The boxing team will be hosting the Northeast Regional Championships at 8 tomorrow and Saturday night in White Building.
Penn State will have nine representatives, one for each weight class. Box-offs were held last Friday to determine who will be representing the boxers for each weight class. Mike Joyce did not participate in the box-off due to an injury he sustained prior to his bout.
The representatives for Penn State will be Ben Ladrido at 125, Walt Blake at 132, Howie Rodgers at 147, Paul Maginnis at 156, Kevin Cull at 165, Jim Ustynoski at 172, Matt Marino at 180, Gerry Gramaglia at 190 and Seth Lyter will be boxing in the heavyweight division.
There will be representatives from Westfield State College, Army and Norwich. Penn State has faced many of these opponents before but will not know who it is fighting until the night of the bouts.
“This is the first time I have truly have been nervous about a match,” Blake said. “It’s a fear of the unknown. I don’t know what exactly I am preparing for, but after the first punch it will all be gone.”
In the regionals, there will be between two and four bouts for each weight class. The winners will continue on to Colorado Springs for the national championships.
Lyter said Penn State has a good chance to send the more representatives to the nationals than it ever has. There has been a lot of fire at practice this week, he said.
To the boxers, the words “Spring Break” simply meant that there were more hours in the day to practice. Coach Bill Wrable said that after the boxers had two bad weeks, he issued a challenge to the boxers to get aggressive and get into better shape. The number and the intensity of the drills have increased.
Student coaching assistants Kelly Cordes and Craig Bernier have helped to run these drills and keep the boxers up to par.
“This is what the whole year is about, this was a good time for the guys to hit their peak shape, ” said Wrable. “We’ll find out if it worked on Friday.”
“It is realy an inspiration when your coach is doing the workouts along with you,” Blake said. “It is easy to say to do it and sit back and watch. It really makes you work when he’s working out along with you.”