This past weekend we officially kicked off our season at the Journeymen Northeast Duals in Albany, New York. Our Thanksgiving consisted on a 8:30am practice and a 10 hour bus ride to Buffalo. On the way there we did find a Cracker Barrel to stop and eat at.  My Thanksgiving dinner was a grilled chicken salad...mmmmm sure beats a big turkey dinner with mashed potatoes and gravy huh? We stayed in Buffalo Thursday night and left for Albany the next morning. After checking in to our hotel we had a few hours to get settled in before going to the arena to workout.  I did a god job of managing my weight and working it down right. What I think really helped was bringing my own food in a little travel cooler instead of just seeing what I could find at the rest stops on the way. I packed some whole wheat bread, organic peanut butter, and all natural strawberry preserves.  I also threw in a couple bottles of water and some all natural apple sauce. By the time we got to the arena I was only 4 pounds over and feeling really good. After our workout I left a only a pound over.

   The night before weigh-ins I always have a hard time sleeping.  I'm not sure if it's just the hunger or that nervous/excited feeling I still get before every competition even after 21 years of wrestling. Whatever it was I woke up at least four times that night. Right when I was finally able to fall asleep the alarm goes off and it is time to leave.  We got there early to do our usually pre-weigh-in workout. Everyone made weight fine. Then we went into our locker room they had reserved for us where we had food waiting for us. One problem with wrestling 125 is since they almost always start with that weight I only have an hour between weigh-ins and my match. I have to make sure to get some food and liquids in me for energy but at the same time I have to make sure not to eat in drink to much or else I'll go out there and won't be able to move.

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  Before the duals all the teams were marched in one bye one. They had a bag piper leading the way. Then the National Anthem was sang by a guy from New York who made it to the top 20 on American Idol. Then FINALLY it was time to wrestle... The first round we wrestled Appalachian State. In the past I think I've tried to get myself too pumped up. So I tried to keep myself relaxed and focused. The entire team wrestled really tough as we rolled to a 30-6 win. Our 133 pounder Conor Beebe beat a ranked wrestler and at 149 Brandon Carter beat the 5 ranked wrestler in the country. The two matches we lost, wrestled our second string guys and both of those loses were two points or less.

CMU 30, Appalachian State 6

125: Luke Smith (CMU) maj. dec. Frank Celorria, 17-5; CMU leads 4-0

133: Conor Beebe (CMU) dec. Terreyl Williams, 9-5; CMU leads 7-0

141: Ryan Scott (ASU) dec. Michael Holt, 4-3; CMU leads 7-3

149: Brandon Carter (CMU) dec. Scott Ervin, 4-2; CMU leads 10-3

157: Tyler Grayson (CMU) dec. Eddie Hutchinson, 3-1; CMU leads 13-3

165: Trevor Stewart (CMU) dec. Tommy Hutchinson, 8-5; CMU leads 16-3

174: Brandon Sinnott (CMU) tech. fall Antoine Jones, 19-3; CMU leads 21-3

184: Austin Trotman (ASU) dec. Ben Kelto, 3-2; CMU leads 21-6

197: Wynn Michalak (CMU) pin John Allen Griswold; CMU leads 27-6

285: Bubba Gritter (CMU) dec. Derek Calloway, 6-0; CMU leads 30-6

  

Second round we wrestled a really young Lehigh team and shut them out 39-0.

  CMU 39, Lehigh 0

125: Luke Smith (CMU) maj. dec. Kellen Aura, 13-1; CMU leads 4-0

133: Conor Beebe (CMU) dec. Kevin Vinh, 7-2; CMU leads 7-0

141: Eric Kruger (CMU) tech. fall Nate Spangler, 17-0; CMU leads 12-0

149: Brandon Carter (CMU) dec. Trevor Chinn, 3-1; CMU leads 15-0

157: Tyler Grayson (CMU) dec. David Nakosone, 6-1; CMU leads 18-0

165: Trevor Stewart (CMU) dec. Mike Galante, 8-1; CMU leads 21-0

174: Brandon Sinnott (CMU) dec. Alex Caruso, 6-1; CMU leads 24-0

184: Christian Sinnott (CMU) dec. David Craig, 5-2; CMU leads 27-0

197: Wynn Michalak (CMU) pin Alex Iacorca; CMU leads 33-0

285: Bubba Gritter (CMU) pin Justin Allen; CMU leads 39-0

 

  In the third round we wrestled a tough American team. Right off the whistle my opponent caught me off guard and tried to blast double leg me. I used that momentum to throw him through and pin him in :11 seconds.

