Augsburg celebrates Six Decades of Dominance

On Jan­u­ary 22, 2010, the Augs­burg Col­lege wrestling pro­gram cel­e­brat­ed “Six Decades of Dom­i­nance,” mark­ing the six­ti­eth an­niver­sary of the pro­gram’s found­ing in 1949 by Edor Nel­son and Oliv­er Dahl. Be­fore the sched­uled meet with the Uni­ver­si­ty of Ne­bras­ka at Om­a­ha — the num­ber one team in Di­vi­sion II — the pro­gram held a short cel­e­bra­tion with a pre­sen­ta­tion of the wrestling team’s his­to­ry. Augs­burg — the num­ber one team in Di­vi­sion III — de­feat­ed UNO 18–12. Af­ter the meet, an­oth­er gath­er­ing was held at Sgt. Pre­ston’s bar, but I did­n’t shoot that.

Jeff Swenson Wrestling Hall of Fame
The Jeff Swen­son Wrestling Hall of Fame at Augs­burg Col­lege, which opened in 2009, seen here on Jan­u­ary 22, 2010.

Pre-meet

Jim Matzek
Jim Matzek, fa­ther of Head Wrestling Coach Mark Matzek talks with Ath­let­ic Di­rec­tor Jeff Swen­son at the “Six Decades of Dom­i­nance” cel­e­bra­tion on Jan. 22, 2010 at Augsburg.
Jim Mastro
For­mer Augs­burg wrestlers Jim Mas­tro and Tom Howe talk dur­ing the “Six Decades of Dom­i­nance” cel­e­bra­tion on Jan. 22, 2010. Both Mas­tro and Howe com­pet­ed for Augs­burg in the ear­ly 1970s.
Joe Moon
For­mer Augs­burg wrestling and two-time na­tion­al ti­tlist at 174 pounds in 2004 and 2005 Joe Moon talks with oth­er for­mer wrestlers at the “Six Decades of Dom­i­nance” cel­e­bra­tion at Augs­burg on Jan. 22, 2010.
Mark Matzek
Augs­burg Head Wrestling Coach Mark Matzek talks with a wrestling alum­nus at the “Six Decades of Dom­i­nance” cel­e­bra­tion on Jan. 22, 2010.
Bob Adams
Bob Adams, for­mer Augs­burg wrestler and fa­ther of cur­rent wrestler Jayson Adams lis­tens to a speak­er at the “Six Decades of Dom­i­nance” cel­e­bra­tion at Augs­burg on Jan. 22, 2010. The two are the only fa­ther-son All-Amer­i­cans in Augs­burg history.
Alan Rice
Augs­burg donor Alan Rice, seen here on Jan. 22, 2010. Rice con­tributed $1 mil­lion to help build the Kennedy Cen­ter, which in­cludes a wrestling room and coach­es’ offices.

Match

Mark Matzek
Head Wrestling Coach Mark Matzek walks to­ward the Augs­burg bench at the be­gin­ning of a dual meet be­tween the top-ranked schools in DII and DIII: Augs­burg and the Uni­ver­si­ty of Ne­bras­ka at Om­a­ha on Jan. 22, 2010. Augs­burg de­feat­ed UNO 18–12.
Bunch of Guys chorus
The “famed” Bunch of Guys cho­rus sings the Na­tion­al An­them be­fore a wrestling dual meet be­tween Augs­burg and the Uni­ver­si­ty of Ne­bras­ka at Om­a­ha on Jan. 22, 2010. Augs­burg tra­di­tion al­lows for “any man in the au­di­ence” to sing the na­tion­al an­them be­fore an ath­let­ic event.
Josh Roberts
Josh Roberts (AUG, 12–6) dec. No. 2 Ter­rell McK­in­ney (UNO, 20–8) 5–4
Josh Roberts
Josh Roberts (AUG, 12–6) dec. No. 2 Ter­rell McK­in­ney (UNO, 20–8) 5–4
Josh Roberts
Josh Roberts (AUG, 12–6) dec. No. 2 Ter­rell McK­in­ney (UNO, 20–8) 5–4
Paul Bjorkstrand
No. 2 Cody Gar­cia (UNO, 34–0) dec. No. 6 Paul Bjork­strand (AUG, 22–6) 10–6
Jafari Vanier
No. 3 Mario Mor­gan (UNO, 26–3) dec. No. 5 Ja­fari Vanier (AUG, 6–3) 9–2
Lucas Murray
Lu­cas Mur­ray (AUG, 12–6) dec. Tait Weath­er­bee (UNO, 14–14) 3–1
Jason Adams
No. 5 Ja­son Adams (AUG, 29–2) dec. No. 2 George Ivanov (UNO, 24–8) 6–3
Jason Adams
No. 5 Ja­son Adams (AUG, 29–2) dec. No. 2 George Ivanov (UNO, 24–8) 6–3
Orlando Ponce
No. 6 Or­lan­do Ponce (AUG, 19–8) dec. No. 4 Ryan Pankoke (UNO, 22–6) 5–3
Zach Molitor
No. 3 Zach Moli­tor (AUG, 16–3) dec. Brett Rosedale (UNO, 10–10) 6–0
Brad Baus
No. 6 Austin Boehm (UNO, 12–4) dec. Brad Baus (AUG, 13–9) 13–6
Brad Baus
No. 6 Austin Boehm (UNO, 12–4) dec. Brad Baus (AUG, 13–9) 13–6
Jared Massey
No. 1 Jared Massey (AUG, 15–0) dec. No. 1 Ja­cob Marrs (UNO, 25–6) 6–2
Jared Massey
No. 1 Jared Massey (AUG, 15–0) dec. No. 1 Ja­cob Marrs (UNO, 25–6) 6–2
Jacob Marrs
No. 1 Jared Massey (AUG, 15–0) dec. No. 1 Ja­cob Marrs (UNO, 25–6) 6–2
Andy Witzel
No. 2 Eli­jah Madi­son (UNO, 22–5) dec. No. 7 Andy Witzel (AUG, 15–6) 2–0

Tech specs

All im­ages shot with a Canon 30D. Some im­ages shot with 17–85mm f/4–5.6 IS lens, while oth­ers were shot with a Sig­ma 70–200mm f/2.8 lens. All im­ages use Canon 580 EX II. Flash is at 45º with bounce card for most ac­tions shots. EXIF in­tact, but most ac­tion shots about 1/250 @ f/4.0 and ISO 800. Oth­ers vary.

Thanks for look­ing and com­ments are al­ways welcome.

3 comments

  1. Ex­cel­lent pho­tos! Some of the best I’ve seen.

    Have you tried us­ing High speed sync on your flash. You could boost shut­ter speed to 1/320,1/400 or faster. Es­pe­cial­ly with the white cir­cle! That mat is a pho­tog­ra­phers dream! Great reflector.

    I al­ways groan when I walk in and see a dark blue, black, green or any dark mats. And then they hang what looks like a street light over the mat. Light just gets absorbed.

    You gave me some ideas. I usu­al­ly open my lens to 2.8, but yours at f/4 are sharp­er as ex­pect­ed and you are get­ting good light.

  2. I haven’t tried the high speed sync (at least not for wrestling — I have played with it be­fore). I was most­ly test­ing the fea­si­bil­i­ty of us­ing a stroboframe to pre­vent redeye.

    You are cor­rect in that I could have opened up to f/2.8 or even gone to ISO 1600 (or both) which would have re­duced the flash out­put and there­fore in­crease re­cy­cle times, but I chose to test it this way. Hope­ful­ly in the fu­ture I will be able to prop­er­ly play around with all the dif­fer­ent combos.

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