Bloomsburg's 165lber Rick Schmelyun
Over the course of the 2009-10 season, Bloomsburg's starting 165lber Rick Schmelyun has agreed to keep a blog with D1CW. His blog entries will give us an insight into the rigors of a student-athlete during the DI wrestling season. Rick, a captain for the Bloomsburg Huskies, was an NCAA Qualifier in 2009 for the first time after finishing 5th in the EWL Championships.
--------------------------------------------11-21 Blog------------------------------------------------------------
Well it’s been awhile since I’ve written an entry. Since the season’s been underway I’ve been pretty busy. I guess I’ll start a couple weeks back at my first competition at Clarion University. The team went out to Millersville for a tri-meet against Boston and Millersville. The guys wrestled real well and won both matches pretty decisively. Meanwhile I went to Clarion with some other guys from the team for the Knight Point open. Freshman Bryce Busler and I were the only two from the group we took to place. I was really impressed with the performances of our younger guys especially Bryce. He dropped two close matches to some tough guys and ended up with 5th. I finished the tournament with 3rd after losing in the semis to Rendos from Bucknell. I got pinned early in the first period after getting in a scramble when he shot a low single on me. I didn’t feel I was pinned but I guess the ref had the angle he needed to make the call. But that’s not the first time I’ve been in a situation like that before and I’m sure it won’t be the last. I tried not to let it get me down too much and just tried to focus on what I had to do to come back to get 3rd. On a side note, I thought the “trophies” for the tournament champions that Clarion gave out were awesome. They were 3 different knight helmets much like the ones worn by the Spartans in the movie 300. It was a very cool idea. All in all, I felt like it was a pretty good weekend for squad. We had two good wins at Millersville and pretty good performances at the Clarion open.
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Moving on to the Penn State Match. We headed to Penn State on Sunday to wrestle them in their first home match since Cael Sanderson took over. We started at 125 and wrestled under a pretty good crowd of almost four thousand fans. After giving up a 4 point tech fall at 125, our freshman 133 lber started the match off well by catching the Penn State wrestler on his back and almost getting the pin. He couldn’t keep the lead, however and went into the 3rd period down 10-5. After a scramble on their feet in the 3rd, our guy came up on top and got the stick to put us up 6-4. Then at 141, our sophomore Frank Hickman fell behind 6-0 in the first period. He picked his pace up after the first period and was able to come back for a 19-12 win. We went up 9-4 going into 149 where we gave up a major to make the match 9-8. That brought us the to premier match of the night at 157 where our #2 Matt Moley took on Penn State's #5 Cyler Sanderson. The match was pretty even till the 3rd period where Sanderson got the go-ahead takedown with about a minute left in the match. Matt got an escape but Sanderson was able to hold him off for the win. That made the team score 11-9 coming into my match against Vallimont at 165. After a scoreless first period he reversed me halfway through the second to go up 2-0. I went top in the 3rd and was able to pick up a riding point but couldn’t get any turns and lost 2-1. After picking up a win at 174 the team score was 14-12 headed into 184. We won another close decision there and took the lead again 15-14. We then lost a close 3-1 match at 197 which made the score 17-15 in favor of Penn State at Heavy. A Penn State pin in the second period sealed our fate with a final score of 23-15.
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The Penn State match was a tough match to swallow. I thought we wrestled well but we came up short against a top 20 team when we were in it to win. The last week I’ve tried to focus on the positions that have been my weaker points. I work with Coach Owen a lot this past week on getting out on bottom and leg attacks on my feet. We had a pretty hard week of practice as the coaches get us prepared to head to Annapolis this weekend for the Navy Classic. While we’re in Maryland this weekend, Matt Moley is headed to California for the NWCA All Star Classic where he will wrestle Jordan Burroughs from Nebraska. It will be a good test for Matt and a chance to solidify himself as one of the nations best. Well, the night is late and I have some school work to get done before I head to bed. We leave tomorrow afternoon for Maryland as we prepare for the classic on Saturday.