CMU 43, American 3

125: Luke Smith (CMU) pin Jason Borshoff; CMU leads 6-0

133: Conor Beebe (CMU) dec. Matt Meriarcher, 5-2; CMU leads 9-0

141: Eric Kruger (CMU) dec. Kyle Borshoff, 6-3; CMU leads 12-0

149: Nathaniel Holt (CMU) pin Nick Pitas; CMU leads 18-0

157: Steve Brown (CMU) dec. Chris Stout, 9-4; CMU leads 21-0

165: Mike Cannon (AU) dec. Trevor Stewart, 7-2; CMU leads 21-3

174: Brandon Sinnott (CMU) pin John Powell; CMU leads 27-3

184: Ben Kelto (CMU) maj. dec. Andy Semple, 13-1; CMU leads 31-3

197: Hafeez Quershi (CMU) pin Brooks Keefer; CMU leads 37-3

285: Bubba Gritter (CMU) win by forfeit; CMU leads 43-3

 

  Our last dual was against Maryland who earlier in the day had upset 5 Michigan.  We knew they had a lot of momentum and would be coming out ready to wrestle. Thats exactly what they did. With short time left in the third period I had a 3-0 lead. I knew I had the match pretty much in hand and a take down would matter so I tried to get another one with 5 seconds left but ended up giving up one instead making the final score 3-2. We ended up dominating Maryland 36-6. Conor finished off the day with another big win, beating his second ranked wrestler of the day.

CMU 36, Maryland 6

125: Luke Smith (CMU) dec. Brendan Byrne, 3-2; CMU leads 3-0

133: Conor Beebe (CMU) dec. Steve Bell, 3-2; CMU leads 6-0

141: Eric Kruger (CMU) tech. fall Jon Kohler, 19-3; CMU leads 11-0

149: Brandon Carter (CMU) dec. Eric Medina, 10-3; CMU leads 14-0

157: Tyler Grayson (CMU) dec. Brian Letters, 6-2; CMU leads 17-0

165: Trevor Stewart (CMU) maj. dec. Mike McGill, 11-3; CMU leads 21-0

174: Brandon Sinnott (CMU) dec. Mike Letts, 3-1; CMU leads 24-0

184: Christian Sinnott (CMU) injury default Josh Haines; CMU leads 30-0

197: Hudson Taylor (UM) pin Vince DiDona; CMU leads 30-6

285: Hafeez Quershi (CMU) win by forfeit; CMU leads 36-6

 

  Overall I thought we wrestled really good and impressed a lot of people with our dominance. As a team and individually we all still have things we need to work on and get better at. Even the things we did good we need to continue to get better at. After watching my matches I think my offense is looking a lot better than last year at this time and I wrestled pretty good on the mat too. In all three areas there is still a lot of room for improvement. I just need to keep working on some of the small things fine-tuning what I'm doing now. If you ask the rest of the team I'm sure they will feel the same way about their own performances as well. Looking at how we did though and knowing we are only going to continue to get better...come March we will be ready for St. Louis. Right now we just need to worry about getting better and taking it one match at a time.

     Tomorrow we have our first home meet of the year against Michigan State at 7:30pm. This is a turned into a pretty big rivalry and Rose Arena is going to be packed. It should be a lot of fun. We just need to go out there, wrestle our match and keep moving forward.

The season has officially started and I feel myself going into it with mixed emotions.  I am really excited because this is  the best team in CMU history talent wise.  I really beleive if we wrestle at the level we are capable of we can come away with a National Championship.  We have 8 returning National Qualifiers, 3 returning All-Americans, and 2 people who were a round away from being an All-American. Pre-Season rankings have as high as 4 in the country but we know we are capable of doing better than that.

For me personally, it is a chance for redemption from a season I would like to forget and a final chance to accomplish my goals.  I'm not going to dwell in the past but after losing to eventual 2x NCAA Champion, Joe Dubuque, 6-4 in the quarterfinals and being one round from all-american; lets just say I had high expectations going into last season.  After having a dissappointing ending,to what was a good summer of wrestling when I got injured right before the University World Championships, I never felt like I was able to fully mentally bounce back last year.  I had worked so hard and was wrestling the best I've ever wrestled in my life only to suffer a freak accident while drilling the day before departing to Mongolia.  It was a really tough pill to swallow. 

