UW-Milwaukee Ends Season With 6 Wins At Nationals    15 March, 2008

LAKELAND -- UW-Milwaukee finished competing in the three-day NCWA National Tournament on March 15 by having Darin Kwilinski (Sr, 174) crowned as an NCWA All-American. The senior capped his career with an 8th place finish.

"It's a dream come true," said Darin of his All-American achievement. "It's what I've been working for all eights years of my career. The reason I wrestled in college is because I didn't feel accomplished enough in high school. Now that I'm an All-American, one of the highest honors you can get, I can finally hang up my shoes and say I did something in wrestling."

Kwilinski lost his first match 14-7 before rattling off four consecutive victories to earn the honor. The final win he needed to become an All-American came in dramatic against Abu-Ali of Kansas State University. As a scoreless first period was winding down, Abu-Ali hit a lateral drop to put Darin on his back. Kwilinski rolled through and put Abu-Ali on his back and held him there. The referee hit the mat as time expired. With all observers waiting with bated breath, the referee announced that the pin occurred in time, and that Kwilinski won by fall in 2:59.

"It happened so fast that I didn't have much time to think about it; I just reacted," Kwilinski said, describing the sequence that ended with his victory. "The second I was thrown, I knew he was in bad position, so I just rolled through, and squeezed as hard as I could, hoping I could just end it right there."

UW-Milwaukee head coach Koy Kosek had similar thoughts.

"I looked at the clock and there were eight seconds left, Abu-Ali was on his back, and Darin had it locked up quite tight. I realized that Darin could pin him right there. I yelled to Darin that he still had enough time, to squeeze hard and go for the pin," said Coach Kosek. "He did, the ref hit the mat, and after he hit it, I looked quickly to the clock and it read one second. I was relieved that the ref made the right call. It was a good feeling. Darin earned this."

Kwilinski expounded on his feelings after being named All-American.

"I was quite speechless," he recalled. "I did a little bit of celebrating. The feeling sunk in right away, that I had finally achieved my goal that I had worked for all season. It was just an incredible sense of accomplishment, happiness, joy and relief, knowing that my hard work had paid off."

The team finished in 38th place overall with 12 team points. Coach Kosek offered his assessment of the team's performance.

"We went 0-4 in the first session," he explained. "I felt that this team was better than that. We went back to the hotel and watched every match. I challenged the team and asked them if this was how they wanted their season to end. I told them that I didn't see us generating much fund-raising interest in the off-season after an 0-8 showing at Nationals. Then we discussed some adjustments that had to be made. After that, Omar wrestled hard but just got beat by a better opponent, Tom pretty much did too, Alex won his next two matches, and Darin won his next four, followed by a 5-4 loss to Lance Esch, and Esch had beaten Darin 14-6 just two weeks earler. I was mildly disappointed with our overall showing, but I wasn't upset overall with how we performed after that first round."

Alex Hughes (Fr, 125) had a somewhat successful end to the season, too, as the team's only other point scorer at Nationals:

"It was a very new experience," said Alex, a 2007 WIAA State Place winner at 103. "I liked how it was very structured. The style of wrestling was a lot different than I expected. I was disappointed with losing my first match. But the rest of the tournament, I felt that I pretty much for the most part did my best.

"I was happy to see that Darin went as far as he did," continued Hughes, commenting on the team, "but I would have liked the other guys to have gotten a win or two in at Nationals."

Coach Kosek offered his thoughts on the team's performance as well.

"I don't know if I got out-coached, I probably did, but I know I definitely got out-scouted," said Kosek. "We knew they would be throwing and rolling like crazy, but this went way beyond what we expected. I didn't think we'd see this good of throwing and rolling all season. We're used to NCAA Division 2 and Division 3 wrestling in the midwest, where teams mostly try to beat the snot out of you and don't worry much about throwing or rolling in general.

