Colt badgered again at USA Wrestling Freestyle World Team Trials
Knocking off undefeated, number-one ranked Ohio State on the gridiron by 13 points back on Oct. 16 of last year, the Badgers did it again on the basketball court four months later, picking up a four-point win over an 18-0 Buckeyes squad also ranked number one in the country at the time.
Former West Holmes wrestler, four-time State qualifier (2004, ‘05, ‘06, ‘07), three-time State champion (‘05, ‘06 and ‘07), two-time National High School Champion (‘06 and ‘07) and Ohio State team captain Colt Sponseller would be bitten twice by a Badger one month later, falling to 0-5 lifetime against Wisconsin junior Andrew Howe during their 165-lb. finals match at the 2011 Big Ten Conference tournament on March 6, before making it 0-for-6 against the Cedar Lake, Indiana native during the bronze medal match at the Division I NCAA Championships 13 days later, marking the end of the former Knights’ collegiate career.
But apparently not the end of his bitter rivalry against Howe.
Wrestling in the 74kg. (163-lb.) weight class at the 2011 USA Wrestling Freestyle World Team Trials “Challenge Tournament” on Friday, June 10, at the Cox Convention Center in Oklahoma City, Okla., Sponseller moved past former University of Tennessee at Chattanooga standout Lloyd Rogers (wrestling for the Hawkeye Wrestling Club out of Iowa City) with a 2-1, 1-0 opening-round victory.
The reward for the Glenmont, Ohio native wrestling out of the Ohio Regional Training Center in Columbus?
Andrew Howe, who, while representing the New York Athletic Club at the World Team Trials, will still be a nasty little Badger when he returns to Madison for his senior season next winter.
A nasty little Badger who gnawed through his former Buckeyes rival for the seventh straight time, beating Sponseller with a 2-1, 3-0 decision, dropping the former Knight into the consolation bracket where he would find another arch-rival waiting, in the form of former University of Iowa two-time All-American Ryan Morningstar (New York Athletic Club), who would ultimately bounce Sponseller from the tournament with a 2-0, 3-0 decision win.
And while Morningstar would eventually fall in the consolation semifinals, Howe would pick up two more victories to win the “Challenge Tournament,” advancing to the best two-out-of-three USA Wrestling World Team 74kg. (163-lbs.) Championship Finals where he would lose to former University of Nebraska two-time national champion Jordan Burroughs (Sunkist Kids Wrestling Club) 0-1, 2-1, 2-3 in the first match and 1-3, 0-1 in the second.
Burroughs will represent the U.S. at the 2011 World Championships in Istanbul, Turkey coming up in September.
Sponseller continues to train in Columbus at the Ohio Regional Training Center.