Christiansburg, April 8-10

The "Hawkeye Blue Demons" hosted the ISARIA team for two days and we had a great time. Our kids enjoyed their host families and made new friends, the parents explored Virginia and we all cherrished the exhilerating wrestling. After a scenic drive from Grundy we arrived in Christiansburg on Thursday afternoon (the town could have been named after Christian Axenbeck (Christiansbeck).
The Buck's Brugh's Compton's Hartman's, Humphrey' and Woody's met us at the wrestling club located in a former car dealership to greet their "German wresling sons". The first practice was run by Coaches Weber and Andi in a converted garage, the home of the Blue Demons. While the kids enjoyed life with their host families over the next three days, the "support staff" experienced the "Outback" Steakhouse, and a "gemuetlicher Abend" in Room 112. On Karfreitag (Good Friday) some of the parents went on a sightseeing tour led by our "local guide" Priscilla Furth followed by a church service, where we doubled in size the congregation (Gemeinde).

The ISARIA wrestlers participated in two wrestling events, the dual against Christiansburg on Friday afternoon and the "Christiansburg Freestle Tournament" on Saturday.
The dual with Christiansburg displayed wrestling at its finest, with Christiansburg winning 11 matches and ISARIA 18. Here are the results (the winner is printed in bold):
Hawkeye Blue Demons
Timmy Miles
Matt Stump (2nd in State)
Brad Epperly
Nick Buck (3rd in State)
Andrew Robertson
Derek Woody
Luke Brugh
BJ Compton (4x State Champ)
Brett Buckner
Cantley Craft
Levi Morse
Bobby Schafer
Tanner Sutphin
Sid Humphreys (4th, State)
Preston Harrington
Sam Rakes
Robert Buck
Terry Lee Epperly
Jon Dickerson
Luke Brugh
Brian Hartman (4th, State)
Matt Epperly (2nd, State)
Andrew Robertson
Derek Woody
Brock Buckner
Zach Epperly
Cody Dulaney
Sergio Pollock
Adam Ryan
 ISARIA
Korbi Kohler
Simon Schindler
Melissa Schwuerzinger
Florian Lederer
Sabrina Axenbeck
Maxi Braun
Christian Axenbeck
Michi Ebenhoch
Pia Rosenkranz
Marian Schwuerzinger
Andi Walter
Matze Kohler
Martin Axenbeck
Marco Punzo
Flori Kreuzer
Fabio Aiello
Toni Rosenkranz
Maxi Schindler
Andreas Bichlmann
Basti Hock
Markus Jonak
Christian Axenbeck
Siggi Jonak
Vroni Hock
Zaki Hennighausen
Melissa Schwuerzinger
Andi Walter
Michi Ebenhoch
Flori Lederer
 Score
3:8
6:9
pin
2:6
pin
pin
0:11
3:0
3:0 (overtime)
8:21
pin
pin
pin
8:2
pin
pin
7:4
0:12
11:0
3:1
0:11
12:11
pin
pin
4:6
???
pin
0:3
won
After the dual we were invited by the Buck's (the "parents of Toni, Fabio and Maxi S.) to a Pizza party. In approaching the house (see picture below), some of the kids wondered whether it was a castle, others thought it was a mountain resort/hotel. We had a great time with the Buck's and thank all the host families for making us feel at home.

Christiansburg Freestyle Tournament (April 10, 2004)

In the morning, Andi Walter Jr. (little Andi) participated in a Folkstyle tournament and won in his age and weight class. Andi clearly enjoyed this style (as seen in the picture below), which was new for him.

In the afternoon, our ISARIA boys and girls competed in a field of more than 110 fine wrestlers from Virginia, North Carolina and Maryland in the Freestyle Tournament. Based on their age and weight, wrestlers were placed in groups (pools) of not more than four, which gave each competitor three matches. There were a total of 31 pools. The greatest moment of the tournament (at least to this unbiased reporter) was the capture of the gold medal by Sabrina Axenbeck. Sabrina won all three matches in her pool. Also the other ISARIA girls did extremly well. Melissa pinned two of her competitors and lost one match, which guaranteed her the Silver. Beate only had one competitor in her weight class, whom she pinned twice. Vroni Hock, lost the first two matches and won the final match against Tanner Sutphin from the Hawkeye team, which placed her in third place. Pia had a hard pool - all the men were older (and as we all know at this age testosterone dominates). Having said this, Pia wrestled her finest and only succumbed by a narrow margin. Moreover, the Mattenrichter/Referee missed out on some points Pia should have gotton. My congratulations to Pia for a great wrestling. Pia, in Maryland there will be girls waiting to be pinned!

In total our kids captured 12 gold medals (The Axenbeck Trio, Sigi Jonak, the mighty Marian, Flori K, Beate Reutter, Michi Ebenhoch, the Schindler Duo, Toni Rosenkranz and our "adopted son" Flori Lederer. Six silver medals went to Maxi Braun, the Kohler brothers, Marco Punzo, Melissa Schwuerzinger and Andi Walter Jr. The four bronze medals were awarded to Vroni Hock, Andi Walter, Marian Schwuerzinger and Zaki Hennighausen.

As this was the second time the Demons battled the ISARIA wrestlers there was ample opportunity to reverse the outcome from the dual. Notably Melissa reversed the fate from the previous day and pinned Brad Epperly. Matt Stump from the Demons won against Korbi after he had lost the previous day to Simon (congratulations Matt). Simon prevailed over Matt Epperly who had beaten Chrissi Axenbeck in the dual. Toni reversed his loss from the previous day against Robert Buck, his host wrestler (I guess the good food in the Buck house made the difference).

Roaring and cheering accompanied two 5 point throws by Lederer.

congratulations to all the wrestlers for a job well done

  
Daryl Weber, Andi Walter, Kevin Dresser, Herb Kreuzer, Kurtl Schwuerzinger
              
     
The famous "Room 112" and Surviving "Bud"
  
The castle of Toni, Fabio and Maxi S.