UWW Junior Nationals & US Open

[CoachGarnett]

Bison Fans,

We would like to give you our first off season update as our guys have just completed their first training camp & national competition. Hopefully you got a chance to watch the UWW Junior Nationals Freestyle & Greco event as well as the US Open. There was a ton of great wrestling over the course of 4 days out in Vegas. The Bison Wrestling Club RTC sent a total of 13 guys down to the event almost doubling our numbers from last year. We had guys in UWW Junior Greco, UWW Junior Freestyle, Senior Greco, & Senior Freestyle, so we were well represented in both styles & both levels as well.

After a great training camp, our guys competed very well across the board & accumulated a ton of wins with just about everyone going deep into their respective bracket. Numerous guys came away with some key wins over tough, highly rated guys. Highlights included having a double All-American in Brandon Metz who is now a 2X double AA at UWW Juniors, putting 4 guys in the quarter finals (2nd most of all clubs), putting 3 in the semi finals (tied for the most), having a finalist for the 2nd consecutive year, & a HUGE win over a Cadet World Champ! That just goes to show how much progress a lot of these young guys have actually made over the course of 1 short year. On the morning of day 2 of UWW Junior Nationals we had a team meeting & set our goal to take all 8 guys who were left wrestling to WTT. With that being said, we were just 3 round of 12 matches short from putting ourselves in position to take all 8 guys. This young group of Bison really bonded & came together as a team during this trip & it was great for us to watch. It really showed as they fought for wins with all guys sitting matside, watching, & cheering each other on. It was clear to us just how important it was to them to place in the top 3 as a team they were all aware of the team standings & wanted to make it happen. Most of the guys competing had not done so since February & the hunger and fire to compete helped fuel them to not only a top 3 finish but up to 2nd place only behind Iowa/Hawkeye Wrestling Club by a narrow 4 points.

Overall, we were happy with the performance & this should be a sign of good things to come for the future. We are built for it & have the foundation. Now our focus shifts to World Team Trials May 18th-20th in Rochester, Minnesota. We will be taking 5 guys down ( 4 Juniors, 1 Senior). Hopefully you guys are able to make the trip down to watch our guys compete. We're sure these guys would love to have you in the stands cheering them on to make the World Team or National Team. Here are the full final placement results below:

57 kg- Paul Bianchi- 3rd
57 kg- Brent Fleetwood- 6th (Senior US Open Freestyle)
61 kg- McGwire Midkiff- 5th
67kg- Chase Nelson- 8th (Senior US Open Greco)
70 kg- Jaden Van Maanen- 6th
125 kg- Brandon Metz- 2nd (Freestyle), 130 kg- 3rd (Greco)

Team Results- Bison Wrestling Club RTC- 2nd

GO BISON!!!!

[Christopher Moen]

Bison Fans,

We would like to give you our first off season update as our guys have just completed their first training camp & national competition. Hopefully you got a chance to watch the UWW Junior Nationals Freestyle & Greco event as well as the US Open. There was a ton of great wrestling over the course of 4 days out in Vegas. The Bison Wrestling Club RTC sent a total of 13 guys down to the event almost doubling our numbers from last year. We had guys in UWW Junior Greco, UWW Junior Freestyle, Senior Greco, & Senior Freestyle, so we were well represented in both styles & both levels as well.

After a great training camp, our guys competed very well across the board & accumulated a ton of wins with just about everyone going deep into their respective bracket. Numerous guys came away with some key wins over tough, highly rated guys. Highlights included having a double All-American in Brandon Metz who is now a 2X double AA at UWW Juniors, putting 4 guys in the quarter finals (2nd most of all clubs), putting 3 in the semi finals (tied for the most), having a finalist for the 2nd consecutive year, & a HUGE win over a Cadet World Champ! That just goes to show how much progress a lot of these young guys have actually made over the course of 1 short year. On the morning of day 2 of UWW Junior Nationals we had a team meeting & set our goal to take all 8 guys who were left wrestling to WTT. With that being said, we were just 3 round of 12 matches short from putting ourselves in position to take all 8 guys. This young group of Bison really bonded & came together as a team during this trip & it was great for us to watch. It really showed as they fought for wins with all guys sitting matside, watching, & cheering each other on. It was clear to us just how important it was to them to place in the top 3 as a team they were all aware of the team standings & wanted to make it happen. Most of the guys competing had not done so since February & the hunger and fire to compete helped fuel them to not only a top 3 finish but up to 2nd place only behind Iowa/Hawkeye Wrestling Club by a narrow 4 points.

Overall, we were happy with the performance & this should be a sign of good things to come for the future. We are built for it & have the foundation. Now our focus shifts to World Team Trials May 18th-20th in Rochester, Minnesota. We will be taking 5 guys down ( 4 Juniors, 1 Senior). Hopefully you guys are able to make the trip down to watch our guys compete. We're sure these guys would love to have you in the stands cheering them on to make the World Team or National Team. Here are the full final placement results below:

57 kg- Paul Bianchi- 3rd
57 kg- Brent Fleetwood- 6th (Senior US Open Freestyle)
61 kg- McGwire Midkiff- 5th
67kg- Chase Nelson- 8th (Senior US Open Greco)
70 kg- Jaden Van Maanen- 6th
125 kg- Brandon Metz- 2nd (Freestyle), 130 kg- 3rd (Greco)

Team Results- Bison Wrestling Club RTC- 2nd

GO BISON!!!!

See you guys in Rochester!

[RadioBison]

Congrats on the great tournament, and keep up the good work!