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In the House: Olympic medalist Jones, World medalists Kolat and Wong, and numerous college coaches

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by Gary Abbott, USA Wrestling

Arizona State coaches Lee Pritz and Zeke Jones working the corner in Fargo. They join our list today. Photo by Jim Thrall, Matfocus.com


As we enter day three of the USMC Junior and Cadet Nationals in Fargo, the number of wrestling dignitaries is going off the charts. So many of these greats fit multiple categories, combining their successes on the mat with coaching successes and service.


During the UWW Junior Special Wrestle-off yesterday, Olympic silver medalist and World champion Zeke Jones, the head coach of Arizona State, was in Brandon Courtney’s corner for his battle with Daton Fix. Jones has remained here in Fargo to evaluate talent as the ASU head coach, hoping to continue stock up his Sun Devil roster.


Jones joins other Olympic medalists Brandon Paulson and Jim Martinez, as well as fellow World champions John Smith, Kristie Davis, Sammie Henson and Kyle Snyder in the Fargodome this week.


A pair of past Senior World medalists have also been spotted. World silver and bronze medalist Cary Kolat, a 2000 Olympian and the head wrestling coach at Campbell University is in Fargo this year. We also visited with 2003 Women’s World bronze medalist Jenny Wong, who is one of the medical staff treating athletes here at the combined Junior and Cadet Nationals.


Kolat and Wong join Shawn Sheldon, Brandon Paulson and Leigh Jaynes as World medalists seen so far here in Fargo. Kolat also joins fellow Olympians Daniel Dennis, Doug Schwab, Ike Anderson, Rob Eiter and Ben Askren in the house.


We haven’t seen any more Olympic champions to join John Smith, and Kyle Snyder, but will keep looking


Past Senior World Team members in the house include Chris Bono, the head coach at Wisconsin, Angel Escobedo, the head coach of Indiana, and the Lansing Strangler Nick Simmons.


They are on the list with Tom Erikson, Deanna Betterman, Joe Betterman, Steve Marianetti, Reece Humphrey, Veronica Carlson, Brent Metcalf as World Team members in the house.


The NCAA champion group added Matt McDonough of Iowa, Joe Dubuque of Indiana, Kellen Russell of Michigan and Kendric Maple of Oklahoma. Of course, some of these guys are wearing other gear, as McDonough is an assistant at Wisconsin and Dubuque is an assistant at Princeton. Russell still sports his Michigan gear as a coach on the staff at his alma mater.


These guys join fellow NCAA champions Pat Smith, Derek Moore, Jared Lawrence, Jayson Ness, Troy Nickerson, Yianni Diakomihalis, Mark Munoz, Cody Brewer and Andrew Howe here in Fargo.


We add some WCWA national champions Marina and Regina Doi of King and Jessika Rottier of the Univ. of the Cumberlands, who join Julia Salata of King on that list.


NCAA Div. I coaches keep showing up, including Sean Bormet of Michigan, Kevin Ward of Army, Steve Martin of Old Dominion, Matt Storniolo of Northwestern, Neil Erisman of Little Rock and Tony Ersland of Purdue,


They join our other NCAA Div. I head coaches on the listJohn Smith of Oklahoma State, Troy Nickerson of Northern Colorado, Doug Schwab of Northern Iowa, Troy Steiner of Fresno State, Zach Tanelli of Columbia, Jeremy Spates of SIU-Edwardsville, Roger Kish of host North Dakota State and Chris Ayres of Princeton.


We are also catching up on all the Div. I college assistants. Here are today’s big list: Jon Reader of Wisconsin, Israel Silva of Fresno State, Randy Pugh of Northern Iowa, Bart Horton of Air Force, Lee Pritz of Arizona State, Kellen Russell of Michigan, Chris Williams of Michigan State, Joe Johnston of Missouri, Dominic Moyer of Northern Illinois, Matt McDonough of Wisconsin, Jarrod Garnett of North Dakota State, Joey Dance of Davidson and Isaac Jordan of Indiana.


They join Div. I assistant coaches Zach Esposito of Oklahoma State, Mike Dixon of Indiana, Nate Engel of Stanford, Ryan Morningstar of Iowa and Drew Headlee of Pittsburgh we already cited. There are more and we will continue to list them.


Head coach colleges from other divisions are also all over, which includes the legendary Mike Denny of Maryville, plus Levi Calhoun of Concordia (Neb.). They join head coaches such as Tom Carr of Central Christian, Danny Song of Case Western and Jeff Breese of Lake Erie, Tom Erikson of Lyon and Steve Marianetti of Elmhurst.


Here are a few more people worth mentioning: University World champion Tyler Caldwell, who is recruiting coordinator for Oklahoma State, former U.S. Marine Corps coach Dan Hicks (who is coaching Oklahoma) and past Women’s National Team members Carlene Sluberski and Koral Sugiyama.


We don’t have any more women’s college coaches, but will find more tomorrow when the Junior Women begin. We have seen Brian Jackson (Missouri Baptist), Kristie Davis (Emmanuel), Donnie Stephens (Cumberlands) Ashley Sword (Life), Aaron Meister (Wayland Baptist), Sam Schmitz (McKendree), Shauna Kemp (University of Jamestown) and Sarah Bollinger (Southwestern College).


We will come back again tomorrow with more sightings.

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