The Wrestling continues

On Jan.20th I participated in the UW-Oshkosh Open wrestling tournament. This is a late season college open wrestling tournament that is attended by several NCAA Div. III teams and NCAA Div. I backups. Somehow I managed to garner the #2 seed at 165lbs. despite not being in school, not practicing, or having much success in the previous 2 tournaments that I wrestled in this winter. My performance was not so bad for a 29 year old that is not practicing with any team. My first match was against a Purdue wrestler (NCAA Div. I) that was the eventual tournament champion. I lost this match in the second overtime. My second match was a first period technical fall win in 2:28 (15-0), third match was won by pin in 1:06, forth match I was pinned in the second period against a Northwestern University wrestler (NCAA Div. I), and in my fifth and final match I lost 11-9 in overtime to the new UW-Eau Claire 165lber. In the last match my old coaches knew I was exhausted going into the match and had their new guy pushing me the whole time. Turned out to be a good strategy. In the closing seconds of the third period he was able to get a take down to tie up the match and send it into overtime. In overtime he got in on a single leg take down and I was unable to fight it off. He wrestled a great match and the coaches, I later found out, had let him know the moves that I would be using and how to defend and counter them.
It was great to see my old teammates and spend some time with them. As for the next tournament I am going to attend, I am not sure. There are no more college opens this season that I will be able to get to. I will have to resume Freestyle wrestling in the spring if I want to wrestle some more before next winter. That should be interesting since I have not been to a Freestyle tournament in 11 years!