1988 Miracle Yearbook

192 Wrestling I ll‘winning attitude paid off for the '88 wrestling team. Their initial optimism and enthu- siasm gave the team numerous victories as the season pro- gressed. Nine out of 18 wrestlers were new to the Cedarville mats, and five of those started. Ron Com- fort said,"They were hard work- ers who wanted to succeed." This strong desire produced the first winning season in the 18- year history of Cedarville wres- tling. Finishing with a 17-6 re- cord far exceeded Comfort's pre-season goal of finishing 500 or better. The wrestling team's accomplishment was amazing, considering that the program was nearly dropped four years ago. The NCCAA tournament, held in the Athletic Center, produced some big numbers for our wres- tlers. As a team, they finished second. Individually, Cedarville accepted three championships under the names of Todd Dow- den, Paul Link, and Kurt Dow- den. Brian Perez won second place, and third place honors went to Jim Holder, Phil Cruz, Dale Kime,and Russ Kime. Kelly Moore accepted fourth place. Season highlights focused on Todd Dowden and Kelly Moore, two starting seniors. Dowden, a four-time All-American, "...is the only person to ever win his "The strength of this team came from a de- termination of each team memberto do his best."--Kelly Moore weight class four times,as far as I know,and definitely in the his- tory of Cedarville College," Comfort commented. "He fin- ished with a 99-31-1 record." Moore led the team with 18 falls and placed in the top four at Christian Nationals every year he has wrestled at Cedarville. Other outstanding wrestlers were, Paul Link, who finished with a 38-10 record; Phil Cruz a record of30-17-1;and Kurt Dow- den 28-21-1. -PIII! Wrestling Scores 1987-88 CC OPP 30 16 Wilmington 1st of 4 Urbana Open Tournament 35 12 Dayton 32 19 Findlay 3 37 Muskingum 8 38 Wilmington 45 7 Urbana 10th 0129 Ohio Northern Tournament 26 22 Wilmington 23 22 Wittenberg 30 17 Defiance 40 13 Urbana 18 24 Wash.& Jeff. 39 10 27 19 3rd 0111 4th of 9 38 17 42 9 41 6 7th of 11 Wilmington Case Western Findlay Tournament Heidelberg Tournament Findlay Siena Heights Defiance Baldwin-Wallace Tournament 33 20 Findlay 17 28 Ohio Northern 3rd of 9 NAIA Area 7 20 32 Capital 48 3 Defiance 18 31 Waynesburg 2nd of 10 NCCAA Nationals 46th 0150(tle) NAIA Nationals