Bulldogs set to open season at Yellowjacket Open

The Bulldog wrestling program opens up the 2010-2011 campaign at the Yellowjacket Open in Rochester, MN hosted by Rochester Community and Technical College on Saturday, November 6.

The Yellowjacket Open is a Frosh-Soph wrestling tournament that is expected to draw approximately 160 wrestlers from Minnesota, Iowa, and Wisconsin.

RTCC is led by head Coach Randy Rager, who was mentored by Concordia head coach Doug Reese at the University of Minnesota-Morris.  Rager is the all-time career win leader in the NCAA with 164 career wins and was a three-time All-American.

“This is an ideal tournament for us to start our season with, and I am glad to have the opportunity to support one of my former wrestlers,” noted head coach Doug Reese.  “Our entire team is made up of freshman and sophomores, so we are more or less a junior college team at this point.  The mat is level this weekend, and we like that.”

The following team members will be traveling to the Yellowjacket Open:

125 – Gordie Fowlkes (So. - Newman Grove, NE), Jeff Green (Fr. - West Point, NE)
133 – Adam Joseph (Fr. - Hastings, NE), Travis Patrick (Fr. - Castle Rock, WA) 141 – Alex Rostvet (So. - Hastings, NE), Robbie Resendiz     (Fr. - San Jacinto, CA),  Alex Stepanek (Fr. - St. Paul, NE) or Logan Owens (Fr. – Carroll, NE) 149 – Zach Schnell (So. - Lincoln, NE), Brandon Starkey (So. - St. Paul, NE) 157 – Martin Dobler (Fr. - Rockford, IL) 165 – Blake Augustyn (Fr. - Ord, NE), Nick Sheppard (Fr. - Edgewood, CO) 174 – Ryan Perez (Fr. - Lake Charles, LA) 197 – Julian Silva (So. - Covina, CA) 285 – Hunter Cummins (Fr. - Farmington, NM)

The Bulldogs are led by NAIA North ranked wrestlers Julian Silva and Brandon Starkey, along with sophomore captains Gordie Fowlkes and Alex Rostvet.

“I am excited to finally get on the mat in real competition,” said California junior college All-American transfer Julian Silva.  “I am fired up to wrestle someone other than teammates in practice.  It is about time for the real thing!”

“It will be fun to finally compete and to get a good evaluation of where we stand at this point in the season,” noted Coach Reese.  “We need to see how the freshmen handle the stress of travel and competition.  They are taking a big step this weekend up from high school to collegiate level, so it will be nice to compete against a large number of other freshmen.”

Wrestling starts at 10 am at the Rochester Community and Technical College URC Sports Center.