"This was like a freestyle tournament, relatively speaking. The style that's evolved in the NCWA is wide open, with less emphasis on being physical and conditioning. And at Nationals, I was surprised at how good a lot of the guys were at it. We went to five NCAA opens in Wisconsin this year, and the best throwers and rollers I saw this season were at the NCWA National Tournament, and I'm not kidding.

"If we can get the gang back together again next year and make another run at it, I can assure you that we will be better prepared to combat this style of wrestling.

"In the meantime," continued Kosek, "the program over the last four months has taken Darin Kwilinski from 0-2 at conference last season to All-American this season. We saw Alex Hughes go from a 103-pounder who was 6th best among Division 1 high school teams in Wisconsin reach the top sixteen at 125 at NCWA Nationals in one year. Omar Reynoso, who never got out of Regionals in high school and sat out of wrestling for two years entirely, got to NCWA Nationals in his first year back in competition.

"It has been established that dedicated wrestlers can now learn to compete at the college level and improve their skills at UW-Milwaukee. I hope that will be noted by wrestlers who want the opportunity to compete at UW-Milwaukee."

 

Tom Hansen is in tournament at 141
12 March, 2008
LAKELAND -- Tom Hansen (So, 141) was added to the bracket at NCWA Nationals today and will be competing in the 141-pound weight class. Hansen took 8th place at the North Central Conference Tournament and did not receive an automatic bid. He was added when a wrestler who qualified ahead of him dropped out of the tournament.

Competition is set to begin at 10:00 am tomorrow at the University of Central Florida

Three or Four UW-Milwaukee Wrestlers Advance to Nationals

http://uwmwrestling.com/
Team takes 9th place. Hughes, Reynoso, and Kwilinski advance to Nationals; Hansen seeks wild card
03 March, 2008
COLUMBUS – In a tournament that was kicked off with a brief speech by Arnold Schwarzenegger, UW-Milwaukee wrestlers brought home awards for eighth place, seventh place, and two awards for third place for their efforts at this year’s NCWA North Central Conference Tournament.

Alex Hughes (Fr, 125), Omar Reynoso (Jr, 157), and Darin Kwilinski (Sr, 174) all finished in the top seven at their respective weight classes to lock up places at the NCWA National Tournament, which is to be held from March 13th-15th at the University of Central Florida in Lakeland, FL. Tom Hansen (So, 141) took eighth place and will not find out until later in the week if he will receive a wild card selection to compete at the tournament. Tony Franciosi (Jr, 165) went 0-2.

“The wild card process in the NCWA is somewhat intricate,” explained head coach Koy Kosek, “but there is definitely a chance that Hansen could get into Nationals. We’re hoping that he does because there’s no question that he can compete there; we’ll just have to wait to see what the selection committee decides.”

Hughes and Kwilinski, who were seeded fourth and fifth, respectively, coming into the tournament both finished in third place at the event. In each case, their only loss of the tournament came to the eventual champion in their bracket. Hughes avenged a 6-5 loss on January 13th to Bowling Green State ’s David Briggs (So, 125) by defeating him 8-1 at the conference tournament to advance to the third place match.

Reynoso, who was seeded ninth at the tournament, cut it much closer, wrestling his way into a must-win match for seventh place. He scored a pin in the second period to secure his spot at NCWA Nationals in dramatic fashion.

"When the referee raised my hand after I had won my final match, I realized that all the hard work had finally paid off," said a pleased Reynoso after the match. "All the grueling hours of practice and endless film sessions were all justified by that single moment. Qualifying for Nationals is, by far, my biggest achievement this year. During the beginning of the season, Nationals was definitely not in my sights.

"Wrestling again, after a two year break, was somewhat like learning how to walk again," continued Reynoso, a junior in college, referring to the fact that he hadn’t wrestled since high school when the season began. "The biggest obstacle for me was to make the transition from high school wrestling to collegiate level wrestling. Having achieved what seemed like an unattainable goal in the beginning of the season makes me quite proud of myself."

