Opelt One Of Three Captains For Cornell College
Monday, November 10th, 2014 -- 10:19 AM
Sophomore Phillip Opelt of Neillsville is one of the 2014-15 captains of Cornell's wrestling team.Phillip joins Senior Brent Hamm (SR/Iowa City, Iowa), and junior Trevor Engle (JR/Kansas City, Mo.) as captains. It's no coincidence that all three wrestled their final matches last March on the mats at the NCAA Division III Championships. They are the team's three returning national qualifiers, looking to continue a run of success under 10th-year head coach Mike Duroe.
"We have a lot of guys returning, a lot of experience at several of the weights," said Duroe, who owns a 106-71 dual mark on the Hilltop. "It all starts with Hamm, Engle and Opelt. Even though they didn't score a lot of points at the national tournament, they've dedicated themselves to really good training in the offseason. We have good leadership from those three guys."
Opelt stands No. 10 at 133 in the NWCA rankings after a fine freshman season in which he led all Ram newcomers with a 23-14 record. Opelt took third at the 2014 regional meet and finished 1-2 at nationals.
"Opelt is a very confident athlete," Duroe said. "He had a really good spring and summer."
The Rams begin a busy dual schedule Tuesday, Nov. 11, with a 7 p.m. meet against Augustana in the Small Multi-Sport Center. Cornell competes at the Luther Invitational Nov. 15, and then heads to Carver-Hawkeye Arena Nov. 21 for face three foes at the University of Iowa Duals.
Along with Tuesday's dual, the Rams have home meets against Luther (Dec. 3), Simpson (Dec. 16) and Loras (Jan. 29). Cornell hosts the annual Matman Invitational Jan. 17.
Follow the Cornell Rams wrestling team online at http://www.cornellrams.com
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