I tried to come back a couple times to early and ended up reaggrivating my high ankle sprain, making me even more frustrated.  Looking back I definetly should have taken more time off to let my ankle heal and just to take a break from wrestling.  I was extremely frustrated after being one match from All-American and then getting injured right before the World Championships.  That seemed to carry over into the season and I think I just bured myself out.

So this past summer I took Coach Borrelli's and took some time off. I also decided not to wrestle any freestyle or greco during the summer like I had in the past.  Instead all I did was drill.  I drilled offense. Everyday. I just drilled.  Instead of trying to change my style like before we worked off it and added to it.  Not being able to wrestle for a while started to give me that drive back that I had been missing.  Towards the end of the summer I also went back to running everyday like I used to in high school. It gave me a chance to clear my head and regain my focus.  It has also helped with dealing with stress.  I'll take everything that is bothering me and use it as motivation in my workouts.  Besides my offense I have been working on the other things that were holding me back last year.  I even have already have a big jump start on getting my weight under control.  Last year at the begining of the year I was around 144!! This year I'm already weighing in the low 130s.  Its amazing how much eating a little healthier and doing a little extra working out on ur own can help manage your weight. 

I feel the biggest thing holding me back last year was myself.  It's hard to explain but I felt like I lost that mental edge and confidence I used to have.  To get it back I have just been trying to do the right things so I can go into every match knowing there is no way I could have trained any harder or that this guy has worked as hard as me.  I try to get in runs or just go into the wrestling room and jump rope for an hour on my own in my spare time instead of just sitting around.  I try to get in one or sometimes two extra workouts on my own a day.  Which means I work out 3-4 times a day.  It got to the point where roommates said they were getting a little worried I'm going to burn myself out again.  But I've thought about it and I really don't see that happening.  I don't see it as something I'm forcing myself to do, it's something I really want to do.  I feel as focused and driven as I ever have in my entire wrestling career.  As long as it doesnt start affecting my school and I listen to my body and give it a break when it needs one I will continue to get in those extra runs and workouts in my spare time.  I still feel I need to open up more in practice and be more offensive.  My goal is I want to wrestle fearless.  Be able to go out and just let it all go.  I'll continue to work towards that though and keep moving forward and after this season I can hopefully look back with no regrets.

 

 

Its finally come...today was the first day of class for my senior year. I almost never even made it here...

Last week I went home to get my wisdom teeth pulled and my knee checked out. Wisdom teeth...not to fun. I got it done on a monday and dont really remember much of the day because the appointment was at 8am so i was like half asleep when i got there, then they gave me the laughing gas, after the surgery the the next 6 hours were a blurr because i was still so drugged up but everything went good. I had to keep these gause? in the back of my mouth to soak up the blood  which needed to be changed pretty much every 5 min at first.  Once the drugs started wearin off i could feel it...so i popped my first vicotin and passed out watchin wild hogs. Tuesday i woke up to a giant blood stain on the white shirt i was wear...which was a forshadowing of a rough day. I did get to go out for Chinese with my brother, Jared, my cousin, Lindsey and of course my grandma. And as  I watched them enjoy their orange chicken and generals chicken, my wonton soup just felt somewhat unsatisfying. Of course that could be due to the blood i was spittin up all day. (sorry if i'm grossing you out but its true) Once my cousin had to pull over so i could empty my mouth full of blood.  By that night I finally bleed out pretty much all the blood I could bleed so I popped another much needed vicotin and went to bed early.  Unfortunetly those pills dont last all night and I woke up in UNBELEIVABLE pain at 3 in the morning. Not only was my mouth bleeding but it was accompanied by a fever and the shakes.  I was slept on my grandmas couch that night and like an idiot only brought one pill which i took before i went to bed.  My house is only like 1 1/2 miles from my grandmas but my fever was so bad it made me dizzy. So I looked aroud found so ibuprofen. I took a couple of those (i know, i'm turnin into a real pill popper haha), once i felt ok i drove back home and took another vicotin which helped but not enough. I never did make it back to sleep. I just layed down tryin to fall asleep to infomercials like time magazines soul music collection but was up until i had to go to the knee specialist.

