West Virginia Wrestling

Wheeling Jesuit Official Website
Wheeling Jesuit University
Cardinals Wrestling
316 Washington Avenue, Wheeling, West Virginia 26003


Notes from Coach Doyle
Sean Doyle, Head Coach, Wheeling Jesuit University
January 12, 2016

Classes are back in session for the second semester and regionals are a little over six weeks away! It's been a fantastic first half of the 2015-2016 season and the team will look to make a big push to Sioux Falls in March at the NCAA Tournament.

National Duals Update

The team traveled to Ft. Wayne, Indiana this past weekend to compete in the National Duals for the first time in our short history. The event brings the top 16 programs in the country to one venue to compete for a national championship.

We started the day off with the 11th ranked team in the country, Upper Iowa. It was a competitive dual where we came up on the short end of a 24-15 match. Upper Iowa ended the event in 5th place and has placed 7 of the past 8 years. We wrestled hard but needed to be better.

In our second dual of the day we took on the 13th ranked team in the country, Findlay. The team responded well, as they always do and we won a number of hard fought matches. The dual meet entered the heavyweight match 16-15 in Findlay's favor. The match went into two overtimes and we found ourselves on the losing end of a hard fought battle. The final score was Findlay 19 WJU 15.

The team had one more match to conclude the weekend against #15 Indianapolis where we lost another very close battle 24-18. Unfortunately, during the dual meet, while in full control of his match, Damon Outward had to medical forfeit for precautionary reasons. This nine point swing proved to be the difference in the dual.

This program and team has made monumental strides in just year three as we've maneuvered into the top 15 in the country. Although we did not win a match, there was no doubt that we belonged with the country's best wrestling programs and this experience will provide great value when we return. As our program strives to become a team that can contend for a national championship, this is a necessary step along the way. The opportunity to see three top 15 program in one day will pay dividends in the future and there is zero doubt that we learned a lot.

Individual Summaries

125

Dustin Warner (18-2, 8 falls, W&J Champion, Findlay Open Champion, 2nd Midwest Classic)
Dustin went 2-1 and his only defeat came at the hands of the same wrestler that defeated him in the finals of the Midwest Classic. For a few reasons, Dustin wasn't at his best. Fortunately, we know that Dustin will be as we approach March.

Josh Henderson (5-4, 1 fall, 6th place W&J)

133

Nolan Whitely (20-3, 6 fall, W&J Champion, 5th Findlay Open, 2nd Midwest Classic)
Nolan went 2-1 as well, losing to the same opponent that he majored at the Midwest Classic. In 12 months Nolan has become a dynamic wrestler that can score from every position due to his focus on getting better. At times, Nolan slips back into some old habits and it creates close matches that age me much quicker than I'd like. Against his Upper Iowa opponent, he did this and it cost him. Nolan responded with two strong performances.

Scott Lopez (10-5, Runner-up Findlay Open)
Scott went 3-1 in the open division of the event and continues to look better every time out. His conditioning is getting better and he's improving in every position. Scott will have a strong finish to this semester and he is relentless in his pursuit of getting better every day.

Nat Brown (4-5)

Jaylen Hill (1-5)
Jaylen wrestled in the open division and dropped two very tough matches. Both matches were lost late in the third but Jaylen continues to show signs of becoming a good college wrestler. It's about confidence and consistent practice for Jaylen.

141

Damon Outward (11-7, 5 pins)
Damon's first two matches were against opponents that will be competing in March to reach the podium and in both matches he battled hard. As Damon settles into the starting role and gets more matches, he will close the gap. In his third match of the day, he was dominating his opponent when he took a hard landing on the floor. We had to pull him from the competition, or I'm sure we'd be talking about a great third match of the event.

