Wrestling Blogs - Luke Smith

This past weekend we officially kicked off our season at the Journeymen Northeast Duals in Albany, New York. Our Thanksgiving consisted on a 8:30am practice and a 10 hour bus ride to Buffalo. On the way there we did find a Cracker Barrel to stop and eat at. My Thanksgiving dinner was a grilled chicken salad...mmmmm sure beats a big turkey dinner with mashed potatoes and gravy huh? We stayed in Buffalo Thursday night and left for Albany the next morning. After checking in to our hotel we had a few hours to get settled in before going to the arena to workout. I did a god job of managing my weight and working it down right. What I think really helped was bringing my own food in a little travel cooler instead of just seeing what I could find at the rest stops on the way. I packed some whole wheat bread, organic peanut butter, and all natural strawberry preserves. I also threw in a couple bottles of water and some all natural apple sauce. By the time we got to the arena I was only 4 pounds over and feeling really good. After our workout I left only a pound over.
The night before weigh-ins I always have a hard time sleeping. I'm not sure if it's just the hunger or that nervous/excited feeling I still get before every competition even after 21 years of wrestling. Whatever it was I woke up at least four times that night. Right when I was finally able to fall asleep the alarm goes off and it is time to leave. We got there early to do our usually pre-weigh-in workout. Everyone made weight fine. Then we went into our locker room they had reserved for us where we had food waiting for us. One problem with wrestling 125 is since they almost always start with that weight I only have an hour between weigh-ins and my match. I have to make sure to get some food and liquids in me for energy but at the same time I have to make sure not to eat in drink to much or else I'll go out there and won't be able to move.
Before the duals all the teams were marched in one bye one. They had a bag piper leading the way. Then the National Anthem was sung by a guy from New York who made it to the top 20 on American Idol. Then FINALLY it was time to wrestle... The first round we wrestled Appalachian State. In the past I think I've tried to get myself too pumped up. So I tried to keep myself relaxed and focused. The entire team wrestled really tough as we rolled to a 30-6 win. Our 133 pounder Conor Beebe beat a ranked wrestler and at 149 Brandon Carter beat the #5 ranked wrestler in the country. The two matches we lost, wrestled our second string guys and both of those loses were two points or less.
CMU 30, Appalachian State 6
125: Luke Smith (CMU) maj. dec. Frank Celorria, 17-5; CMU leads 4-0
133: Conor Beebe (CMU) dec. Terreyl Williams, 9-5; CMU leads 7-0
141: Ryan Scott (ASU) dec. Michael Holt, 4-3; CMU leads 7-3
149: Brandon Carter (CMU) dec. Scott Ervin, 4-2; CMU leads 10-3
157: Tyler Grayson (CMU) dec. Eddie Hutchinson, 3-1; CMU leads 13-3
165: Trevor Stewart (CMU) dec. Tommy Hutchinson, 8-5; CMU leads 16-3
174: Brandon Sinnott (CMU) tech. fall Antoine Jones, 19-3; CMU leads 21-3
184: Austin Trotman (ASU) dec. Ben Kelto, 3-2; CMU leads 21-6
197: Wynn Michalak (CMU) pin John Allen Griswold; CMU leads 27-6
285: Bubba Gritter (CMU) dec. Derek Calloway, 6-0; CMU leads 30-6

Second round we wrestled a really young Lehigh team and shut them out 39-0.
CMU 39, Lehigh 0
125: Luke Smith (CMU) maj. dec. Kellen Aura, 13-1; CMU leads 4-0
133: Conor Beebe (CMU) dec. Kevin Vinh, 7-2; CMU leads 7-0
141: Eric Kruger (CMU) tech. fall Nate Spangler, 17-0; CMU leads 12-0
149: Brandon Carter (CMU) dec. Trevor Chinn, 3-1; CMU leads 15-0
157: Tyler Grayson (CMU) dec. David Nakosone, 6-1; CMU leads 18-0
165: Trevor Stewart (CMU) dec. Mike Galante, 8-1; CMU leads 21-0
174: Brandon Sinnott (CMU) dec. Alex Caruso, 6-1; CMU leads 24-0
184: Christian Sinnott (CMU) dec. David Craig, 5-2; CMU leads 27-0
197: Wynn Michalak (CMU) pin Alex Iacorca; CMU leads 33-0
285: Bubba Gritter (CMU) pin Justin Allen; CMU leads 39-0

