9:00am local time, which is 8 hours ahead of us. So if you're up at 1:00am on Saturday (or Friday night, for how you'd think of it), Haley will be back in action! Here is the UWW page for the tournament. Since I don't know Ukranian, but Russian is fairly close, Удачи, Хейли!!!
AND FINALLY...
Coach Cunnane has received some impressive and well deserved recognition. As the LTHS website puts it:
"Lockport Township High School’s athletic trainer, Joe Cunnane, has been selected as the Most Valuable Athletic Trainer for interscholastic athletics in the country!! Cunnane will receive his honor at the NATA (National Athletic Trainers Association) Convention which will be held in Houston from June 26-29."
There are not enough words in the world that could be said about how much Coach Cunnane does for everyone. I wrote "his athletes" but that doesn't do it justice. He teaches during the day, not only about training but also teaching our kids how to lift properly to fend off many injuries in the first place and get incredibly strong in the process. The man spends the afternoons, evenings, and many late nights taking care of student athletes in multiple sports at a time, ensuring their safety to the highest level possible. Heck, he even takes care of us coaches too - I know I've had many, many rolls of tape spent on me since I joined the staff here, let alone others (to be fair, I'm more fragile, but still). Coach Cunnane has been held in the highest regard by all those who have met him, not just here at Lockport, but in the community, the area, and even the state, as evidenced by the many times he has worked state-level events. We've always known he was the best in the nation, but it's still good to see him get recognized for it, officially. Thank you, Coach, from all of us, and congratulations on a well-deserved honor.
You can't mention an award-winning person and not give them a photo. Congrats Coach!