My knee had been feelin pretty good but that could be because i was tryin to take it easy on it after tryin to wrestle a week after it popped and couldnt drive off it, but my mom wanted me to get it checked out to be on the safe side.  The doctor listened to what happened and instantly knew where it hurt but still decided to press on the area with his thumb and ask "Does that hurt?" After checkin it out he said he wanted me to get an MRI but thought it looked like i tore my meniscus and some cartilidge damage and would probably have to come back in a couple weeks for surgery that would put me out a month which needless to say wasnt the news i was hopin for but knew it could be worse. So I went and got my MRI and later found out that it was just a small MCL tear which I know still doesnt sound good but meant NO SURGERY!! but I wouldnt get that information and was forced to sweat it out until friday. So ur welcome for me not keepin you in suspense.  Unfortunetly once I was done with my Dr's appointments I had to drive 10 hours back to Michigan for previous obligations. 

The bad thing about this drive I knew going into it was that I couldnt take any pain pills because they make you drowsy and especially after not getting much sleep the previous night. What I didn't know at the time was that I would be drivin through what was basically one GINORMAS thunderstorm the entire drive.  Which isn't that bad as long as you have two working windsheild wipers right?  Well, about 3 hours into the drive my passengers side wipers decided to go on strike or something because it just stopped working for no reason. But I wasnt scared b/c my wiper was the important one....4 hours and one failed attempt to try to eat some McDonalds Chicken nuggets later...no more than 5 minutes of gettin back on highway 94 off of the skyway the passengers side wipe shows signs of life...that evil little bastard came up just enough so on the way up my drivers side wiper got snagged on it!!... And umm it is frickin pouring outside and i can see nothing...what doesnt help the situation is that i'm in the middle lane and there is a semi both behind me and to the right of me!! Now i'm not a big fan of semis next to me on the road when its a perfectly clear day let alone a thunderstorm in the middle of the night with no working windsheild wipers. After I slowed down the semi that was once behind went to pass me so I had zero visability out my front window and a semi on each side of me...I thinkin to myself "damn am I really gonna go out like this? I can see it now Lightning Luke Dies In Thunderstorm...the irony" The worst part woulda been my cheeks were so damn swollen still from gettin my wisdom teeth pulled i could picture people lookin at me sayin "Damn, look at those cheeks! Luke went out lookin like a chipmunk!!" But old Lightning wasnt quite ready to die yet..I slowed down even more and let both semis pass me so i could get into the slow lane. Then since I couldnt see the lines i had to use the rumble strips to guide me. After 3 times of turning off my wipers then back on, the drivers side wiper FINALLY broke free!! I was so happy to be alive I felt I had to text all my friends that I had escaped death....lookin back it probably wasnt a good idea to be texting messages while driving through a thunderstorm haha

Day after gettin wisdom teeth pulled

Well, after 5 amazing years here at CMU it apears I have run out of red-shirts to take. I jokingly told Coach Borrelli that this is another Olympic year and asked him if he thought they'd grant me another Olympic Redshirt after taking 4th at the Olympic Trials in 2004.  He said in his southern accent "Luke there ain't no way they're gonna give you another redshird. They wanna get you the hell outta here."  So this will be my final year .  I can't help but have all kinds of thoughts runnin thru my head; like what the hell am i gonna do w/ a sports management major haha, or after next year in general.  Theres been a little talk about me being a grad assistant coach after next year but i think most of you know how much i hate school already.  The other thing i've really been thinkin about is goin back out to Colorado Springs to the Olympic Training Center. 

Then theres also that part of me that want to go back home to Wisconsin to be with my family, most importantly my grandma.  Those of you who have been blessed enough to meet her will agree that she is one of the most amazing people you will ever meet. And if you talk to her she will make sure to tell you I'm HER baby...more than once.  Unfortunetly at 81, despite being healthy physically, mentally she has really started to go down hill in the last year and a half.  I'm not afraid to say that I love my grandma more than i can even begin to tell you...and when she is gone it will be the single lowest moment in my life.  But i dont even want to talk about that so we'll move on....

...Ok how bout this upcoming season...

