High school wrestling fans jammed Wells Fargo Arena Friday night for the state tournament finals in all three classes. The event was sold out for the 24th consecutive year.
The Class 3-A team title drama went down to the final match, when Cody Krumwiede posted a 10-0 major decision victory that sent Waverly-Shell Rock past Iowa City West. Waverly-Shell Rock, which has now won four consecutive championships, finished with 152 points to West’s 150.
Bettendorf was third at 148. Two of the three team titles were decided during the afternoon’s consolations — Logan-Magnolia in Class 1-A and Davenport Assumption in Class 2-A.
Here were some of the highlights that transpired during Friday night’s finals:
— Jordan Bremer of Woodbury Central repeated as 103-pound champion in Class 1-A.
— Dylan Peters of Denver-Tripoli won the Class 2-A title at 112 pounds. He won the 103 title last year.
— Cory Clark of Southeast Polk is now 3-for-3 when it comes to winning state titles. He improved his record to 129-0, with a 5-2 victory against Kegan Wakefield of Iowa City West.
— Alburnett’s Tyler Shulista claimed the Class 1-A title at 119 pounds with a pin in 1:07. The junior won at 112 last year.
— Christopher Halblom, a senior from Alburnett, became a three-time champion, capturing the title at 125 pounds in Class 1-A.
— John Meeks of Des Moines Roosevelt joined Cory Clark as a 3-for-3 state champion. Meeks improved his career record to 123-0 with a 9-4 victory against Kegan Wakefield of Iowa City West.
— Brandon Sorensen of Denver-Tripoli won the 130-pound title in Class 1-A. He was the champ at 119 in 2010.
— Jake Marlin of Creston/Orient-Macksburg added this year’s 135-pound championship to the one he won last year at 130.
— Brian Warren became third wrestler in Des Moines North history to win a state title, prevailing in 140 pounds in Class 3-A. The other North champs: Jack Welch in 1970 and Robert Cole in 1996. North has a shared program with Hoover.
— Robert Walker of Martensdale-St. Marys repeated as the champion at 140 in Class 1-A.
— Cody Caldwell of Waverly-Shell Rock finished his traditional tournament career with a third state title, taking the top prize at 152 pounds.
— Ballard of Huxley Tanner Weatherman won his third career title with a convincing victory at 171 in Class 3-A. He was a four-time finalist.
— Kane Seeley became Perry’s first state champion since 1971, winning at 215 pounds in Class 2-A.
Ryan Thomas has had experience dealing with adversity so when things didn’t go his way in 2010, he went right back to work. The 11-6 welterweight trains out of American Top Team in Florida, but he got his start right here in the midwest. Thomas made the transition to MMA when Eastern Illinois cut their wrestling program while he was still on the team. Thomas worked his way up to the UFC and was a participant in the Bellator season 2 welterweight tournament where he fought and lost to eventual champion Ben Askren twice. Thomas would go on to lose a decision to “Judo” Jim Wallhead with an invite to the season 4 welterweight tournament on the line.
Needless to say, Thomas has plans for bigger and better things in 2011. It all starts in a homecoming of sorts on February 19th when he squares off with dangerous submission artist Daniel Head in the main event of Colosseum Combat XVI in Kokomo, Indiana
Ryan was kind enough to speak with CageCraze.com about his upcoming fight with Daniel Head and his future prospects.
When asked how he planned to get back on track in 2011, Ryan had a very simple answer.
“Well it starts with Daniel Head. I’ve just got let people know that I’m for real. I’m gonna make a statement on his face. All the fights I’ve won, I’ve finished my opponent. I plan to keep doing the same thing with Daniel Head. He’s a tough guy. He hangs in there and waits for you to make a mistake but he’s used to fighting 155 pounders. I think he’s gonna have a hard time hanging in there with me with my power and strength advantage.”
Thomas plans on using the momentum of a win over Head to propel himself into immediate relevancy for the next Bellator welterweight tournament after season 4 concludes.
“I’ve got one more fight on my contract,” said an excited Thomas. ”This fight will help me go into the Bellator fight with a little momentum behind me. Coming off a loss, I’ve just gotta make sure I come into the Daniel Head fight in shape, stay in shape and roll right into the Bellator season which opens up March 5th. It’s 12 weeks long so I’m expecting to fight some time in that timespan.”
After losing in the season 2 welterweight tournament, Thomas made a big change. He packed up his bags and moved from Illinois to Florida to train with one of the premiere MMA fight camps, American Top Team.
“Florida’s been great”, said Thomas. ”I live real close to the gym. Back in Illinois I was driving two hours a day to the gym and a couple hours back from the gym. I’ve been doing a lot of jiu jitsu with Master Ricardo Liborio and Master Conan Silveira.”
Thomas actually trained with Daniel Head’s current jiu jitsu instructor James Clingerman every week when he lived in Illinois. He understands that Head will have plenty of inside info on his game but he assured us that he has evolved considerably since he moved to Florida.
“I think I’ve evolved a lot and my striking has evolved a lot too. I’ve been working with top guys here training with all the big name pros and I’m hanging with them and that’s something to be said for the stable of fighters they have down here. I definitely have to be on my toes though because if I slip up (Daniel)’s gonna snatch me in something.”
