2006-07 WRM at Cliff Keen Invite -- Notes & Quotes
12/2/2006 12:00:00 AM | Wrestling
N O T E S
The Wolverines have placed fifth or better in 12 of their last 14 appearances at the Cliff Keen Invitational. This season's performance marks the fourth straight year that Michigan finished among the top two.
Senior/junior Josh Churella became just the fifth Wolverine wrestlers to capture two Cliff Keen Invitational individual titles. He joins Jeff Catrabone (1996, '97), Otto Olson (1999, 2001), Ryan Churella (2004, '05) and Greg Wagner (2004, '05). Churella owns a perfect 10-0 record at the annual tournament.
Michigan earned 13 of its 33 tournament wins with bonus points. The Wolverines tallied four falls, two technical falls and seven major decisions.
In addition to Michigan, three other Big Ten Conference schools (Indiana, Ohio State and Wisconsin) were among the Cliff Keen Invitational field. Wisconsin was the second-highest placing team in fifth (90.5 points).
In his previous two appearances at the Cliff Keen Invitational, senior/junior Eric Tannenbaum took third place (2004) and fourth place (2005).
Last season, Ryan Churella also defeated Missouri's Matt Pell in the 165-pound championship match, winning by a 8-2 decision.
Q U O T E S
Michigan Head Coach Joe McFarland
On Michigan's weekend performance ... "Nobody was going to catch Missouri this weekend. There's no question that they were the class of the tournament. The thing that I really admire about their performance is that they going out and pinning people. That's really where I want to get us. It doesn't always seem like we're looking for those pins. So, that gives us some ideas and some things to take back and work on in the practice room. We had some really good individual performances. We had six placewinners, three finalists and two champs; that's nothing at all to be ashamed of. I thought all the guys wrestled hard. We had a couple guys get dinged up; it's awfully hard to go through this tournament and not. We don't think those will be long-term things for us; it's just a few guys are pretty sore. I think, overall, we can leave here and hold our heads up. Guys wrestled very well."
On Michigan's tournament experience this season ... "We wrestled better this weekend than we did at the Body Bar Invitational. I think, from an individual standpoint, it gives us a much better picture of what each wrestler needs to work on, and that varies from person to person. We, as a coaching staff, will sit down with each of the guys who were out here this weekend and go over some things that we think they need to work on. We definitely made some good improvements from a couple weeks ago. I think these individual tournaments are going to be really important for us this year."
On standout individual U-M performances ... "Josh Churella made great adjustments with Cornell's Jordan Leen. He really wrestled a perfect match today in the semifinals. He's really paying attention. We still have a few guys who need to pay a little better attention as far as making the necessary adjustments. They need to do some homework and figure out why they're getting beat in certain areas and make those corrections. That's what it's all about, getting better from week to week. I think both Josh and Eric (Tannenbaum) put together great tournaments. Tyrel (Todd) also had a great tournament; he just made a few mistakes in that last match. It's like any sport -- if you want to win the championship, you have to do it mistake free. It's early in the season, and he'll have more opportunities to wrestle that guy and more opportunities to continue his development and get better."
U-M Senior/Junior Josh Churella
On claiming his second Cliff Keen title ... "I grew up watching this tournament, and I always wanted to wrestle in the final. So it's important to win this, because it's a good motivator and, obviously, it's a steppingstone. But I won it last year and I didn't place at nationals, so it doesn't mean much at the end of the year. You don't get to see some of these kids, like the ones from the West Coast or smaller schools, throughout the year. It's really good for seeding at nationals, which can make your tournament a lot easier or a lot harder. This is a good tournament. It's significant for me, because my family has always run it. I have fun wrestling out here and have a lot of support."
On Michigan's emphasis on tournaments this season ... "This is already my third tournament this season, and I think it's really important that we're getting this experience. Tournaments have a completely different setting than dual meets. Individually, this is the environment we need to be prepared for, and these tournaments will help us get prepared throughout the year."
On avenging his loss to Cornell's Jordan Leen ... "It puts things in perspective for me and justifies where I am right now during the season. After that loss, I went back and worked on some stuff with my dad and Joe (McFarland) and tried to correct some mistakes from that match. I got the opportunity to wrestle him and see how much I improved. I think I did a good job correcting those mistakes. I used a different strategy, and it worked in this tournament. So hopefully I'm on the right track."
U-M Senior/Junior Eric Tannenbaum
On winning his first Cliff Keen title ... "This is the first year that I've won consecutive tournaments; actually, I think this is the first year I've won any tournaments except Big Tens. So it's a good start. The biggest accomplishment, I always think, is beating people ranked above me, but here this weekend there really wasn't anyone ranked above me. It justified that my placing should be above (Matt) Pell. Rankings don't matter, but for NCAA seeding they obviously do matter at the end of the year. So it's definitely good to knock off the guys ranked above you."
On feeling stronger at 165 pounds ... "Matt Pell is probably the biggest 165-pounder there is. He was an All-American at 184 pounds two years ago, so he's a big guy. He felt strong, but when I got in my positions it really wasn't anything ridiculous. I just feel like I have more energy out there this season. In the third period of that final, I kept popping up, he kept dropping me down, I kept standing up. Last year I don't think I would have been able to keep hopping back up like that. It's so nice to have this energy, and I think a huge part of it is not worrying about cutting weight anymore."
