Dutch men’s wrestling team traveling to Europe – Central College Athletics

PELLA.— Joining the long list of Central College athletics teams to travel overseas, the Central College men’s wrestling team will spend the last 10 days of May in Ireland and Wales.
           
International travel is nothing new to Dutch athletics team. Coach Ron Schipper took the Dutch football team to Europe twice and Australia once during the 1980’s and 1990’s. Jeff McMartin has continued that tradition, most recently taking Central to Austria for an exhibition game in 2018. Both of Central’s soccer teams went to Europe in March of 2023 with the men visiting England and the women seeing Germany and the Netherlands.
           
“Central has a longstanding history with study abroad and international travel, especially in Wales,” vice president for athletics Eric Van Kley said. “The wrestling team has never done something like this but other teams such as football and soccer have done it recently.”
           
Starting their journey across the pond on Wednesday afternoon, the Dutch will be competing at the inaugural Irish Senior Freestyle Wrestling Championship in Dublin on Saturday.  
           
“We’ll have a couple of joint training sessions on Thursday and Friday before we compete Friday,” Van Kley said. “The team is extremely excited to compete internationally.”
           
The remainder of the trip is a cultural and sightseeing trip for the 30-person travel party of student-athletes, coaches and athletic trainer Jake Schubert. Schbuert spent the spring of his junior year studying at Bangor University in Wales and is excited to bring the team back to that campus for a few days.
           
The Dutch will return home on Friday, May 31.
 
Participating student-athletes
Pierre Baldwin, so., Carol Stream, Ill., West Chicago HS
Brock Beck, sr., Grinnell, Iowa, Grinnell HS
Elijah Belzer, so., Wapello, Iowa, Wapello HS
Cael Cox, jr., Ankeny, Iowa, Ankeny HS
Duncan Delzell, sr., Burlington, Iowa, Burlington HS
Kale Downey, so., Clarinda, Iowa, Clarinda HS
Michael Esquivel, Jr., so., Aurora, Ill., Yorkville Christian HS
Kyler Hall, fr., Boone, Iowa, Ames HS
Trenton Harper, so., Norwalk, Iowa, Norwalk HS
Hayden Hearne, so., Urbandale, Iowa, Urbandale HS
Jason Hermann, jr., Stockton, Ill., Stockton HS
Jacob Hiemstra, so., Pleasantville, Iowa, Pleasantville HS
Kevin Hogan, so., Peotone, Ill., Peotone HS
Lincoln Holub, so., Lisbon, Iowa, Lisbon HS
Gage Linahon, sr., Newton, Iowa, Newton HS
Jacob Rios, fr., Van Nuyes, Calif., El Camino Real Charter HS
Austin Roos, jr., Atkins, Iowa, Benton HS
Nathan Rosas, so., Harvard, Ill.., Harvard HS
Ian Sharples, fr., Modesto, Calif., Thomas Downey HS
David Stewart, fr., Cortland, Ill., DeKalb HS
Colin Suyko, sr., Cary, Ill., Cary-Grove HS
Colby Tool, jr. Reasnor, Iowa, PCM HS
Austin Totty, so., American Canyon, Calif., American Canyon HS
Sam West, so., Burlington, Iowa, Notre Dame HS
Sam Wolff, sr., Chaska, Minn., Chaska HS