U.S. Naval Academy Annapolis, MD
Navy's Blue-Gold Challenge Match Ends in 16-16 Tie
ANNAPOLIS, Md. - A pin by sophomore 133-pounder Dustin Haislip (Inwood, W.Va.) erased a six-point advantage by the Navy Blue team with just two matches remaining and anchored a valiant come-from-behind effort by the Navy Gold team, as the annual Navy Blue-Gold Challenge Match ended in a 16-16 tie Friday evening at Halsey Field House. The Navy Blue team led by as many as 10 points in the match (13-3).
Instead of the usual format of the full 10-match schedule, just nine of the weight classes counted towards the team scoring. The Navy Blue squad won five of the nine matches, and while both teams earned an extra-point major decision, it was Haislip's win by fall over classmate Pat McCaffrey that proved to be the turning point in the match.
Anchored by returning All-American Bryce Saddoris (Spring Creek, Nev.), the Navy Blue team looked as though it would easily blow past the Navy Gold team as it earned wins in four of the first five matches. Saddoris, who is up a weight class this season, said it might take him a little big of time making the adjustment to the heavier weight class.
It seemed hardly an adjustment for Saddoris, as he made it look easy in claiming a 20-9 major decision over sophomore Cory Vernon (Great Meadows, N.J.). Vernon trailed by just two points after the opening period and four after the second, but Saddoris scored four takedowns and a reversal in the final period to give his team an early 4-0 advantage.
A change in weight can put a wrestler at a disadvantage, but for Saddoris, he felt it was the right move at the right time.
"Staying at 149 pounds was just a no go for me," said Saddoris, who placed sixth at last year's NCAA Championship. "I gained a good amount of weight over the summer just working out and hitting the gym and felt as though it was better for my health if I went ahead and made the move. I think I have the same amount of speed and my strength is better, so it hasn't been a hindrance so far."
The blue squad pushed its lead to 7-0 as rookie Oscar Huntley (Emerald Isle, N.C.) scored a takedown with under a minute remaining in his match to earn a 3-2 victory over junior Robby Neill (Brick, N.J.) at 165 pounds. Huntley, who wrestled for Colonial Forge in Virginia as a prep, was one of five freshmen in action Friday night and one of three to win matches.
Junior Matt DeMichiel (Whitesboro, N.Y.) gave the gold team its first points of the evening, as his experience helped get him through a tough match against newcomer Andrew Buck. DeMichiel, who is up two weight classes from 165 to 184, took the lead with a takedown late in the first period and never relinquished it despite a competitive match by the three-time High School All-American out of Carson, Wash.
The 197-pound match featured rookies Nick Hylton (Lester, W.Va.) and Ben Hatef (Bowie, Md.). While the match would eventually go to Hylton for his 29 seconds of riding time after two sudden periods and two sets of 30-second tie-breakers, the entire match left a lot unanswered. Neither wrestler looked to take a chance at scoring in the match. In fact the five of the six-combined points scored by the wrestlers were awarded on escapes, while the Hylton was dinged with a technical violation for pressing on outside of the circle after the whistle had been blown.
Rookie Dan Miller (Berlin, Md.) gave the Navy Blue team its biggest lead of the evening, a 10-points, 13-3 advantage, after handing junior Mike Landis (Hershey, Pa.) a 5-3 loss. Miller, who has gained roughly 35 pounds since graduating high school, provided the crowd with one of the most entertaining matches of the evening. Quick on his feet and nifty with his counter offense, Miller served notice that he will be a wrestler to keep an eye on this season. After two periods of action, the match was knotted up at 2-2. Miller immediately took the lead on an escape, but was not satisfied. He shot out at Landis' legs with 12 seconds remaining and was awarded a takedown on the edge of the mat before letting Landis free.
"I was a little nervous coming in to tonight's match," said Miller, who did not start wrestling until his freshman year in high school and went on to win a state championship at Stephen Decatur High School. "I was the younger, less experienced wrestler in this match and I knew heading in that I had to be both offensively and defensively minded and move on the bottom."
And what about the weight difference?
"It's one thing to wrestle heavyweights in high school, but it's a different breed at the college level," added Miller, who had the wherewithal to make the decision to push up his weight now knowing he would eventually end up as a heavyweight. "It's a totally different style of wrestling than what I'm used to. It's more of a brute style. I feel my strength and ability to score is with my counter offense."
