Indianola, IA - The Williams wrestling team departed thursday to Simpson College in the Iowa Intercolligate Athletic Conference, or IIAC.
Coach Hasenfus and the Williams wrestling team look to build on a strong performance at the Doug Parker Invitational (Springfield College), where they wrestled a number of in-conference rivals and took 8th overall.
Several wrestlers had big days "Antista looked good," he said, "he was well conditioned and was adjusting well to the weight class." Ces moved up after a successful year at 133, last weekend he started off this season with a 2nd place finish. "Paulish looked impressive as well," citing Corey's three technical pins on the day. He had that disappointing loss in the finals, but rallied back to take 3rd place. We were about where we expected we would be," Hasenfus said of the teams overall finish, "we had guys out from injuries and football -- we didnt have our full line up. The numbers should be better coming off of Thanksgiving Break."
On Thursday the Ephs took off to Iowa for their biennial trip to Simpson College where they'll do battle with a strong Luther team and Simpson, with its serious wrestling tradition. "We don't know what to expect really, out in Iowa." Coach Hasenfus speculated, "but we will see some tough competition." That's not far off the truth with the Ephs facing some top tier talent in perennial powerhouses COE and Wartburg. "Luther will be an interesting match, I think they're ranked 18th and Simpson will be a tough one too."
"It really all depends on who makes weight," Hausenfus mused when considering the tournament on Saturday. "I really just want to see improvement from week to week, and we'll see where we go." When asked about the New England rankings Coach Hasenfus scoffed "the guys dont talk about them. We don't even think about them." The Ephs finally vacated the number one spot and fell to 5th place in the conference with several wrestlers still ranked in their weight class.
