BGSU Wrestling Taking a Major Hit

Title Nine was a huge leap for women athletes in the sixties and many thought it was an improvement within the sports world. But what was supposed to add more competition to athletics all around has actually dropped the competition level on the men’s side. Wrestling is one sport that has felt the aftershock of Title Nine in a very negative way.
Title Nine calls for the same amount of money to be distributed between men's and women's athletics. Because BGSU has a decent football program, more money is spent on that team and less funds are available for other teams. Wrestling is not the only team at BGSU that has seen their downfall due to the lack of funds.
Within the past thirty years, over three hundred collegiate wrestling programs have been dropped due to the title, and it hasn’t stopped there. On BGSU’s campus, we still have a wrestling team but it isn’t considered varsity so they receive zero money from the University. The Bowling Green State University wrestling team used to be a well established one, but now it’s all pay-to-play and it’s all because of Title Nine.
Fifteen wrestlers at the university pay around three hundred dollars just to compete. And if they make it far enough, another five thousand dollars is tacked on for Nationals. But these guys have a hard time relying on the scheduling because of Title Nine. So many schools have lost their wrestling programs; matches are dropped constantly due to money issues.
Senior and President of the team Josh Paulis had a hard time putting into words how he felt about the issue, “Yeah it’s frustrating, it really is. But I know, me personally, I can’t do much about it.”
The team suffers greatly because of the lack of funds coming their way. The guys don’t even have a place to practice on campus, so they can be found behind Bowling Green High School in a small, detached building practicing every night from 8to 10 p.m.
This has become more of a problem than anything, and those who live and breathe wrestling are looking to change it. Facebook has even been utilized to bring more awareness about the issue. Saving Wrestling is a page dedicated for an attempt at saving collegiate wrestling programs from going under due to the lack of funds giving by the schools.
Individually, a wrestler may not be able to change the title. But a large amount of people fighting for the same cause just may. “What we’re gunna do is we’re gunna establish our program here as best we can and try to get as many All-Americans as we can. We’ve had one so far… so we can establish ourselves and hopefully the University changes their minds and tries to gets us. But as far as Title Nine goes, I know me personally, I can’t work any angles over that,” says Paulis.

Fan Fun With The Falcons

Women's Tennis Plays Host to Duquesne

Women’s Tennis is scheduled to play host to Duquesne University tonight at 7 p.m. at the Perrysburg Tennis Center. BGSU is currently 9-3 in dual matches with Junior Christine Chircosta and Freshman Maddy Eccleston coming off four wins this past week.
Sophomore Jessica Easdale was also perfect on the trip to Florida coming home with a 3-0 record in singles play.
Seniors Katia Babina and Samantha Kintzel each picked up three victories on the trip as well. So overall, the Falcons worked it in Florida and hope to keep that atmosphere and feeling for tonight’s matchup.
The team was in Orlando this past week basking in the sun and victories. The Falcons downed South Dakota (7-0; March 9) and Temple (5-2; March 10) during the team's spring trip.
Duquesne comes to Perrysburg with an overall 5-6 record, winning two straight matches their last time out. A victory over a ranked Coastal Carolina brings an ego to the courts tonight.
Overall, the Falcons lead Duquesne 4-0.
After this weekend activities, the girls will hit the road for eight consecutive MAC regular-season contests, starting at Ball State on March 26th, Miami on the 27th.
The Falcons home opener is scheduled for April 2nd against Western Michigan.

BGSU Baseball Travels to Kentucky

The women’s basketball team is not the only one traveling to Kentucky. The BGSU Baseball guys will be in Kentucky starting today at 2p.m. taking on Eastern Kentucky.
As of now BGSU holds a record of 3-7-1 while Eastern Kentucky holds on to a balanced 7-7 season. Since the beginning of the program, BG has met EKU a total of twenty times and holds the winning, all-time record of 16-4 over the Colonels. Last year’s match up resulted in an 8-4 score with the Falcons on top.
Brennan Smith, Michael Frank and Kevin Leady are the starting pitchers set up to throw against EKU this weekend. Leady struck out nine batters which is a new career high and only walked one when he pitched against butler last week. Ross Gerdeman was set up perfectly for his first career save in the Falcons victory over Butler 3-1.
After being in Florida all last week, the Falcons went out swinging. Jon Berti and T.J. Blanton went for a combined 23-for-38 in the five games that were played. Combined, the two accounted for 16 of the Falcon’s 47 runs on the week.
The Falcons will be back in town for their home opener on Wednesday March 24. BGSU plays host to Central Michigan University.

BGSU Falcons to Take on Michigan State at the NCAA Tourney

Well, it was bound to happen through the four years I was here. THE WOMEN’S BASKETBALL TEAM MADE IT TO THE BIG SHOW! This team has been outstanding throughout the past years and this is something that they deserve completely. So congratulation to the girls… but now it’s time to focus.
Curt Miller and his Falcon team have been named a #12 seed going into the championships. Saturday afternoon the team will take on #5 seed Michigan State in Kentucky a little after noon.
The Spartans are 22-9 on their entire season; 12-6 in the Big Ten. These records get them a 25 spot in the national rankings and a pretty big ego.
The Falcons are 27-6; 14-2 in the Mac and are coming off an eight game winning streak. Last weekend, BGSU became the five-time MAC Champion in Cleveland, OH. Junior Lauren Prochaska scored a game-high 29 points, earning her the MAC tourney MVP and room to brag. Prochaska stand in third place of all-time career scoring list with 1,680 points just under Ali Mann and Jackie Motycka.
The team left from Anderson Arena yesterday in style while family and fans sent them off in style. And if you missed the celebration that Falcon Club Bus will be taking fans to Louisville tomorrow morning. Prepare for coffee because the bus leaves promptly at 5am Saturday morning, leaving the fans enough time to catch the Alumni Association pre-game celebration in Kentucky.

The best of luck to the Falcons from all of us.

P.s. It’s my birthday Saturday so let’s bring home a winner!

Lady Falcons Rack Up Six In A Row

A sixth-straight MAC Title for the women’s basketball team has just been one more thing added to their lists of achievements. Miami is a tough team and fought hard to the end while the Falcons took the W with a score of 62-58.
Ms. Prochaska graced the Redhawks with 25 points as she broke the 3-point field goals made record held at BGSU. Not far behind Prochaska were Tamika Nurse with 13 points and Tracy Pontius with 12.
The game started slowly with only a bucket a piece within the first three minutes. Although the Falcons allowed 18 turnovers they forced 18 out of Miami with Breske, Pontius and Prochaska with a combined 13 steals.
Bowling Green moves on to Cleveland next Wednesday at 4pm to take on either Miami again or Northern Illinois, depending on who wakes the W in that game. I’ll be attending the game so be sure to check back for some pictures/video.