It was the first NCWA-only individual tournament that UW-Milwaukee has competed in all season. Coach Kosek elaborated on the distinction between the NCWA and the NCAA teams that the team is used to competing against.

"A lot of what we lost on," Kosek explained, "was what I would consider high school wrestling technique: throws and rolls and weird, tricky moves and positions that the college teams we face generally don’t build their gameplans around. Perhaps I could more generously call it Greco-Roman-style wrestling, at least on the feet. There was an enormous kid’s tournament going on next to our mats, and with the rolling around and things that were going on in the college matches, I wasn’t sure at times if I was watching kid’s wrestling or college wrestling. We expected that here, but they still caught us a few times. That’s the type of thing that Tom lost his seventh place match on. No move was too low-percentage to try at the NCWA conference tournament. In a way it was more exciting for fans, but I think it also randomized the outcomes of matches more than we’re used to from competing at NCAA tournaments all season. That will be a big adjustment for us before Nationals."

The team took ninth place among the sixteen programs that competed in the tournament.

"I was thrilled for Alex, Omar, and Darin," said Coach Kosek. "The one black mark on the day for me was Tom's failure to get an automatic qualification to Nationals. Tony had one close match, but he was seeded #13 coming in so a top 7 finish would have been considered a real bonus. As a team, I was rather pleased with how the guys we had here did. To beat almost half the teams here with only five guys was a good showing for us. We won more matches than we lost. The team finished higher at this tournament than it did last season. I felt like a lot of what we've been working on all season finally paid off for us. We've shown the ability to take a new college wrestler, like Omar or Alex, and make him into a national qualifier in one season. For the program, it's just a matter of getting more guys in the system at this point.

"If a couple of guys wouldn’t have quit, or if Schiltz hadn’t been deployed to Iraq, this tournament would have been very special chapter in this program’s history, but it was still a step forward.

"Now, we’re looking ahead to Nationals."

Kwilinski Carries Panthers
15 January, 2008
CEDAR FALLS – With a starter deployed to Iraq just one week before the event and small numbers to begin with, the UW-Milwaukee wrestling team entered the NWCA National Duals with just seven wrestlers to fill out the NCWA’s eleven weight classes.

The team fell to #4 seed Marion Military Institute by a score of 51-9 in the quarterfinal dual. Nick Tadeo (Jr, 149) and Darin Kwilinski (Sr, 184) secured the Panthers’ only two wins, with Kwilinski winning his match by fall. Marion Military would lose to #1 seed and eventual champion Grand Valley State 42-10 in the semifinals before upsetting #2 seed Central Florida in the third place match by a score of 24-17.

In UW-Milwaukee’s second match, they faced a Kansas State University squad that brought just seven wrestlers to the meet. Alex Hughes (Fr, 125) began the dual with a 15-0 rout and then, after a double forfeit at 133, Tom Hansen (So, 141) followed it up with a win by fall. At 149, Nick Tadeo (Jr, 149) lost to make the team score 11-3 in UW-Milwaukee’s favor. The Panthers forfeited at 157, after which Omar Reynoso (Jr, 157) got pinned while wrestling up a weight class at 165 to make the team score 15-11 in Kansas State’s favor. The Panthers forfeited again at 174 before sending Tony Franciosi (Jr, 174) out to accept a forfeit at 184. Both teams forfeited the 197-pound weight class.

With the team score at 21-17 in Kansas State’s favor, and UW-Milwaukee having one forfeit in their favor pending, the winner of the meet would come down to the final match. The Panthers sent out Darin Kwilinski (Sr, 174) in the 235-pound bout and Kansas State countered by sending out Zach McGill (Gr, 235). Darin took a stalling warning in the first period, but no points were scored until the second period, when McGill took bottom and scored an escape. McGill took a stalling warning, but no further points were scored in the second period. Kwilinski chose bottom in the third period and got an escape to even the score at 1-1. McGill got a takedown to go up 3-1, but Darin got away fairly quickly to pull to with one point, 3-2. With time winding down, Kwilinski finished a shot to go up 4-3. McGill rose to his feet but Kwilinski drove him back down to his knees with seven seconds left. Darin held McGill down for the remainder of the period to win by a final margin of 4-3. The win made the team score 21-20, and Dan Piechowski (So, 285) received the forfeit at 285 to make the final team score 26-21 in favor of the Panthers.

