Former East Aurora wrestler Tim Young believes the second time around will be better and he’s off to a great start.
Young, who won the IHSA Class 3A state title as a senior in 2015, last weekend won the National Junior College Athletic Association’s national championship at 197 pounds as a freshman wrestling for Ellsworth Community College in Iowa.
He’s come full circle after not wrestling for a season and starting college at North Dakota State.
“I wasn’t getting as much attention as I needed,” Young said of his experience there. “I was grayshirting so they had to focus more on the scholarship athletes.”
Grayshirt athletes enroll as students but delay receiving their scholarships and starting their eligibility clock.
He struggled in North Dakota academically and with being so far from home.
Young contacted Ellsworth and coach Cole Spree and met with him. His experience couldn’t have been better, capped by last weekend’s 5-0 run through nationals in Council Bluffs, Iowa.
Young, who entered nationals ranked fourth, won three matches the first day of the tournament, two of them by major decision.
He then edged No. 3-ranked Wyatt Westfall of Southwestern Oregon 6-5 and took the title by pinning Christian Dulaney of Iowa Lakes in 6:46.
“Dulaney had beat me 3-2 in the regular season,” Young said. “One of the criticisms you hear about junior college wrestling is that guys don’t go hard for seven minutes.”
Following Spree’s advice, Young made sure that wasn’t true of his wrestling the final match.
“He told me he wanted me to go at the guy and get in his face, which is usually not my style,” Young said. “”I’ll often counter my opponent’s moves.”
Young will be back at Ellsworth next season. He then hopes to move on to another Division I program.
“Last time, I just made one visit and decided to go there,” Young said. “This time, I’ll take a lot more visits and be more thorough.”
Spagnola sets record: Former West Aurora track standout Emma Spagnola of Minnesota placed third last weekend at the Big Ten Indoor Championships and qualified for the March 10-11 indoor nationals at Texas A&M.
Spagnola, a junior, was clocked in 8.186 seconds in Saturday’s final. The day before, she and teammate Kimberly Golding each ran 8.13 in the prelims, a mark that ties them for the Minnesota program record.
This will be Spagnola’s first trip to nationals.
Wooten qualifies for nationals: Kayla Wooten, a freshman distance runner from Oswego who competes for Colorado-Colorado Springs, has qualified for the NCAA Division II nationals March 9 and 11 in Birmingham, Ala.
Wooten’s altitude-adjusted time of 4:54.30 at New Mexico’s Don Kirby Invitational in February ranks 18th in the nation.
Season ends for Starks, West: Senior Juwan Starks from West Aurora had a team-high 16 points and sophomore Zach West from Oswego a team-high eight rebounds for Grand Valley State Tuesday in its 67-59 season-ending loss to Findlay.
Starks averaged 9.1 points and 2.8 rebounds this season. West averaged 4.9 points and 4.6 rebounds.
Twitter @RickArmstrong28