The last 3 years have ended in utter dissappointment but this year i can promise u that i am going to do everything in my power to not let that happen this year.  After much thought about weather to go up to 133 or stay at 125 I've decided to stay at 125.  In case you didn't know I really struggled with making 125 last year,after the season my weight climbed up to 146 which actually isnt too bad prolly compared to other guys who have cut down like Joe Dubuque of Indiana who's is now coachin for Hofsta and is prolly walkin around at like 160. Anyways I want to try keep my weight at around 130 (compared to jumpin up to 140 after every weigh in like last year) so i dont feel weak and tired during my matches.  This is gonna take some strict dieting and a lot of extra workouts on my own.  I was doin extra workouts and worked hard before but I'm gonna need to pick it up even more.  I want to be able to wrestle hard the entire match and still not be tired after the match. I want to be able to break my opponents w/ my conditioning like my good friend Mark Disalvo used to.  I need to get that same mentality I had goin to the Olympic Trials where I really beleived I was going to make the Olympic Team despite there being 2 Olympic Silver Medalists at my weight. Don't get me wrong right now I still think if I wrestle like I can I will be a National Champion but that year was different...I was more focused than I have ever been and had no doubt in my mind that I was making the Olympic Team. Unfortunetly that didnt happen but I still wrestled better than I ever have in my life.  Thats why I hate it when people set a goal like to be an all american b/c why wouldnt you want to be a National Champion!? The thing is they are encouraged to do things like that a lot of times they are told to set "realistic" goals. Why wouldnt you want to be the best? I really beleive that if you set ur goal to be the best then everything else will take care of itself. Theres a little look of what going on  inside of the brain of Lightning Luke Smith and his personal philosophies haha.

You think thats already quite a bit I have on my mind? Well theres a lot more I have a big internship paper I have to finish so I can even wrestle next year and then theres a lot of other sytuff that I'm not even gonna get into.  All I know is I have one more year left to accomplish my goals. After Nationals in March there is no next year and if this year ends in dissappointment.....then I really dont know what I will do. Thats why I'm gonna make a lot of personal sacrifices so I can can look back and have no regrets.  I'll end it here for now. Sorry if I kinda jumped around a lot but those of you who have read my blogs before know thats just how my mind works.....I really need to think of a catchy closing phrase to end my blogs...if you have any ideas let me know haha

After a week of cold snowy weather in Mt Pleasant during our "spring break"; Saturday the sun decided to come out and we got a glimpse of nice weather.  I decided to make the best of this nice weather and go for a little run. For some reason i decidd to change it up though and instead of goin around camp i went the opposite way into the country.  While running i way able to clear my thoughts and i dont really know how to explain it but it just felt really good to go on that run. Maybe it was the fresh air with a nice cool breeze unlike my usual workouts in our 90 degree wrestling room.  Now I'm gonna apolagize for the randomness of this blog right now but that how thouts are when u run.  First of all I could tell when I was getting really into the country by the people reacted to my waving to them as they drove by.  When I was just oustside of town I'd wave and would get funny looks, actually i think one person even gave me the middle finger. As I got further out i'd wave and everyone would wave back and not your regular wave its always the 3 finger wave if u live/lived in the country u know what i'm talkin about. 

Anyways at about half way a song came on my ipod that kinda took me back; (which currently has 2,112  songs on it right now) it was "Take Me Home Country Roads" by John Denver.  It made me think about when I was in high school, (enter ur cheapshot about that being a long time ago and wise crack about me bein an old man here) i lived in the country and I used to run outside everyday, usually 2x a day.  Every day I would try to go a liitle further than the day before, then i would check w/ my car how far i went. The furthest I ever went was when I was getting ready for Jr Nationals and decided to go a little further in what ended up bein a 23 mile run. 

I must have reminisced a little too much because I kinda lost track of how long I'd been running. So I went to turn around and head back home but was hit by the cold ass wind blowing strong and in my face.  I fought through the wind and mad it home and as soon as I could gather the energy i checked the distanc and was shocked to see I had gone 11.9 miles!! My legs were incredibly sore the next day and i decided what better way to help them recover but go on another run. With my hamstrings so sore i needed a little extra motivation befor putting them through thaat torture again... so I popped in ROCKY IV and after watchin that i was good to go.  This one only ended up being 8 miles and didnt help the recovery process too much haha.  being less than a week until nationals some people didnt this was a very good idea because they said i dont want to "overtrain"...but i think that is more mental than physical and I really think that has helped me mentally prepare for nationals...I mean who else is goin on 12 mile runs? Answer: Nobody!!  

