Michigan Wrestling

I don't really follow wrestling, but this seems pretty significant: No. 2 senior recruit Coon commits to Michigan (that's no. 2 in the nation in the 2013 class).

Adam Coon, from Fowlerville, Michigan, decided on wrestling over football at the college level:

The 6-foot-5, 260-pound Coon was recruited by several Division I programs for football, including Big Ten programs Michigan State (where his mother earned her master's degree), Northwestern, and Wisconsin.

But his father says football could still be in his future:

"It was a very difficult decision for him," said Dan Coon. "He has not completely given up on playing football again. Stephen Neal is one of our heroes, a great heavyweight wrestler who played football later on. So that's always in the back of his mind. So he's open to playing football later on if wrestling doesn't work out."

Looks like Coon is part of a pretty good recruiting class:

Coon is the third highly ranked recruit from the Class of 2013 that Michigan has landed. The other two are Ben Whitford (St. Johns, Mich.) and Brian Murphy (Glenbard North, Ill.), ranked fourth and 11th overall respectively in the Class of 2013.

The Detroit Athletic Club named two-time NCAA wrestling champion Kellen Russell its Michigan Collegiate Men's Athlete of the Year.  Given the competition of Denard Robinson, Draymond Green (I feel dirty writing that, but give the devil his due), Trey Burke, etc., it is quite an honor.  And well-deserved:  4-time B1G champion, 33-1 this season, and .918 overall win percentage.  He's only the second Wolverine to achieve the [ed. men's] honor in the 16 year history of the award (swimmer Davis Tarwater won in 2006) [ed. which was expanded to include collegiate athletes in 2006 - see HopeInHoke's comment below for a nice table, etc.].

In the H.S. division, rising freshman wrestler Taylor Massa won the award.  Taylor's from St. Johns, MI and attends St. Johns H.S..  This rising Wolverine will bring a 231-0 H.S. record with him, along with various other awards - the Dave Schultz High School Excellence Award among them.  This young man is legit, and we look forward to seeing him represent U-M over the next four years.

Congratulations to Kellen and Taylor, and Go Blue!  Links below. 

       

Kellen Russell                                Taylor Massa

http://msay.thedac.com/

http://www.mgoblue.com/sports/m-wrestl/spec-rel/051612aaa.html

I know little to nothing about it but it seems the #1 wrestling prospect in the country just committed to Michigan.

Article here.

FYI: GoBlue77202 broke the news but didn't have the needed points to start thread.

While most of us were focused on the performance of the Michigan men's basketball and hockey teams this weekend, it should be noted that Michigan added to the school banner count in two other sports as well.

The 9th ranked Michigan women gymnasts won their 5th straight Big 10 title this weekend, edging out 10th ranked Penn State and 15th ranked OSU (woo!). 

Meanwhile, in Michigan wrestling, team captain Kellen Russell won the NCAA championship in the 141 lb weight class, fnishing his season a perfect 38-0, all while battling an ankle injury.  The Wolverines overall finished 15th.

Congratulations to all Michigan athletic teams that have accomplished so much this season.  Go Blue!

I'm at the NCAAs in Philly, and here are results for Michigan wrestlers. I'm not covering them, but I figured some may want to know. 

197 pigtail: Anthony Biondo d. Daniel Mitchell (American), 9-4

125: Sean Boyle d. David Klingsheim (Nebraska), 8-1

This article's dated January 13th, but I haven't seen it after checking the board or m.go.licio.us so here it is:

Top sports moments of the decade