--------------------------------------------10-21 Blog------------------------------------------------------------
Well I’ve been pretty busy the last few weeks so it’s been tough for me to find time to make another entry. The team has been training hard and we’ve been preparing for our first unofficial competition at the Buffalo Open which is less than two weeks away. I’m pretty excited to get back out on the mat competing again and get my last year of D1 wrestling underway. I think at this point we’ve solidified our team and the intensity of our practices has really brought everyone together and I feel good about where our team is at right now. Our practices so far this week have been real tough as Coach Stutz and Coach Owen try to make that final push to get our conditioning where it needs to be before we step on the mat next Sunday at Buffalo. The guys from Flowrestling came to the room yesterday to talk with the coaches and some of the guys and get little footage of our workout. It’s awesome to see the passion these guys have to travel and put in endless hours of work to help promote this sport simply because they can’t get enough of it.
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My school load these last two weeks has been pretty heavy. I’ve had 3 or 4 tests and a few papers due, so between that and wrestling I haven’t had too much free time. My social stats class has been a tough one for me this semester. I usually do pretty well in math classes but when it takes half an hour to get one problem done it can get a little strenuous. Other than that my classes this semester haven’t been too tough and I’m only taking twelve credits so I really can’t complain about that.
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That’s about all the excitement that has happened since my last entry. As I mentioned earlier, our team has been pretty consistent the last two weeks. We haven’t had anymore guys drop and everyone is starting to buy in to the coaches’ work ethic and mentality that has been preached to us since day one. Almost our whole team is headed up to Buffalo next weekend which is the most guys I’ve see Bloomsburg take since I have been here. Its really good see that our guys not only train hard but are eager to get out and start competing even at a tournament that’s not on our schedule. I’m pumped to see how these next couple weeks play out as I try to make this last season my best one not only for myself but for the team as well.
- Rick Schmelyun
---------------------------------------------10-08 Blog------------------------------------------------------------
So with our preseason workouts coming to an end it’s kind of a bittersweet realization that this was the last preseason for me. Four years goes by quicker than I could have imagined. The first day of our “official” structured practices started last Monday. After that first week of practices our wrestling room has thinned out and we are starting to see what guys are committed to this lifestyle and what guys didn’t know what they got themselves into. Our team is starting to come together and we’re beginning to see what our line up is going to look like this year.
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This past week has been a little hectic between schoolwork and getting back into the grind with wrestling. Between morning workouts, classes, and afternoon practice, I really don’t have a whole lot of free time and most of my free time is usually spent sleeping or catching up on school work. This is the time of the year that usually breaks guys, especially the freshman. It’s tough making that transition from high school training to division 1 training. Then add in the school work and the freedom of the college life, it can be a tough combination for the younger guys to handle. It’s not just the freshmen that feel it either, every year I’ve seen good wrestlers and good friends struggle with the demanding lifestyle. While you never like to see guys quit the team (there are some exceptions), it helps to reinforce what wrestlers are serious about the sport and are going to make the team better rather than just coming in everyday to put in time.
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On to the wrestling. I felt like we had a pretty good preseason this year. For the whole month of September our weekdays consisted of 6 a.m. cardio workouts which included but was not limited to stadium runs, timed runs, sprints, always followed up by team lifts and whatever else coach Stutz and coach Owen felt like throwing in. Saturday mornings we’d usually do longer runs around 5 miles or run spruce hill (hated by many). We’d have open room in the afternoons for the team to come in to drill and wrestle. While it was optional we rarely had a guy miss an afternoon workout. With the start of the season last Monday, we still have a.m. workouts and lifts but the running has been backed off a little. Our practices have been pretty intense and they start to take a toll on the body and the mind. I rarely have much energy to do anything other than relax or sleep when I get home from practice in the evenings. I think up to this point we have a pretty good group of freshmen and a pretty good team all together. Everyone comes in everyday and pushes each other and fights for every point. Sometimes literally. But it’s that intensity that makes us tougher to score on when the match is on the line.
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But the night is getting late and I’m pretty exhausted from a tough practice and a long day. I have practice in the morning and another long day ahead of me with a stats test on Wednesday that I’m not looking forward to, so a good night of sleep is much needed. This is the first time I’ve ever blogged so hopefully it gets better as the season goes on. I am aiming to do one entry a week but it depends on how busy I get in the long weeks to come.
-Rick Schmelyun