A few key bonus points helped the Rochester Community and Technical College wrestling team win the non-scholarship national championship during the NJCAA National Championships, which concluded Saturday.
RCTC finished with 61.5 points to nip Camden, N.J., by just one point for the non-scholarship title in the meet held in Iowa. Including scholarship schools, the Yellowjackets were ninth overall. RCTC also won a non-scholarship national title in 2014.
"It feels great," RCTC coach Randy Ragersaid. "It's the best we've ever done (overall). To be ninth, that shows the guys performed well and were all able to do their job."
RCTC will receive a national championship trophy for winning the non-scholarship portion of the meet. Rager said it was decided by bonus points, extra points wrestlers rack up during the meet by recording pins, major decisions or technical falls.
"It was a tight race," Rager said. "We had three All-Americans, which is great, but if you don't have the other guys picking up those points, you don't win."
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Coltan Laganiere(sixth place at 149 pounds), Alfred Daniel(fourth at 165) and Brett Bradford(second at 157) were All-Americans for RCTC while Rager was named the NJCAA Coach of the Year. Bradford picked up a lot of bonus points as he went 4-1 in the meet with three pins and a win by major decision.
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Nick Liebelthasn't lived in Rochester long, and now he's on a plane for Istanbul to play professional football in Turkey.
Liebelt, 23, is a Columbia Heights grad who has lived in Rochester less than a year while working for New Horizon Academy, a daycare. As a 6-foot quarterback, he played one year of college ball at Augsburg and two at River Falls in Wisconsin and thought his competitive career might have been over.
He then played four games for the semi-pro team Twin Cities Sabercats before suffering an injury last year. But after he recovered, he went to a combine in Green Bay and sent out some profile tapes to pro football coaches overseas.
"It's just something I didn't think would happen that quickly, but I heard back right away," Liebelt said. "I wasn't planning on it that quick."
The coaches of the Bogazichi Sultans in Istanbul, Turkey, viewed Liebelt's tape and liked what they saw. The regular season in Turkey just started last week. But the Sultans are anxious to have Liebelt join their team, which features one other American. So he hopped a flight for Turkey today.
"It's very exciting," he said.
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Liebelt will arrive in Istanbul on Wednesday. The Sultans play their next game on Sunday and Liebelt could see his first pro action.
"I'm kind of using this as a stepping stone," he said, "hopefully to get into the GFL (German Football League) and then maybe the CFL (Canadian Football League)."
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The Big Nine Conference championship in boys basketball will be on the line when Austin hosts John Marshall at 7:15 p.m. on Friday.
JM plays at Century today while Austin is off until Friday. John Marshall has won 18 straight games and is 21-3 overall and 20-0 in the Big Nine. Austin has won 15 straight and is 24-1 overall, 20-1 in the Big Nine. Austin's lone loss was 75-64 to JM in Rochester back on Jan. 14.
The Rockets have not lost since Dec. 29. JM features high-scoring 6-foot-9 sophomore standout Matthew Hurt(27 points a game) and 6-7 senior Dedoch Chan(16.3 points a game).
Austin is led by junior twins Both Gach(16.3 ppg) and Duoth Gach(15.5 ppg).
A sellout crowd is expected for the game.
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The Rochester Honkers have signed infielder/right-handed pitcher Kenyon Yovanand infielder Morgan McCulloughfrom the Oregon Ducks for the 2017 season.
Yovan is 6-foot-3, 222-pound freshman from Beaverton, Ore. He was selected in the 32nd round by the Seattle Mariners in the 2016 draft. He has already seen action this season as a freshman as a hitter and pitcher. He was 2-for-3 with three RBIs in his first start and has also pitched a scoreless inning while picking up a save.
McCullough is a 5-9, 181-pound freshman from Seattle, Wash. He was selected in the 33rd round by the Mariners in the 2016 Draft. McCullough is also seeing action this season. In his first four games, he was 0-for-14, but had walked five times, scored twice and collected an RBI.
