Nearly Naked Mile strikes again

J.R. Churchill Staff Reporter

In 1986, a group of students from the University of Michigan founded the Nearly Naked Mile.

The event spread like wildfire, quickly becoming popular with universities nationwide. The event gathers donated clothes from students and donates the clothes to those in need in local communities.

This year’s race at OSU featured cold weather, which as a participant, made me want to finish as fast as possible. One major factor leading up to the race was the ground itself, as the night prior to the race it had iced over. The conditions were not ideal, however, a race must be run. Thankfully, the ice melted and the water evaporated just in time for the race.

Before the race began, I was lucky enough to interview a freshman, Kyle. Kyle was kind and fun to talk to before the race. He was dressed in all green, wearing Ireland boxers and a green fedora, which went great with his scorching red beard.

It was his first year running the race, and he seemed excited and determined. Kyle ran a hard race and finished in fourth place with a time close to five minutes. I can only assume that he was blasting Genesis’

“Dancing with the Moonlit Knight,” his go-to running song.

The competition was great all around. There were people from all sorts of organizations, all shooting for different goals. Some people wanted to say they ran a mile, while others were looking to break a certain time stamp. Personally, I wanted to run below a six-minute mile and finish in the top five. After clocking in at 4:51, it was safe to say that I was dog tired. The bitter cold dissipated, and I could no longer feel my legs or my hands.

The first and second-place runners were kind after the race. After a brief conversation with the two, I found out that they ran cross country and track in high school, too.

My favorite part of the race came after I had already finished. All the runners waited at the finish line for everyone else to finish. The runners were cheering everyone on until the very end, in what I would describe as a prime example of Cowboy culture. Despite the sub forty-degree wind chill, Cowboy pride was at an all-time high.

Fix’s Pin...

Continued from 1

“Reece (Witcraft) just got pinned, and I was devastated for Reece. Then (Fix) goes out there and sticks the guy and I was just ecstatic.”

Even in the matches dropped – whether it be Konner Doucet’s narrow loss to No. 1-ranked heavyweight, Mason Parris, or Witcraft’s extra-period defeat in his first start of the season -Smith finds silver lining in the negatives. On a day where the Cowboys outscored the Wolverines 15-2 in takedowns, it came down to the last bout. This time, OSU found a way to win.

“The difference was we were the aggressors early in the match,” Smith said. “We were the ones outscoring early in the matches, for the most part, and then definitely in the end in the matches we needed to win.”

Takedowns...

Continued from 1

Sheets was the aggressor from start to finish, which concluded during the second period after he picked up a 18-0 technical fall against Consuelos. Sheets picked up two takedowns in the match in addition to a two-point nearfall and three, four-point nearfalls. A lack of finishing-takedowns has plagued Sheets, among other wrestlers. Coach John Smith stated that finishing takedowns was what won the match for OSU on Friday.

“I thought we were aggressive, I thought when we got to the legs, we scored,” Smith said. “We did a lot better job with finishing takedowns after scrambles, and that’s what happens when you start finishing your takedowns. It’s really important that we know the scrambles are going to be the difference in competition.”

Heavyweight Konner Doucet has relied on his defense throughout the year to win matches. As he took on the No. 1 heavyweight Parris, he needed to generate offense. He did just that. In 22 undefeated matches, Parris allowed four takedowns. Doucet scored the fourth takedown on Parris Friday night. However, it wasn’t enough as Parris defeated him 5-3 with 2:21 riding time.

Seven Cowboys scored takedowns in the dual and three earned bonus-point victories. No.

6 Dustin Plott defeated No. 26 Max Maylor with five takedowns en-route to scoring a 12-4 major decision. Plott scored the most takedowns of any wrestler in the dual.

As for the wrestlers who didn’t score a takedown, Smith stated he was pleased overall with the effort at the weights that lost or didn’t score many points. For No. 14 Kaden Gfeller, he dropped the 157 match in rideouts to No. 10 Will Lewan, 3-2. No. 9 Matt Finesilver got the best of No. 11 Travis Wittlake 2-0 in his first dual back after missing the Iowa trip. Smith had high praise for Gfeller and Wittlake’s opponents.

“Normally, (Gfeller) is pretty solid there, but make no mistake, the kid he wrestled is good,” Smith said. “That kid’s likely going to be on the stand at the NCAA Championships… At 84, we were in on the leg a couple times and didn’t get the score. But, again, I think that’s just credit to the Michigan wrestler for defending really well.” sports.ed@ocolly.com