Preston Bowshier (13-4, W&J Champion, 6th Findlay Open)

Tyler Hogue (5-4, 1 fall)

Trey Woodley (0-2)

149

Dominick Nania (19-3, 9 fall, 4th Findlay Open, 3rd Midwest Classic)
Dom continued his fantastic season with a 2-1 record on the day with one win by fall and the other by tech fall. He has been nothing short of dominant in his 19 wins this season. In his only defeat of the day, he lost to the #1 wrestler in the country 6-4 and had a number of opportunities to score late. He'll learn a lot from this match and most importantly, Dom knows there isn't a wrestler in the country that he can't compete with.

Kollin Clark (3-5)

Skyler Terrell (2-0)

Jonathan Barrett (1-2)

157

Reyse Wallbrown (13-8, 4 fall, W&J Champion)
Reyse's 0-3 record doesn't really speak to his performance Friday. He competed hard and lost two matches later in the match. Viewers often make conclusions off of what they see in the 7 minutes of the match without knowing the other contributing factors. Reyse had about 20 minutes of mat time the week leading up to the event and for that reason had trouble closing out what would have been two strong wins.

165

Peyton Geary (12-7, 1 fall, W&J Champion)
Peyton went 1-2 and as always wrestled his butt off. I've mentioned a number of times this season that Peyton will continue to impress and get better. He's a little undersized right now but continues to work hard to improve in every position. He sets a great tone for us because of his work ethic and mindset on the mat.

Cody Eggers (0-4)

174

Keegan Driscoll (12-7, 1 fall, 5th place W&J, 6th place Findlay Open)
Like Peyton (they are drill partners) Keegan wrestlers with a toughness and tenacity that I'd love to have in every one that we put on the mat. Keegan pulled off a huge come from behind win to give us a chance to win Findlay and had an opportunity to win against a quality opponent from Upper Iowa.

Nate Starkey (2-4, 1 fall)
Nate weighed in at 174 and bumped up to 184 for the entire event. For those not overly familiar to the college wrestling environment, that is not easy to do and for that reason, it's rare to see wrestlers bump up. For our team to have an opportunity to compete at this event and to allow Nate to work down to 174, we did this. On top of that, we're wrestling against the toughest competition in the country and Nate competed very well. On two occasions Nate was close to recording a fall and overall it was great seeing Nate back in competition. It'll be an exciting second half for Nate now that he's close to 100%.

Clayton Ray (8-5, 3 falls, 6th W&J)

John Lessner (1-4)

184

Garrett Reinwald (5-7)

Sawyer Leppla (3-2, 4th Findlay Open)

197

Terrance Fanning (14-4, W&J Champion)
Terrance continued his impressive freshman campaign going 3-0 and not really being challenged. Although he had a couple tough opponents, Terrance was in complete control and continues to learn quickly. It's hard to stay patient with individuals that have a high ceiling but like most freshman, Terrance is figuring this out on the fly. He's doing a good job. The next 6 weeks will be fun as Terrance will get to see a number of the better wrestlers in our region.

Jake Haynes (0-4)

285

Corey Siegfried (8-7, W&J Champion)
Corey wrestled very solid in a first round decision. As mentioned above, the Findlay match came down to heavyweight and Corey lost a very tough double overtime decision. The match didn't end how any of us would have liked but as he always does, Corey is a warrior and battled hard.

Logan Bowman (6-6, 1 fall)
Logan went 1-1 in the open division and we pulled him out because we wrestled him in our last match of the day against Indianapolis. Logan is working hard to improve on his offense and it showed this week in a number of offensive attempts. Logan needs to continue to make this a priority along with his bottom work.

Nathan Temple (6-2, 6th place Findlay Open)

Evan Roberts (1-6)

Miguel Staples (0-6)

REDSHIRTS (unattached wrestlers)

Ryan Winslow 10-5 (2nd place Findlay Open)
TJ Smith 3-6
Maxwell Lacey 4-2 (8th CSU Open)
Ki Ryder 2-0
Chase Logan 3-4
Tyler Jenkins 0-2
Brad Kakos 0-2
Tyler Knul 1-2

Have a great week!
Coach Doyle


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