<\/p>\n
John Longton, The Hudsonian\u2019s sports editor, had an article (see below) published in The Schenectady Gazette on Sept. 16.<\/p>\n
Longton currently is interning at The Gazette in the sports department and enrolled in the Journalism Internship course at Hudson Valley Community College, according to Rachel Borrn, associate professor of English and faculty advisor to the Hudsonian.<\/p>\n
Wrestling: Northeast Duals tourney is all grown up<\/strong> TROY \u2014 There\u2019s not a collegiate wrestling program within 65 miles of the Capital Region, but for one weekend, it became the Mecca of the sport.<\/p>\n On Sunday, Hudson Valley Community College played host to 20 Division I wrestling programs for the 13th annual Journeymen Northeast Duals tournament. Headlining the event was two-time NCAA heavyweight champion Nick Gwiazdowski, a graduate of Duanesburg High School who wrestles for North Carolina State.<\/p>\n Fans traveled for miles and packed the McDonough sports complex to get a glimpse of premier college wrestling.<\/p>\n \u201cCollege wrestling is basically the professional level of our sport, besides the Olympics. So this is like the Boston Celtics playing several games in your area,\u201d said Michael Verge, the wrestling coach of St. Johnsbury Academy in Vermont. Verge traveled three hours to be at the event, and said, \u201cIt was well worth the drive.\u201d<\/p>\n Every year, Frank Popolizio, Journeymen Wrestling founder and director, attracts more and more major wrestling programs to his tournament, and has built the Northeast Duels into a top-five tournament in the nation.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s come a long way,\u201d said Popolizo. \u201cOriginally, when we did it back 13 years ago, there were four teams and they were mid-majors and they weren\u2019t what we call the mainstay teams of college wrestling you saw today.\u201d<\/p>\n Seven out of the top 25 teams made Troy their home this past weekend and about 2,000 fans turned out for the event. The match that most people wanted to see was the No. 1-ranked Gwiazdowski taking on No. 7-ranked Michael Kroells of Minnesota.<\/p>\n The match was the last of the day for both teams and was symbolic for the tournament and for Gwiazdowski. Without Gwiazdowski\u2019s knowledge, Frank Popolizio brought in a Duanesburg wrestling mat and scheduled all three Wolfpack duels on it. The mat had past Duanesburg wrestler\u2019s names, including Gwiazdowski\u2019s, printed on it.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ll wrestle on the street. It doesn\u2019t matter,\u201d said<\/p>\n Gwiazdowski after defeating Kroells 9-3. \u201cThat\u2019s kind of cool, [to wrestle] on my home mat with my name on it.\u201d<\/p>\n In the match, the Delanson native was in control, wrestling in front of friends and family.<\/p>\n \u201cAll my family and friends who I don\u2019t see very often came out. So that was a big motivator,\u201d said Gwiazdowski.<\/p>\n Frank Popolizio\u2019s brother, Pat, coaches the Wolfpack and has had the luxury of being involved with Gwiazdowski during his collegiate career. When Gwiazdowski was a freshman at Bingamton, Popolizio was his coach. After that season, Popolizio took the job at NC State and Gwiazdowski went with him.<\/p>\n \u201cI think we complement each other pretty well in our personalities,\u201d said<\/p>\n Gwiazdowski about his coach. \u201cHe helps me think with things not just on the mat. Motivating and mindset wise and stuff like that.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s a special kid and obviously going for his third title,\u201d said Pat Popolizio about his heavyweight wrestler, who has a 58-match winning streak. \u201cHe\u2019s up for the challenge, and is doing everything he can to get better.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Published:<\/strong>\u00a0Tue, 17 Nov 2015 12:58:51 +0000 by\u00a0d.gardner<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" John Longton, The Hudsonian\u2019s sports editor, had an article (see below) published in The Schenectady Gazette on Sept. 16.…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2086,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[161],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7291","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-student-announcement-college-related"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chronicle.hvcc.edu\/wpdev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7291","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chronicle.hvcc.edu\/wpdev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chronicle.hvcc.edu\/wpdev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chronicle.hvcc.edu\/wpdev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2086"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chronicle.hvcc.edu\/wpdev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7291"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/chronicle.hvcc.edu\/wpdev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7291\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chronicle.hvcc.edu\/wpdev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7291"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chronicle.hvcc.edu\/wpdev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7291"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chronicle.hvcc.edu\/wpdev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7291"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nBy John Longton<\/p>\n