Friday night marked the first annual "Tumbles and Takedowns" in which the MSU gymnastics and wrestling teams hosted a dual meet. The MSU wrestling team fell to 0-9 on the season after a defeat by No. 20 ranked Purdue.
Current associate head coach of MSU wrestling, Roger Chandler, has been with the Spartan wrestling program for nearly two decades and will take over as the program's director next season.
He once made an Olympic team simply because he felt like it. His pet bird is older than many of his wrestlers.
The MSU wrestling team was shutout by Eastern Michigan University in their home opener on Wednesday night.
When his mother got him involved with the sport in fifth grade Tom Minkel, head coach of the MSU Wrestling team, knew wrestling would be a big part of his life. Minkel said it has been “heavy in his blood” since the beginning. Growing up with a father, who was an administrator at MSU, and a mother, involved in the music program at MSU, as well as attending former MSU Wrestling Head Coach Grady Peninger’s wrestling camp at IM Sports-West as a kid, Minkel found that MSU has also always been a big part of his life.
Anyone who spends a significant amount of time around the athletic staff at MSU knows they are a tight-knit group, always eager to support one another. With the men’s basketball team making their seventh Final Four appearance under head coach Tom Izzo , a few of the other head coaches at MSU weighed in on the man Izzo is, the basketball team’s success and Izzo’s ability to keep producing quality teams that make long post-season runs.
MSU wrestler John Rizqallah concluded his career over the weekend while competing at the NCAA Championships. Senior, team captain 184-pounder Rizqallah lost in his first match to third-seeded Arizona State's Blake Stauffer 4-1.
Four-year letter award winner and team captain of MSU Wrestling, senior John Rizqallah qualified for the 2015 NCAA Division I Wrestling Championships, making this his third straight year qualifying and competing at the championships.
The MSU wrestling team closed out the Big Ten season on Sunday, as they lost to No. 24 Purdue in West Lafayette, IN by a score of 22-13.
Those inducted includes football players Flozell Adams and Carl "Buck" Nystrom, tennis player Sue Selke, softball and basketball player Kathy Strahan, wrestler Greg Johnson and gymnast Dave Thor.
It all clicked when he realized how much was on the line — how much he could win or lose from the results of one match.
Senior heavyweight Mike McClure took fifth place in the 2014 NCAA Wrestling Championships
Senior heavyweight Mike McClure advanced to the quarterfinals in the session two of the NCAA Wrestling Championships Thursday night at the Chesapeke Energy Center in Oklahoma City, Okla., and is set to continue wrestling on Friday evening.
The two Spartans who made it to the wrestling NCAA Championships came out victorious after the first session of the tournament Thursday afternoon.
Senior heavyweight Mike McClure and junior 184-pounder John Rizqallah head into the first day of the 2014 wrestling NCAA Championships on Thursday in Oklahoma City, Okla., with McClure seeded seventh and Rizqallah seeded 14th.
Senior heavyweight Mike McClure and junior 184-pounder John Rizqallah are the Spartans making the trip to the NCAA Championships - seeded seventh and 14th.
Two Spartans - senior heavyweight Mike McClure and junior 184-pounder John Rizqallah - qualified for the NCAA Championships after placing in the Big Ten Tournament.
Sixth-ranked senior heavyweight Mike McClure qualified for the NCAA Championships this past weekend with a strong performance at the Big Ten Championships - however, it's not yet known what place McClure earned at the Big Ten meet as of press time.
It was the MSU wrestling team’s third straight win and the last dual match of the season before the Big Ten Championships.
The Spartan wrestling team came out victorious for the third match in a row, beating No. 25 Central Michigan on Saturday.