Coaches, donors, fans and student-athletes came together on Sunday night in northeast Minneapolis to celebrate highlights from the 2015-16 Gopher wrestling season and honor the four-man senior class departing from the program next month.
Every Gopher coach spoke at the event, with Dustin Schlatter, Luke Becker and Brandon Eggum announcing award winners, and head coach J Robinson introducing each of the four graduating Gophers – Josh Shupe, Jordan Kingsley, Brad Dolezal and Josh Mora – and welcoming them to the dais to speak to the crowd.
In addition to honoring its senior class, the team handed out 10 individual awards and recognized its nine first-year letterwinners from the past season. A full list of awards and recognitions are listed below.
- “M” Club First Year Awards: Will Balow, Brandon Krone, Josh Mora, Ben Morgan, Miles Patton, Skyler Petry, Steve Polakowski, Tommy Thorn, Dylan Urbach
- Freshman Academic Award: Miles Patton
- Upperclassman Academic Award: Tijani Karaborni
- Most Falls Award: Sam Brancale
- Fraser Dean Most Courageous Wrestler Award: Jake Short
- Verne Gagne Leadership Award: Michael Kroells
- Most Dedicated Wrestler Award: Skyler Petry
- Freshman of the Year Award: Tommy Thorn
- Chris Berglin Most Improve Wrestler Award: Brett Pfarr
- Most Exciting Wrestler Award: Brett Pfarr
- Most Valuable Wrestler Award: Brett Pfarr
GopherSports.com is your home for news about Gopher Wrestling throughout the offseason as the team prepares for the 2016-17 campaign. To stay up-to-the-minute on everything surrounding the Minnesota program, be sure to follow Gopher Wrestling on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
