Nathan Downs Becomes The First Nationally Ranked Trojan Wrestler in School History

HLG’s Nathan Downs (Freshman from Hawk Point, MO) became the first Trojan wrestler to be given a national ranking for the 174 lb weight class. Downs has been wrestling tough and opened the season with a 6th place finish at the season tournament opener at the Lindenwood University Open. Anyone who observes practice will find Downs and his practice partner, Jobi Hambrick, working hard to get better every day. Their hard work has paid off. Trojan wrestling also received an honorable mention vote for national ranking as well. This is also a first for our young program. I don’t think it will be long before we see Downs joined by other Trojan wrestlers in the national ranking poll. Congratulations Nathan!
Click here to see the NAIA press release.

Cates Joins Smith, Hambrick, and Downs As The Fourth Trojan National Tournament Qualifier

Kasey Cates and Jobi Hambrick advanced to the championship semi- finals at the Concordia University Open before losing their first matches of the tournament. Cates’s loss came to Austin Bautista (UW-Whitewater). Bautista was the number one seed in the tournament and is also currently ranked 2nd in the NCAA D-3. Cates finished 4-3 on the day and in sixth place becoming HLG’s fourth NAIA National Tournament Qualifier of the season. Hambrick lost his semi-final match 8-7 to the number 2 seed Chris Karl (UW-Stevens Point) who also went on to win the tournament. Karl is also ranked by D3 wrestling in the top 20 NCAA D-3 wrestlers. Our other wrestlers did not finish as well as Cates and Hambrick, but as a team we were able to garner 13 wins on the day! Seth Revelle, Josh Smith, Kyle Blankenship, and Nathan Downs all made contributions to the win column.
Once again I had many compliments shared from other college coaches on the marked improvement of this year’s team over last season. Here is one such comment sent to me by e-mail just even today, “I wanted to tell you on Saturday how good your team looked. You have done a great job with that program. It is hard to believe that your program is only in the second year. You will have to share your success secrets with me. ;-)” The keys to our success this season have simply been having better team cohesion and the wrestler’s hard work. Our wrestlers have bought into our philosophy and it is paying off on the mat and others are noticing. The types of statements above from other coaches, officials, and fans are very encouraging to us as coaches and next season we hope to build on top of the success our wrestlers are experience this season.
The next major challenge our wrestlers will face over this Thanksgiving Break is keeping their weight down. To all you Moms, Dads, Grandpas, Grandmas and Uncles and Aunts -one piece of pie is enough!;-) Don’t make them eat a whole pie!;-) The wrestlers have to make weight two days in a row the week they return back to campus!

Trojan Wrestlers Travel to the Frozen Land of Brats and Cheese This Weekend!

Tomorrow we will be departing for the frozen tundra of Mequon, WI for the Concordia University Open. Concordia University is located north of Milwaukee, WI and will host some of the best Wisconsin and Illinois D-2 and D-3 schools. We will return back to the Show-me state in the early hours of Sunday morning. I will not be able to post a tournament summary until Monday. Follow the link above for instant results Saturday evening.
-Coach Hawes

HLG vs. #13 Missouri Baptist Results

Last night a victory over #13 Missouri Baptist University was within our reach. If two of our freshmen who didn’t make weight last Saturday a the Knox Invitational would have been able to wrestle last night and one more match would have been won we could have beaten Missouri Baptist. Instead we lost the dual 13-34. Kasey Cates, Jobi Hambrick, and Nathan Downs all had impressive wins on the evening. Alos last night was the first time HLG Wrestling was seen live on the web. If you enjoyed the broadcast send me some feedback and any suggestions so we can make the view experience even better. Thanks to Ben Yarnell and the Hannibal Courier Post we had some nice coverage of our first home dual. Click here to read Ben’s article!

-Coach Hawes

Hambrick Places Fifth at Knox Invite

Jobi Hambrick led the way for the Trojans in a what was like a “wrestling marathon” finishing the day in 5^th place at the Knox College Invitational tournament. Jobi wrestled an HLG record of 8 matches in one day with one match going into overtime. Jobi’s record on the day was 6 wins and 2 losses which also is the best single day win record for a Trojan wrestler. Kasey Cates, Josh Smith, and Kyle Blankenship were all 2-2 on the day. We had three wrestlers make the freshmen mistake of not making weight last Saturday which cost them dearly. They all ended up wrestling up a weight class and did not wrestle as competitively at the heavier weight class as compared to their normal weight class. Hopefully these wrestlers will learn from this experience and will not miss weight again in the future.

Free Streaming Video Coverage of Home Duals

Get your Live Sports Video login and password set up right away! This year we are providing free streaming video for all home wrestling dual meets. Simply click on the logo HLG Go Live logo above and it will direct you to the registration/login page. To register is free and to watch is free. Next Tuesday will be our first home dual of the season against Missouri Baptist University. Missouri Baptist starts the season off with a solid preseason ranking of #13 in the nation. If you can’t attend our home dual, watch us on line at Live Sports Video.
-Coach Hawes

Hambrick and Smith will join Downs for the 2010 NAIA Championships

I’m pleased to announce that Jobi Hambrick and Josh Smith have joined Nathan Downs in his achievement of being a 2010 NAIA National Wrestling Tournament Qualifier. Hambrick’s 1st place and Smith’s 3rd place finish at the Loras Open was high enough for National Tournament qualification. Now that these wrestlers have qualified for the NAIA Championships, their focus will be on getting better every time they compete in preparation for individual goals that they have set for the Championships this year. I’m confident that this trio is only the first three qualifiers we have this year. I anticipate several other wrestlers joining these three in Oklahoma City to compete in the NAIA national tournament.
- Coach Hawes