Eli Paulson – Finding The Fun

By Brian Jerzak

If you are Anoka's Eli Paulson, you were almost pre-determined to be a wrestler. His dad – Brandon Paulson - is an Olympic Greco Silver medalist, and his grandfather – Doug Paulson – is a long-time wrestling coach. Eli was never pressured by anyone, despite his family connections, into athletics. When he needed time off, he got it. When deciding what to do in college, he was encouraged to look outside the family business and go his own way. Now, he is a state wrestling champion and a future Division I football player.

"I was first in wrestling rooms when I was two years old when my dad would go into Anoka or something to run a practice or Augsburg to run a team camp," Paulson said. "When I was three or four years old, I was in what Pinnacle calls the 'tough guy group.' It was a bit of a rough start because we were all about five, just trying to learn wrestling and not knowing what we were doing. I was just trying to get to dodgeball at the end of practice."

Before ever competing, Eli would go with his dad once or twice a week to work out at PINnacle Wrestling School, which his father co-owns.

"It wasn't all wrestling," Paulson explained. "We did a lot of agility and gymnastics – cartwheels and round-offs. When you are four years old, you don't have a lot of life experience and don't know what toughness means. I did a lot of crying and had to learn how to deal with it."

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Pair of Former Gophers Prepped for Greco World Team Trials

Pat Smith and Alec Ortiz receive their seeds as they look to punch their tickets to Final X

MINNEAPOLIS – Another round of pre-seeds has been released by USA Wrestling for this weekend’s World Team Trials Challenge, as a pair of former Gophers, Pat Smith and Alec Ortiz, have received their seeds for Greco-Roman competition this weekend.

The tournament will take place from May 21-22 inside Xtream Arena in Coralville, Iowa, as FloWrestling will host all tournament coverage throughout the weekend.

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Minnesota three-time All-American Mack Reiter featured on Trackwrestling’s On The Mat podcast

Mark Fong and Mack Reiter go On The Mat

Mark Fong and Mack Reiter will go On The Mat. Fong is a high school coach in Connecticut and is starting the Overcomer Training Center in Middletown. The connection there is Fong was Richard Perry’s high school coach. Perry suffered a life-altering injury while training in the run up to the 2018 World Championships. Don Bosco graduate and Minnesota three-time All-American Mack Reiter also joins the show. He talks a lot, so he’ll be entertaining. Join Kyle Klingman and Andy Hamilton as they talk about the world of wrestling on the flagship podcast of Trackwrestling.com

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Training Schools and Camps Wrestling With COVID-19

By Brian Jerzak

Businesses around the nation have all had to deal with several changes during the last six months. The business of wrestling has had to adjust too. While high school and college programs have had many challenges, so have wrestling training facilities. How are these training facilities dealing with our new reality, and how are they planning for an uncertain future?

I talked with four wrestling training school owners and one wrestling camp director/coach to find out their thoughts on wrestling with COVID-19.

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Eischens goes 1-1 at Junior World Championships

Former Anoka wrestler Tyler Eischens went 1-1 at the UWW Junior World Championships on August 17th in Tallinn, Estonia.

Eischens, who wrestled Greco-Roman at 72 kg (158 lbs.), defeated Deividas Subotkevic of Lithuania 9-0 in his first match. He then lost to Ihor Bychkov of Ukraine 5-2 in the next round. Eischens was eliminated from competition when Bychkov lost in the semifinals.

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Sokol goes 1-1 at Cadet World Championships

Simley wrestler Ryan Sokol went 1-1 at the UWW Cadet World Championships on July 29th in Sofia, Bulgaria.

Sokol, who wrestled Freestyle at 65 kg (143.3 lbs.), defeated Ionut Vintila of Moldova 10-0 in the round of 32. He then lost to Davit Patsinashvili of Georgia 12-0 in the Round of 16. Sokol was eliminated from competition when Patsinashvili lost in the semifinals.

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Guillotine Grapevine Podcast: Brandon Paulson and PINnacle’s busy summer on the mats

Brandon Paulson is set to be inducted into the National Wrestling Hall of Fame this weekend in Stillwater, Oklahoma. But even though Paulson has that important moment forthcoming, he’s had a number of moments with the PINnacle School of Wrestling this summer.

Paulson comes by the studio to give his perspective on the Gopher wrestling season, the season of freestyle and Greco and how well represented the club is on the USA world teams.

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Mcniff’s Riffs: Former Gopher Grapplers Help Young Athletes Reach Their Peak, Both On And Off The Mat

Jared Lawrence and Brandon Paulson are helping Minnesota wrestlers reach the next level through the Pinnacle Wrestling School.

While Minnesota has a well-earned reputation and a perennial marketing plan touting it as the ‘State of Hockey’, we are witnessing considerable growth in other winter sports. One sport where Minnesota is particularly on the rise is wrestling.

“We’re not one of the top states” said former U of M wrestler Jared Lawrence. “I mean, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Oklahoma, those guys are ahead of us, but we’re definitely top eight for sure and climbing.”

“The last three years are the best we’ve ever had come out of the state,” said fellow former Gopher Brandon Paulson. “We have more division one wrestlers than we’ve ever had, and the greatest international success we’ve ever had as far as the age groups, so I think wrestling is in a good spot as far as interest.” Continue reading at www.kare11.com