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While not an official varsity sport, wrestling has joined the list of athletic endeavors at Vermilion.
Three Vermilion students formed the heart of the college’s newly-formed wrestling club, and the trio even got to compete in a meet at Grand Rapids during the winter.
Led by Luke Irons, a sophomore from Proctor who scored three pins and took second in the 197-pound division, the group represented the school at an event that also included wrestlers from Itasca and Northland community colleges as well as Concordia (Moorhead).
Irons, who wrestled as a 153-pounder in high school, started the program from scratch during the 202223 school year because he “wanted to get back on the mat.”
He put up some posters around school and nearly 20 students initially showed interest, but Irons said participation “eventually dwindled down” to about five or six students who, this year, worked out for 90 minutes on weekdays starting at 6 a.m.
The group collaborated with the school’s law enforcement program to use a wrestling mat and found a coach in Ely hospital employee Tommy Tiegen, And this year, they graduated to formal competition, with Irons joining fellow 197-pounder Christan Nelson and Daniel Whited, who wrestled in the 141-pound division, to take part in the open tournament in Grand Rapids at Itasca Community College.
“When we completed this year the other wrestler (in the Vermilion club) who had previous wrestling experience had a job interview, and the other two guys had no experience in wrestling whatsoever.”
Nelson and Whited honed their skills but came up without a win at the Itasca event, while Irons scored three pins, in a combined time of less than five minutes, before meeting powerful Gabe Zierden of Concordia in the finals.
Zierden, who advanced to national NCAA Division III competition as part of Concordia’s team, pinned Irons . “I tried to throw a move on him that Tommy had taught me that week, but he put me on my back,” Irons said of Zierden. “Even though I lost I wasn’t that upset.”
The wrestlers at Vermilion logged many hours for just one day of competition, but Irons said he’d like to see Vermilion wresting continue and perhaps grow.
“‘I would love to see it last, for this college to create a wrestling program,” he said. “Women’s wrestling is exploding too so maybe you could have a dual sport... But I don’t know if the torch will get passed.”
Irons said he had to shed more than 20 pounds to get into the 197-pound class for the tournament and said that wrestling has much to offer.
“It’s a team sport but it’s not,” he said. “It’s you against one other person and I think it helps you grow as an individual and as an athlete. You can’t blame anyone else for a loss or something because it’s something you messed up. It makes you work harder.”
The sport also offers many intangibles, he said.
“Wrestling is the hardest physical sport in the world in my opinion,” said Irons. “You can take a football player or soccer player, any sport, and I promise it’s a different type of endurance. You can run for endurance but you don’t have somebody grabbing you or putting pressure on you. You have to go out on that mat knowing you can win.”
