Two Columbia Wrestlers Place in Weekend Meet

The Columbia men's wrestling team traveled to East Stroudsburg,
Pa., this past weekend to test its skills against solid competition.
At the end of the tournament, the Lions placed two wrestlers in the
top six of their respective weight classes, while several more
narrowly missed placing.

Sophomore Erik Norgaard garnered the highest placing for the
Light Blue, with a fourth-place finish in the 149-pound weight
class, while senior T.J. Francisco earned a sixth place finish in the
184-pound class. Norgaard wrestled his way into the semifinals of
the tournament before dropping his first match. Unfortunately, he
also pinched a nerve in his shoulder and was injury-defaulted in
the third- and fourth-place match. Norgaard is not expected to
miss much time with the injury.

"It was like night and day compared to last year. Everybody won at
least one match and totally recognized our drastic improvement,"
Norgaard said. "We faced some tough competition in teams such
as UNC and Penn State, but we did so much better than last year
that every team noticed."

"The team performed quite well," Assistant Coach Karl Roesler
said. "More of the guys wrestled strongly and exceeded
expectations than in the past. We came close to placing a few
more guys as well, so all in all we are doing all right."

Although the team is under Head Coach Brendan Buckley and his
staff for only the second season, this tournament showed its quick
improvement from last season.

"The team is simply closer," Roesler said. "They realize that they
have to put in a lot of work to succeed, and they want to do the work
this year. You can just see their desire whenever you step into the
wrestling room."

After a grueling preseason that saw the Lions lifting weights three
to four times a week, having ëcaptain's practices' two to three
times a week, and holding cardiovascular workouts, the Lions'
improved performance at the tournament was impressive.

"We as coaches were hoping that everyone would witness the
progress the team has made since last season," Roesler said.
"Because if there was no improvement, then the players' unity
would have fallen apart, and they would have become discouraged
from working as hard as we did this preseason. It was very
encouraging to see guys doing better than predicted."

The increased conditioning helped the Lions in several matches,
as team members noted.

"I noticed that I outlasted my opponents in nearly every match,"
Norgaard said. "Even our injured wrestlers, such as [senior]
Ashley Byrd and [first-year] Matt Engwall, were able to overcome
their pain and wrestle hard and win some matches. I'd say our
tournament was pretty successful."

On another note, the Lions recently found out that sophomore Joe
Chiaravello, the varsity 197-pound wrestler, will miss the rest of
the season after tearing his ACL in practice a few days before the
meet. The team had hoped that Chiaravello would be a strong
contributor this year, after missing most of last season due to
personal reasons.

The Lions travel to Las Vegas next for one of the toughest
tournaments of the year, the Las Vegas Invitational, on the
weekend of Nov. 30.