Throughout wrestling coach Don Parker’s 28-season career, he has seen nearly everything the sport has to offer, he said.
He’s seen 11 All-American wrestlers on his squad, 18 conference championships, depleted teams, even a wrestler with a 32-0 season lose his only two matches in the national tournament.
The only thing he hasn’t seen, however, is a national champion wrestler for UW-Eau Claire.
With junior Derek Sikora (165-pound weight class) seeded fourth in Friday and Saturday’s Div. III Wrestling Championships at St. Olaf College, Minn., Parker believed he had his chance to witness history.
“I thought (Sikora) would (win Nationals),” Parker said. “He had his goals set to … be number one.”
Both Parker and Sikora will have to keep waiting as Sikora finished his second run at Nationals with a fifth place finish Saturday with a 4-0 decision over No. 2 UW-La Crosse junior Nick Ammerman.
“I knew that I could beat him,” Sikora said. “I knew that he was down because he was in the same boat as I was.”
Both Sikora and Ammerman dropped into the consolation tournament after losing in the semifinals and their first matches in the consolation bracket.
“I just told him, ‘This is the tough part now,’ ” Parker said. “It’s figuring out who has the best mental courage to come back … and wrestle.”
Sikora, who lost to Ammerman twice during the regular season, said he wrestled smarter than before to win the match and finish his season at 30-6.
“It’s kind of a letdown I guess because last year I took third,” he said. “Dropping down places isn’t really your main goal.”
On Friday, Sikora edged The College of New Jersey’s Sean Flynn with a 2-1 victory. In the following two rounds, he defeated Wartburg’s (Iowa) Andrew Knaack 10-3 after two regular season losses to him and then took out Williams’ (Mass.) John Dolan with a 10-5 decision.
“He wrestled at a very high level,” freshman wrestler Shane Brady said. “It didn’t look like he was going to stop.”
Sikora’s shot at being a national champion fell short when top-seeded Garrett South of Luther College
(Iowa) beat him 7-3. South went on to win the tournament at the 165-pound weight class.
Sikora then lost his next match to Ursinus’ (Pa.) Scott Roesch to move him into the fifth-place match against Ammerman.
“I guess I’m happy with (my showing at Nationals) because I beat two kids that beat me twice before that,” Sikora said. “It definitely carries a lot of momentum (into next season).”
Sikora’s status as a two-time All-American makes him the fourth Blugold to achieve such status in Eau Claire wrestling history. The other three Blugolds with that honor are Tony Algiers (1981, 1982), Mark Janicki (1969, 1970) and Bob Wozniak (1988, 1989, 1990).
Despite Sikora’s disappointment with his finish, Parker said he’s already on the road to a successful season next year.
“He started his season for next year already by beating Ammerman,” he said. “That’s just going to help him for next year.”