After taking a 2-0 advantage after the opening period, second-year standout Aaron Kalil (Salem, N.H.) broke through in the second period to take a 9-2 lead and eventually a 12-3 major decision over the blue squad's Austin Clouse (Annapolis, Md.) at 125 pounds.
After Kalil trimmed the lead to six, Haislip was able to erase the Navy Blue lead with his pin over McCaffrey. Following a scoreless opening period, Haislip got McCaffrey on his back for a three-point near fall. Twenty seconds later, McCaffrey reversed the hold and then was awarded three-point near fall to take a 5-3 advantage. Haislip got to within one with an escape with just under a minute to go in the period when he got McCaffrey to his back and this time ended the match with a pin at 4:49.
Senior Matt Pagan (Carteret, N.J.) gave the Navy Blue team the lead once again as he took care of sophomore Joey Breen (Pasadena, Md.) in what was Breen's first match in nearly a year. Breen suffered a thumb injury that would later escalate into a serious infection that took him out of school for an entire semester. Breen tied the match up in the second period at two-all, but a Pagan takedown with 1:10 left in the period and an escape to open the third salted the match away, 6-2.
The match came down to the final bout of the night and one that featured the team's leader, senior Glenn Shober (Reading, Pa.). Shober scored three takedowns and an escape by the middle of the second period and never looked back, as he earned an 8-3 victory over sophomore John Majka (Chicago, Ill.) and left the two teams locked at 16-16.
Returning NCAA qualifier Luke Rebertus (Elkton, Md.) and senior Mike Billings (Waterford, Mich.) squared off in an exhibition match upon the conclusion of the Blue-Gold Challenge Matches, where Rebertus would squeak by with a 5-4 win.
"I was pleased with how our guys competed tonight," said 10th-year Navy head coach Bruce Burnett. "While we have a lot of room to get better and refine our skills, there were several good matches. At this point in the season, we are looking to see how each wrestler competes and how he reacts to the crowd, to having an official here, to winning or losing. It's an evaluation period so that we are able to correct those bad habits now so that in March we'll be ready to compete at the highest level.
"I really felt like all five freshmen did a pretty good job of competing," added Burnett. "I'm looking forward to seeing what the season has in store for us and I think the guys are really looking forward to getting the season started and wrestling someone other than one another."
Navy officially opens its season next Saturday at the Eastern Michigan Open where last year three Mids claimed titles in their respective weight classes, including Saddoris and McCaffrey.
2009 Blue-Gold Challenge Matches:
157 Bryce Saddoris (B) major Cory Vernon (G), 20-9 (2:19 RT) 4-0
165 Oscar Huntley (B) dec Robby Neill (G), 3-2 7-0
184 Matt DeMichiel (G) dec Andrew Buck (B), 5-2 7-3
197 Nick Hylton (B) dec Ben Hatef (G), 3-3 TB2 (0:29) 10-3
Hwt Dan Miller (B) dec Mike Landis (G), 5-3 13-3
125 Aaron Kalil (G) major Austin Clouse (B), 12-3 (3:11 RT) 13-7
133 Dustin Haislip (G) fall Pat McCaffrey (B), 4:49 13-13
141 Matt Pagan (B) dec Joey Breen (G), 6-2 (1:58 RT) 16-13
149 Glenn Shober (G) dec John Majka (B), 8-3 (2:25 RT) 16-16
Exhibition
174 Luke Rebertus (G) dec. Mike Billings (B), 5-4 (1:16 RT) ---
Navy Wrestling - Casey Caldwell receives academic honor
NCAA Qualifier Casey Caldwell Recognized for Classroom Success
ANNAPOLIS, Md. — Recent Naval Academy graduate Casey Caldwell (Liberty, Ind.), a 2009 NCAA Championship qualifier, was among the 73 Div. I wrestlers nationwide to be named to the 2008-09 National Wrestling Coaches Association’s (NWCA) All-Academic Team. The team featured a total of 51 NCAA qualifiers, 17 NCAA All-Americans, eight NCAA Finalists and five National Champions.
Caldwell’s contributions to the Navy wrestling program over the last two seasons were extraordinary. While the Union County High School product concluded his career with a 56-36 record, he owned a combined 53-29 mark in his final two years of competition including a 19-4 dual match mark. He saved his best season for last, however, winning 32 matches this winter and becoming just the 26th different wrestler in program history to reach the 30-win milestone. Among those 32 victories was an 11-match winning streak that eventually helped lead him to his first individual tournament title (All-Academy Championship), as well as a sixth-place finish at the EIWA Championship.