In the dual for fifth place, UW-Milwaukee squared off against Bowling Green State University. The Panthers won four of seven matches, but Bowling Green State picked up 24 points from four forfeits to secure the win by a score of 36-16, leaving UW-Milwaukee in sixth place at the NWCA National Duals.

“The stated goal of the National Wrestling Coaches Association is to get the best teams from every collegiate wrestling association here,” offered Panther head coach Koy Kosek. “We took sixth place out of the eight teams who were invited here, so I was pleased with that. That’s not to say that we’re the sixth best team in the NCWA right now, but we wrestled the teams who finished in third, fifth, and seventh place here, and we won about half of our matches, so we’re competitive with those teams.

“Given everything this team has gone through this season – with not having a coach until mid-November and a coaching change and having a starter deployed to Iraq the week of the National Duals and all of that – and given that most of the guys in my lineup here have never finished a season of college wrestling before, I was very proud that we held it together this well. The program took third place out of four teams here last year, so taking sixth place out of eight teams this year is really not any worse. Again, given everything this team has been through, I think that’s saying something.

“Today was maybe the first time all season that I was proud of not just the effort levels but also the results, at least to some extent. Not counting forfeits, we actually won the majority of our matches against both Kansas State and Bowling Green State.”

All duals began at the 125-pound weight class.

Exhibition matches: Ahsha Abu-Ali, KSU over Tony Franciosi, UWM, 11-7; Rudy Corpus, BGSU over Alex Hughes, UWM, 11-6; Ryan Harden, BGSU over Omar Reynoso, UWM, 10-2

Marion Military Institute 51, UW-Milwaukee 9
LBS WINNER RESULT LOSER SCORE/TIME
125 CeeJay Hamilton (MMI) Tech Alex Hughes (UOW) 17-2, 4:44
133 Benjamin Canning (MMI) FF (UOW)
141 Jude Hubbard (MMI) Pin Tom Hansen (UOW) 2:41
149 Nick Tadeo (UOW) Dec Michael Lampkin (MMI) 8-3
157 Dante Graham (MMI) Maj Omar Reynoso (UOW) 19-6
165 Ian Wrenn (MMI) FF (UOW)
174 Derrick Miller (MMI) Pin Anthony Franciosi (UOW) 4:08
184 Darin Kwilinski (UOW) Pin Jacob Pomeroy (MMI) 6:11
197 Robert Barberi (MMI) FF (UOW)
235 Jay Brenowitz (MMI) FF (UOW)
285 Shane Raymond (MMI) Pin Dan Piechowski (UOW) 6:40

UW-Milwaukee 26, Kansas State University 21
LBS WINNER RESULT LOSER SCORE/TIME
125 Alex Hughes (UOW) Tech Tyler Williamson (KSU) 16-0, 5:33
141 Tom Hansen (UOW) Pin Bricen Biehler (KSU) 2:23
149 Thomas Pipes (KSU) Dec Nick Tadeo (UOW) 11-6
157 Matt Westin (KSU) FF (UOW)
165 Brendan Lund (KSU) Pin Omar Reynoso (UOW) 1:33
174 Ahsha Abu-Ali (KSU) FF (UOW)
184 Anthony Franciosi (UOW) FF (KSU)
235 Darin Kwilinski (UOW) Dec Zachary McGill (KSU) 4-3
285 Dan Piechowski (UOW) FF (KSU)