Monday school started back up I decided to give my hamstrings a rest and just ccardio in the wrestling room for an hour. After practice I found out the brackets were out and was eager to see who I had first.  I will have #7 seed Angel Escobedo from Indiana right away and then I'd have the winner of the Sees/Fanthorpe match. Both who I did lose to earlier this season and are ranked 8th and 11th respectively.  But I was a different person then, losing to pretty much evryone who stepped on the mat against me.  So yeah, I guess you can say I have a tough draw but actually instead of bing nervous i'm pretty excited. Today I ran a mile and a half to practice, had a good practice, then ran back home.  I garantee nobodys doin that shit either. My neighbors said i'm crazy haha...i told him just wait until after the season, then he'll see crazy.  Alright though I need to get my stuff together because we leave tomorrow morning at 8am. So in the words of Rocky Balboa: "Wish me luck, I'm gonna need it"

hmmm lets see...how can I put the dissapointment of the MAC tournament into words...I dont think its possible. So lets just say I will no longer be able to be CMUs first ever 4x MAC Champion. As a team we did great though dominating the tournament for the 6th straight year and Qualifying 7 guys; actually possibly 8 counting Conor , who was an alternate but looks like hes gonna get to go b/c someone broke a bone in their face. But like I said I'm puttin MACs behind me, and use it as motivation while setting my sights on NCAA gold.  I know what ur thinkin': unrealistic huh? Well, I dont blame u. After all w/ a 21-12 record and and 3rd place MAC tournament finish I'm not exactly everyones top choice. After a rough season I'm back in a familiar postion of underdog again.

Despite my performance so far this year I really beleive that when I wrestle like I can, I can beat anybody. I proved that last year losing to 2x NCAA Champ Joe Dubuque, 6-4 and that was w/ givin up a takedown w/ 1 sec left in the period. I still have yet to peek this season and at Nationals; the good thing about being an underdog is nobody expects me to place so I have not pressure and nothing to lose.  Just go out and wrestle, leaving it all out on the mat. I don't want to feel that same feeling of dissappointment I felt last year after being one round from All American and watchin people who I beat earlier in the year wrestling in placing matches.  But like Dr. Olrich says; I need to allow myslf to live in the present.

Training has been hard, but good this week. I've been wrestling well and I think I'm in the best shape I've been in all year.  Probably the only real problem is I got something in my eye and havnt been able to get it out yet so my eye is all puffy and swollen, i'm sure it hasnt helped that i keep rubbing it haha but i think it out but my eye is just still a little iritaited (dunno if i spelled that right) oh also my weight has kinda ben high this week, I need to get that back under control. I dont think i've been eating anymor than I have been all year but I'm still around 11 pounds over everyday. I think its mostly water weight from the hard practices but still at Nationals you have to make weight 3 days in a row w/ only a pound weight allowance per day so I cant afford to let it shoot up like that...man I have a feeling I'm gonna be huge after sason though haha. I was gonna wrestle at the freestyle US Nationals in Las Vegas April 4th but I'm not sure if I want to b/c I dunno if I can make 121, 3 weeks after the NCAA Tournament. Anyways we'll worry about that later, I'll just worry about NCAAs right now. 

Well the last 3 duals had a variety of feelings. Lets start w/ NIU against i guess u could call my confrence rival, Pat Castillo.  His strategy was pretty simple: hewas gonna snap my head and only take a shot on the edge of the mat. I was warned for stalling after Castillo only took one shot which i shouda expected since the dual was at NIU. Second period I chose down and got away in about 30 seconds. That was the only scoring in the second period. He chose both up in the third and gothis stalling call he was banking on to tie it up at 1-1.  I almost scored a takedown on the edge w/ a drag but he rolled out of bounds then w/ 10 sec left I relaxed on the edge and he scored a atkedown. Later while watching film w would see that both of his feet actually went out of bounds when he got the takedown. But i'm not going to make any excuss i shouldnt have relaxed w/ short time left anyway. I got away right away but time expired and i lost 3-2.  What I also didnt see until I watched the tape later was him taunting me w/ giving  me the stalling signal behind my back not once but twice when my back was turned aftr the match.  Now if u want to celebrate after winning, go ahead you deserved it but taunting your opponrnt after the match...unacceptable. Despite competing against Mr. Castillo i still had respect for him, that respect is now gone and i cant wait to wrestle him in two weeks.

That loss was a tough one to take, I thought I was back on track and then I go backwards again.  But watching that match was just the motivation i needed to get back to work again. This past friday we wrestled Ohio University and even though the guy just tried to hang on and stall the whole match I was able to beat him pretty bad,16-5.  When I got back home; which was like 5am, i wasnt tired anymore so i decided to check out my facebook.  I was suprised to see a friend request from a girl from Ohio U.  I accepted and later got a messege from her saying "hey kid, i just saw you kick ass at the wrestling meet here the other night and i wanted to say what up and i thought u were sexy :) have a good one!"  To be honest I really didnt know how to reply to that so I just wrote on her wall and said "Im glad I could be good eye candy 4 u at the meet ; ) haha".