Throughout his burgeoning MMA career, Thomas was studying to be an elementary school teacher. Both Ryan and his opponent Daniel Head actually received degrees in elementary education. Thomas graduated in 2009 and continued his education, recently earning his endorsement to teach Physical Education.
“I have my first job interview three days after the Daniel Head fight so the goal in that fight is to not get too beat up”, said a laughing Thomas. ”It’s for a first and second grade PE position so I don’t want to go in there looking like Sloth from the Goonies. I definitely want to come out of this fight better looking than I did after the Wallhead fight.”
Speaking of Jim Wallhead, Thomas had heaps of praise for the tough British judo specialist.
“He’s a tough guy, really respectful and tough as nails. I worked my wrestling a lot and I couldn’t take him down. Jim probably has the best takedown defense of anyone I’ve ever fought. I took down Ben Askren but I couldn’t take down Jim Wallhead. I’ve been working on that, working on my striking and working off my back a lot more. I got banged up a little bit when I pulled guard on him so I’m making sure that next time I’m on my back I’m gonna not get punched and go for some submissions and hopefully get something going off my back.
If Judo Jim can get through the tournament and match up with Askren, I think that’d be a really good matchup for Wallhead because he’s got the best takedown defense in the tournament. He might have the best chance at keeping it standing.”
When the name of the Bellator welterweight champion, Ben Askren, was brought up, Thomas discussed the almost other-worldly power that Askren has in sucking his opponents into grappling matches.
“He does that to everybody. You go in there with a gameplan of sprawl and brawl and he’s just got something about him where he turns it into a wrestling match. Nobody’s gonna win a wrestling match with Ben Askren in MMA.”
The interview made a cyclical turn, returning back to Thomas’ upcoming opponent. Ryan realizes that there are parallels between Askren and Daniel Head when it comes to the gameplan for his Colosseum Combat main event.
“I have to make sure I don’t fall into the same trap with Daniel Head”, said a cautious Thomas. ”His gameplan is going to be similar. He’s going to know that I’m a better striker just like Askren did and he’s probably gonna wanna be on top. I think Daniel Head’s Achilles heel is absorbing too much damage from bottom so I don’t think he’s gonna wanna be on his back against me. He’s gonna try to get on top of me which is the same gameplan I was trying to work on against Ben Askren. I have to make sure I don’t fall into that trap again. I don’t want to turn this into a grappling match against Daniel Head because I know that’s his strong point.”
When asked about his goals for 2011, Thomas said he first wants to defeat Daniel Head. After that, he’d love to have a fight with MMA veteran Shonie Carter which he says is potentially in the works. He also stated that he wants to renegotiate a new contract with Bellator and secure an invite to the next welterweight tournament to go after the title.
Ryan Thomas would like to thank his sponsors and friends: American Top Team, the Institute of Human Performance, KCMdistribution.com and The Business Card Shoppe. Also Enlightening Fashion, Integrity Streetwear, Jim Hartt Physical Therapy and Tim Wills at Modern Fighting Systems who helped him schedule his upcoming fight.
BJ Penn does an interview just a few days before his upcoming rematch against UFC lightweight champion Frankie Edgar, and he comes across very likable and humble. His thoughts on James Toney are interesting to say the least, but Penn more than likely gets a cut of PPV revenue so of course he’s loving it.
Natural ambassador for mixed martial arts, Randy Couture explains how his upcoming bout with James Toney came about. He also breaks down the tactics he’ll like to use, and mentions his role in The Expendables.
A recent interview with Forrest Griffin, who is out on the road promoting his new book, was a guest on the “Jason Ellis Show on Sirius XM – Faction” on Aug. 10 was asked about a rumor that he’d be facing fast rising UFC light-heavyweight Jon “Bones” Jones.
Griffin gave a less than enthusiastic reply to the question. Here’s part of the transcript for the interview from BloodyElbow.com.
“I hope I am not fighting Jon ‘Bones’ Jones. I might be. F*ck it; if I am, I am. I will do it, but I am not even training right now. That is a bad dude. That dude will whoop my ass. F*ck it. What is the worst, I mean, it could not be worse than Anderson Silva. It should not be worse than that, right? Every fight I go into, no matter what happens, it could not be worse than Anderson Silva.”
“Because that sh*t was a year ago and literally every day people ask me something about that – What happened? What happened?”
“[Anderson punched me in the chin] Repeatedly and I was very confused. I tried to punch him and he literally moved his head out of the way and looked at me like I was stupid for doing it. He looked at me like – “Why would you do such a stupid thing?” He looked at me like – “Oh, did you really think you were going to hit me? What a stupid thing to think, you slow slow white boy.”
MMA fans may forget how soft spoken and smart Jon Fitch is, and his interview with MMA Fanhouse shows his clear understanding of Thiago Alves and his “weight issues.” Hopefully the two will hook up at UFC 117 this Saturday as planned, but until then everyone’s on pins and needles.
Thiago Alves will finally have a chance at redemption when he rematches Jon Fitch at the upcoming UFC 117. Alves is certainly more polished and more powerful than when the two met, and he’ll carry much more experience into the bout, but Fitch has only lost to division leader GSP since he started in the UFC so expect a tough fight either way.