After just missing the mark as an automatic NCAA qualifier through the EIWA Championship, Caldwell, who wrestled at the 184-pound weight class, was one of 52 at-large selections chosen by the NCAA to participate in the 2008-09 NCAA Championship. Not only was Caldwell able to close out his collegiate career as an NCAA qualifier, he was also successful in capturing a 7-6 decision over Buffalo’s Mickey Moran in the wrestleback round.
Boasting a 3.25 grade-point average over the span of four years, Caldwell graduated in May with a degree in hand in the field of quantitative economics. He was ranked 259th in overall order of merit among his class of 1,065 students and No. 23 in military order of merit. He was named to the Commandant’s List in all eight semesters and twice earned mention on the Superintendent’s List. During the graduation ceremony, Caldwell was commissioned into the United States Navy as an Ensign and has service selected special warfare.
Individually, wrestlers must have at least a 3.2 cumulative GPA, been an NCAA qualifier or won 60 percent of his total schedule – and must have competed in at least 60 percent of said schedule. The other way to qualify for the All-Academic Team is have a 3.0 cumulative and been an NCAA All-American.
### Go Navy ###
Navy Wrestling - The late Peter Blair to be enshrined in National Wrestling Hall of Fame
Peter Blair to be Inducted into National Wrestling Hall of Fame, June 5-6
STILLWATER, Okla. — The National Wrestling Hall of Fame & Museum will host its 33rd annual Honors Weekend culminating in the Induction Ceremony on June 5-6 in Stillwater, Okla. Honored will be the Class of 2009 inductees in the categories of Distinguished Member, Outstanding American, Order of Merit, Medal of Courage and Lifetime Achievement for Officials.
The late Peter Blair will be inducted as a Distinguished Member. A Distinguished Member is a wrestler who has achieved extraordinary success in national and/or international competition, a coach who has demonstrated great leadership in the profession and has compiled an outstanding record, a contributor whose long-term activities have substantially enhanced the development and advancement of the sport, or any combination of the above qualifications.
Those seeking information can contact Gary Abbott of USA Wrestling at 719-659-9637 cell.
Peter Blair – Distinguished Member
He never made his high school team, but by the time he graduated from college, Peter Steele Blair, known as “Destroyer,” had achieved the heights in the sport of wrestling.
A 5-foot-6 inch lightweight, Blair couldn’t make the lineup for Billy Martin’s Granby High School in Norfolk, Va. Upon graduating at age 16, he joined the U.S. Navy and was chosen to attend the Naval Academy Preparatory School in Bainbridge, Md. By the end of the next two years, he had grown over seven inches and made a name for himself, going undefeated at 177 pounds.
Success followed him to the U.S. Naval Academy, where in four years on the varsity team, he lost only five matches. A 177-pounder as a freshman and sophomore, Blair moved up to 191 pounds and won back-to-back NCAA championships in 1954 and 1955. His final record as a Midshipman was 57-5 with 31 falls. Known to his teammates as a “master of leverage and balance” with a “grip of steel,” he captained the team as a senior and earned the Naval Academy’s prestigious Thompson Award as the midshipman who contributed most to the promotion of athletics.
But he wasn’t finished yet.
After commissioning, Ensign Blair remained at the Academy to train for the 1956 Olympic Trials. In the AAU National Freestyle Championships, he pinned five consecutive opponents to capture the title. Two weeks later, he earned a berth on the team bound for Melbourne. As captain of the Olympic team, Blair won a bronze medal losing on points to eventual champion Gholam Takhti of Iran and to silver medalist Boris Koulaev of Russia.
Blair served his country on submarines, ships and in Academy classrooms, retiring with the rank of Commander in 1974. He joined Pacific Ordinance and Electronics and managed company activities in Tsoying, Taiwan and Rio de Janeiro. In 1981, he joined Marinette Marine Shipyard and worked his way to vice president of marketing. He passed away on June 29, 1994, after a brief battle with cancer.
As a man who served both his sport and his country with distinction, Peter Steele Blair is honored as a Distinguished Member of the National Wrestling Hall of Fame.
### Go Navy ###