Then just yesterday we had our final dual of the year against Kent State; who also happened to be undefeated in the confrence so this was for the MAC Championship too. One of the big matches was going to be mine at 125 against #17 ranked Chad Sportelli, who beat me last year.  I wanted to avnge my loss from last year and get some momentum goin into the MAC Tournament.  In the first period I scored a pretty quick takedown and then rode him out the rest of the period to get almost 2 min of riding time.  Then in the second period i chose down and almost reversed him 3 different times but he was able to keep me down and erase my riding time.  In the 3rd he chose both up and with a little less than a minute to go they gave him a questionable takedown and and an almost instant escape for me. With short time left and up by 1 Sportelli got in on a deep double and had me up in the air but as i was coming down i hooked his leg and rolled going through his legs and almost taking him down.  I held him off w/ 2 secs left and won 3-2. And the team rolled on to a 34-3 win and our 9th straight MAC title. There really isnt any time to celebrate though b/c the MAC Tournamnt is what is important and I will be wrestling Sportelli again in the semi finals. So I have to be ready to go.  I really think if the team wrestles like they can we can qualify all 10 to Nationals and make a good run there.  But all we can do right now is work hard and get ready b/c its gonna be 5 other teams and their fans probably all cheering for us to lose.

"Nobody is gonna hit harder than life. It ain't how hard you hit; it's about how hard you can get hit and keep movin forward, how much you can take and keep movin forward"
-Rocky Balboa

    Last week, after a hard practice, I decided to go to the dorms for dinner.  That day they happened to be serving chinese food. Of course, along w/ my sweet and sour pork they gave me a fortune cookie.  I  have always gone by the rule that you cant open your fortune cookie until after your meal and you can't look at your fortune until you eat your cookie or else it won't come true.  Well, after my meal I was in a hurry so I just put the cookie in my pocket to eat later.  I opened it later that night and after eating the cookie of course I read the fortune and it said: You are almost there. After the last two weeks I really beleive that.  By the way the fortune also said my lucky numbers were: 1, 20, 22,32,39, and 45, and that bad in Chinese is "hwhy". 
   
    I left off in the last blog right before the Eastern Michigan dual. I was happy to see that my mom, my grandma and my cousin Lindsey could all make it to come watch me wrestle.  I probably did too good of a job keeping my weight down because after our pre-weigh in workout was all the way down to 123.7, the lightest I have been since the World Championships in Mongolia. I still felt like I had a lot of energy though and was really excited to go out there and wrestle. I was maybe even a little over anxious because when the match started I got right to his leg but was in to much of a hurry to finish it and almost lost it. I finished my shot though and punished him on top like I have been workin on.  I think I turned him once or twice before the period was over. (I'm gettin old which means I am startin to lose my memory).  Second period, it was Easterns choice and he picked neutral.  Once again I got to his leg easily but almost gave up a takedown by being sloppy.  Once again though I was able to finish my takedown and go back to work on top. Shortly after I got both my legs in and power-halfed him to his back. When he tried to roll through I changed to a double grape vine (aka saturday night ride) and got the pin.  After my match I was satisfied but still knew I wasnt completly back yet.
    That next week (which was also this past week) we had a hard but good week of practice. I continued to work on my technique and thanks to the coachs airodyne workouts, my conditioning also.  Then Friday morning I went to see Dr. Tracy Olrich.  Dr. Olrich is a professor here at CMU but majored in Sports Pychology at Michigan State.  We talked for about 2 hours about what had been going on with me this season and how things were starting to get better but the confidence still was not fully there.  I told him that I knew what I need to do mentally and how I need to be thinking but it's like I am being stuburn w/ myself. (If I lost you there, don't be suprised that is probably why I'm talkin to a sports shrink haha) He told me I am trying to hard to and what I need to do is " allow myself to just live in the moment".  I have been wrestling for 20 years I don't need to go out there and think about what I need to do, I already know what I need to do.
    We wrestle Buffalo in about 3 hours... and I am going to go out there and not worry about the fans, the score, or winning or losing. I am going to go out there and "just allow myself to live in the moment."  I am also bringin back an old friend at Coach Borrelli's request who hasn't come to one of my matches since last year..hopefully I can get a pic of him up for the next blog. Today is the superbowl so I don't know if I'll be able to write a new one tonight but I will try.  I always see that I get anywhere from 60-80 blog veiws a week Yet I think I only have like 10 subscribers, if you like to just check it out every once in a while thats cool but it might be a little easier if you subscribe then you will get a little message everytime I write a new one. Alright well I gotta go get ready so wish me luck today and go Colts!!