In the third round we wrestled a tough American team. Right off the whistle my opponent caught me off guard and tried to blast double leg me. I used that momentum to throw him through and pin him in :11 seconds.
CMU 43, American 3
125: Luke Smith (CMU) pin Jason Borshoff; CMU leads 6-0
133: Conor Beebe (CMU) dec. Matt Meriarcher, 5-2; CMU leads 9-0
141: Eric Kruger (CMU) dec. Kyle Borshoff, 6-3; CMU leads 12-0
149: Nathaniel Holt (CMU) pin Nick Pitas; CMU leads 18-0
157: Steve Brown (CMU) dec. Chris Stout, 9-4; CMU leads 21-0
165: Mike Cannon (AU) dec. Trevor Stewart, 7-2; CMU leads 21-3
174: Brandon Sinnott (CMU) pin John Powell; CMU leads 27-3
184: Ben Kelto (CMU) maj. dec. Andy Semple, 13-1; CMU leads 31-3
197: Hafeez Quershi (CMU) pin Brooks Keefer; CMU leads 37-3
285: Bubba Gritter (CMU) win by forfeit; CMU leads 43-3

Our last dual was against Maryland who earlier in the day had upset #5 Michigan. We knew they had a lot of momentum and would be coming out ready to wrestle. Thats exactly what they did. With short time left in the third period I had a 3-0 lead. I knew I had the match pretty much in hand and a take down would matter so I tried to get another one with 5 seconds left but ended up giving up one instead making the final score 3-2. We ended up dominating Maryland 36-6. Conor finished off the day with another big win, beating his second ranked wrestler of the day.
CMU 36, Maryland 6
125: Luke Smith (CMU) dec. Brendan Byrne, 3-2; CMU leads 3-0
133: Conor Beebe (CMU) dec. Steve Bell, 3-2; CMU leads 6-0
141: Eric Kruger (CMU) tech. fall Jon Kohler, 19-3; CMU leads 11-0
149: Brandon Carter (CMU) dec. Eric Medina, 10-3; CMU leads 14-0
157: Tyler Grayson (CMU) dec. Brian Letters, 6-2; CMU leads 17-0
165: Trevor Stewart (CMU) maj. dec. Mike McGill, 11-3; CMU leads 21-0
174: Brandon Sinnott (CMU) dec. Mike Letts, 3-1; CMU leads 24-0
184: Christian Sinnott (CMU) injury default Josh Haines; CMU leads 30-0
197: Hudson Taylor (UM) pin Vince DiDona; CMU leads 30-6
285: Hafeez Quershi (CMU) win by forfeit; CMU leads 36-6

Overall I thought we wrestled really good and impressed a lot of people with our dominance. As a team and individually we all still have things we need to work on and get better at. Even the things we did well we need to continue to get better at. After watching my matches I think my offense is looking a lot better than last year at this time and I wrestled pretty good on the mat too. In all three areas there is still a lot of room for improvement. I just need to keep working on some of the small things fine-tuning what I'm doing now. If you ask the rest of the team I'm sure they will feel the same way about their own performances as well. Looking at how we did though and knowing we are only going to continue to get better...come March we will be ready for St. Louis. Right now we just need to worry about getting better and taking it one match at a time.
Tomorrow we have our first home meet of the year against Michigan State at 7:30pm. This is a turned into a pretty big rivalry and Rose Arena is going to be packed. It should be a lot of fun. We just need to go out there, wrestle our match and keep moving forward.