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    Webster Farris •

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    Rev Blog: Webster Farris (Dana), Entry 1

    The weather is getting cold in Nebraska and that means that wrestling season is under way. We opened up our dual season on Oct. 17, when we wrestled Oklahoma City University. It was nice to get back into Gardner-Hawks (Dana's home gym) and wrestle in front of the home crowd. Coach Fergola and some other wrestlers set up an awesome entry for us as the gym lights went out and highlights from last year's national championship season projected on the gym wall. Apparently the new introduction worked as we rolled to a 45-6 victory over the Stars. Although the dual was over, many of us headed right back to work to get off weight for our 7 a.m. weigh-in for the Kaufman-Brand Open in Omaha the next morning.

    On the following day, we made the 20-minute trip to the Sapp Fieldhouse in Omaha. Following weigh-ins and warm-ups we began arguably the toughest tournament of our season. Although many of our records suffered that day, we gained valuable experience against some of the best guys in the country and many guys are finding their groove.

    Two Dana wrestlers had already found their groove by the start of the tournament. Freshman Brian Graham suffered only one loss as he brought home a second place medal. Graham also defeated two of the top recruited seniors of 2006 on his journey to the finals of the amateur division. Junior Burke Barnes also had a stellar day. Burke, wrestling in the elite division, mixed it up with some of the best college wrestling has to offer. After dropping a 5-2 decision to Mario Galanakis from the University of Iowa, Burke battled back and placed an outstanding fifth

    Webster Farris
    Our practice room has been overcome by an old, but familiar intensity over the past few weeks. As we began the season reviewing a lot of technique, we are now getting after it. Although technique is still a part of practice we have elevated our level of drilling tremendously and practice moves at a quick pace. Coach Fergola and his staff are challenging us with some new conditioning techniques and of course, still killing us with some of the old stand-byes.

    A new implementation to our practice and program is our individual session time. A few weeks back, the wrestlers were divided up and assigned to different coaches. Each coach has six to seven wrestlers under his radar. The primary function of this division occurs one day per week (usually Monday or Tuesday) when practice consists of our team warm-up and the remainder of the time we are split into our groups. At this time, the coaches focus on their six or seven guys, and our responsibility is to problem-solve and work with our respective coach. I feel this is a great idea as I have already benefited from getting more one-on-one time with my coach Jimmy Rollins.

    We arrived for practice on Monday (Nov. 20) and Coach Fergola notified us that we would be off until our two-a-days begin on Monday (Nov.27). However, that doesn't mean the Dana College wrestlers won't be at it over break, as we were given strict orders pertaining to our weight. Although the consequences weren't specified for not maintaining weight, I feel sorry for the person who doesn't. Anyway, I hope you all have a great Thanksgiving! Drive safely and eat some for us grapplers.

    Train Hard,

    Webster Farris
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