    As you probably read in my last blog (and if you didnt just scroll down a little) Following the National Duals I felt broke mentally and spiritually.  My confidence was at an all time low and I found myself really questioning my own abilities. By the end of that blog however I made a decision to stop feeling sorry for myself and keep working hard and work through this mental slump.  I spent the next week with the coaches working on what I was doing wrong and what I needed to fix.  Which meant we worked on a lot of things, even my stance was different by the end of the week.  I also made sure to manage my weight a lot better; including watching what I ate and putting in extra workouts because I did feel waiting to the end to lose my weight was effecting my conditioning.  When I wasnt working working out I just kinda kept to myself in my room. I really just didnt feel like hangin out w/ my roommates that much . I did have some really good talks with my buddy Trace after he read my blog. He gave me some really good words of encouragement that helped me a lot.  Unfortunetly he was one the the few people who I consider really good friends to be there for me.  There were a couple people who I have always been there for that dissappointed me by not bein there for me when I needed them.  They seemed to be too worried about themselves and their own life.  Which I guess is fine because I guess we shouldnt have to rely on other people to fix our problems. I really beleive in that old saying that God gives us nothing we can't handle.
    By Sunday I couldnt wait to get back on the mat and try out what I had been workin on all week.  I also wanted to redeem myself from the poor performance I gave in my last home meet against Hofstra; which was my first home loss ever. This was our first annual Chippewa Challenge.  We brought in 4 other teams from all over the country to all wrestle each other.  The 4 teams included: Eastern Illinois, Gardner Webb (out of North Carolina), Cal-Poly, and finally #13 ranked University of Tennesse-Chattanooga.  Our first dual was against Eastern Illinois;  I was able to get my offense going pretty good; scoring 4 takedowns and winning by a 15-2 major decision. My next match against the kid from Gardner-Webb was frustrating because all he did was try to keep it close.  I stuck to my game plan and scored another major, 11-2. 
    Now it was time for the main event against #13 UTC.  They were thus far undefeated and really beleived they were gonna beat us.  One match that was considered a swing match was 125.  I beat UTC's 125, Javiar Maldanado last year in the first round of the NCAA Tournament by 2 points.  But he was having a pretty good year so far and I had been struggling; therefore he was ranked ahead of me.  In the first period I got in really deep on a head outside single in a crackdown position (umm for those of you who don't speak wrestling:  I had his leg and he was sitting on his but).  Just as I was finishing my takedown the ref called a stalemate (stalemate: a position where neither wrestler is able to advance and score, so they are restarted).  So the first period ended tied at 0.  Second period I choose down and escaped and then there were a couple scrambles but no scoring.  So I led 1-0 going into the 3rd and final period.  I rode him for a while before he escaped.  The he got my leg  up in the air; as he went to kick out my other leg, I did a front dive through his legs. This forced a crazy scamble but I came out through his legs and took him down and started putting him on his back with a trapped leg turk but he started screaming and the ref stopped it.  I rode him out for a while but was forced to cut him (thats let him go not knife him by the way) after being warned for stalling.  He got in deep once but i was able to hold him off for a 3-2 win.  We rolled to a 21-13 win but could have beaten them worse losing a couple matches we shouldnt have. 
    I knew this weekend was huge for me personally to beat a ranked wrestler and get my confidence back up.  Tuesday I found out I was chosen as the MAC wrestler of the week; which I hadnt gotten since winning the Michigan State open my freshman year. The  school newspaper also decided to do an article on me and out heavyweight Bubba Gritter for Fridays paper.  Just on the relationship of the smallest and biggest guys on the team.  So wednesday we had to go in for about a 45 minute photo shoot where they had us do all kinds of crazy poses.  It doesnt help that the photographer didnt know anything about wrestling; not even what a wrestling stance was.  Despite that the shoot went pretty good though and the article was pretty good too despite getting crap from some of the teammates.
To check it out click on the link: The Odd Couple
I realize this blog has gone a little long so I'll just end it here and put the EMU dual in a part 2