Bowling Green State University 36, UW-Milwaukee 16
LBS WINNER RESULT LOSER SCORE/TIME
125 David Briggs (BGS) Dec Alex Hughes (UOW) 6-5
133 Rudy Corpus (BGS) FF (UOW)
141 Tom Hansen (UOW) Maj Destine McClaflin (BGS) 10-2
149 Anthony Nicholson (BGS) Dec Nick Tadeo (UOW) 12-6
157 Omar Reynoso (UOW) Dec Nick Retay (BGS) 4-3
165 Steven Liechty (BGS) FF (UOW)
174 Scott Liechty (BGS) Pin Anthony Franciosi (UOW) 2:41
184 Darin Kwilinski (UOW) Dec Greg Burger (BGS) 6-3
197 Jared Voldness (BGS) FF (UOW)
235 Teddy George (BGS) FF (UOW)
285 Dan Piechowski (UOW) Pin Adam Isbell (BGS) 2:33
 

Panther 157-pounder gets sent to Iraq
14 January, 2008
MILWAUKEE -- Milwaukee Panther wrestler Coady Schiltz is being deployed to Iraq in the near future. He received the news on Friday, Jan. 4th.

Coady, a freshman from Mauston, WI, was the team's starting 157-pounder and was showing impressive improvement according to Panther head coach Koy Kosek.

"We needed him in our line-up, but the United States Navy needs him in their line-up worse," said Coach Kosek. "As long as I'm the coach here, Coady has a place on this team waiting for him when he gets home. He would do the Navy's physical training in the morning and our wrestling work-outs at night. The only time he ever argued with me was when I told him he was training too much. I've got a pretty good group, but when he was here, Coady worked harder than anyone on this team."

Schiltz was recruited as a wrestler at various colleges, but he elected to go to UW-Milwaukee, in large part because of the ROTC program the Navy offers at the school. Getting deployed to Iraq was not part of his plan, but Coady feels he's ready to take on the challenge.

"It was kind of a surprise to me. It wasn't planned," Schiltz said. "But I'm needed and it's my job, so I can't complain. I'm ready. It's what I was doing before coming to college and it's what I was trained to do [in the ROTC program]."

The exact location and duration of Schiltz's mission are classified, although he will be in Iraq. He is not sure about the precise date that he'll be coming back, but he is clear about what his intentions will be once he returns home.

"I'm wrestling when I get back," stated Schiltz. "I didn't get to finish what I started."

http://www.uwmwrestling.com/indexnews.php?action=fullnews&id=16 

UW Milwaukee Names New Head Coach (11/15/2007)

MILWAUKEE – Koy Kosek has been named the head coach of the UW-Milwaukee Panther wrestling program succeeding Rudy Ruiz.  Ruiz has a growing family and wished to devote more time to his wife and children.

“This program has a vision to become an NCAA Division 1 wrestling program. I hope to guide this program to realizing that vision, and for some time beyond.” Coach Kosek said. “For now, I am focused on the 10 or so wrestlers who are committed to the program. I want to give them as much coaching as I can immediately so they can be in a position to succeed as college wrestlers by the end of this season."

“Leading a college wrestling program is a unique and extremely exciting challenge. I look forward to bringing in the best people I can find, in any capacity, to be around this program. I am proud to be Panther.”

Koy Kosek is from Manitowoc, WI and is a former NCAA Division 1 wrestler. He has recently been pursuing a career as a writer and wrestling analyst. His most recent project is the 2007-08 Wisconsin Wrestling Digest.

Wisconsin's best known wrestling writer takes reigns of UW-Milwaukee Panther wrestling

The UWM Wrestling Club proudly presents the 3rd Annual Milwaukee Duals!

Starting at 7PM on Friday, December 7th, your #24 ranked Milwaukee wrestlers will take on the UW Madison Club team and Northland Baptist Bible College at Riverside University High School in a tri-dual!

The cost is free to students with a valid UWM ID and $5 for the public.

So come cheer on your Milwaukee wrestlers to victory! Bring your friends and family and participate in the raffle as well, complete with sweat shirts, sweat pants and t-shirts courtesy of the UWM Bookstore!