Travis Wiuff claimed a gold medal (Photo/Mark Lundy, Lutte-Lens.com)Individual champions were crowned at the Frank Gotch World Catch Championships in Humboldt, Iowa, the hometown of early 1900s professional wrestling champ Frank Gotch, on Sunday.
More than 250 people gathered inside the Humboldt High School gymnasium to watch male and female wrestlers from across the United States compete in a wrestling style that emphasized pins and submissions made popular by Gotch, the Fort Dodge Messenger reported Monday.
In men's competition, Chris Morales of Los Angeles won the title in the 220-pound division, defeating defending champ Nicholas Caggia of New Jersey in the finals. North Carolina's James Bunn placed third. In the 200-219-pound division, Travis Wiuff, of Rochester, Minnesota, former All-American wrestler at Mankato State and MMA fighter, took the gold, with Ned Morales of Los Angeles placing second, and Arkansas' Nick Badger in third. Anthony Pacheck from Cedar Rapids, Iowa won the title at 160-169-pounds, with Los Angeles' Keanu Huete second, and Johnny Boyd of South Carolina taking third. In competition at 140-159 pounds, first place went to South Carolina's Matt Tran, with Javier Garcia of Los Angeles and Canada's Adam Laporte taking second and third place, respectively.
In women's competition, Los Angeles' Shayna Baszler claimed the gold medal (Photo/Mark Lundy, Lutte-Lens.com)In a men's catch weight bout, Curran Jacobs, former Michigan State wrestling captain, pinned Travis Warner of Los Angeles. (Catch weight means that one or both wrestlers did not make weight, but agreed to wrestle regardless.)
Here's how Dr. Raul Ramirez, executive director of the Catch Wrestling Association, described the sport to the Messenger in an earlier interview.
"It's old, but we are trying to make it new again," said Ramirez, himself a catch wrestling instructor. "This style developed in the northern part of England in its earlier forms during the 1700s before it spread across the United States in the 1800s.
"When pro wrestling was real, it was catch-as-catch-can wrestling. There were no points and no time limits at that time. You actually had to beat the other person."
One submission hold that appeared to be a fan favorite in the birthplace of Frank Gotch was the toe hold, made popular by the pro wrestler known as the Iowa Plowboy who won the world title from George "the Russian Lion" in Chicago in 1908.
"The thing I liked the most was I saw two guys use toe holds from Frank Gotch to win their matches," said Ron Wasoba, recently retired head wrestling coach at Humboldt High School. "The whole crowd was enthusiastic about that because that's what we have talked about through the years is when Frank Gotch got that toe hold on you, it was over."
Frank Gotch Statue (Photo/Mark Lundy, Lutte-Lens.com"To see these guys go hard for 20 minutes is just unbelievable," said the former amateur wrestler and coach. "It shows the kind of heart they have. A lot of guys once you get to the point where you are really tired, you pretty much collapse and give it up."
In catch wrestling, matches can last a maximum of 20 minutes (compared to seven minutes for a college match); however, some were over in less than a minute.
The catch wrestling championships had been held in Los Angeles the past two years before moving to Humboldt this year. Ramirez was pleased with the reception in the first year of the event being held in the north-central Iowa community.
"If Humboldt will have us, we will come back. People seem to understand what we're doing and appreciate it. We want to go where we are welcome."
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