Sports

Boxers earn honors, medals at Golden Gloves, Nationals

Cody Saveraid
April 16, 2006

Boxing is considered the sport of kings, and there’s certainly a lot of royalty at Iowa State.

The ISU Boxing Club recently competed in the Iowa Golden Gloves tournament from Mar. 31 to April 1 and at the National Collegiate Boxing Association National Championships in Reno, Nev., from April 6 to 8.

Nine boxers competed at Golden Gloves, and two boxers fought at Nationals.

Assistant coach Marge Dowd said she was proud of how well the boxers did at their respective tournaments.

“Out of the nine people we took to Golden Gloves, we ended up with three champions and five second-place finishes. Our boxers did really, really well down there and did very well at Nationals, as well,” she said.

Leading the pack at Golden Gloves were champions Chris Meyers, Kristen Voss and Nicole Belcher. Meyers successfully knocked out all of his opponents on his way to the championship.

Voss, multi-time Iowa Golden Gloves champion, said she was proud of her team’s accomplishments, while being humble about her own.

“Everyone did really well, and I think I did really well,” she said. “I could have done better, but at least I won. Everyone worked very hard to get to Golden Gloves.”

Coach Terry Dowd said he is confident that Voss will be a national champion in the near future.

“Kristen [Voss] won Golden Gloves for the third time and just destroyed her opponent,” he said. “She’s rated fifth in the country and will be national champion next year.”

Except for Voss, all the boxers who competed at the Iowa Golden Gloves tournament are novice fighters who have competed in less than 10 fights and have never won a championship. Many of the fighters saw their first competition – including Meyers.

Golden Gloves fights consist of three one-minute rounds, whereas the bouts at Nationals were contested over three two-minute rounds.

Ben Marcov, who boxes in the heavyweight division, earned fourth place at Nationals after dislocating his wrist in the first 45 seconds of the fight.

“I had to fight a guy from Lock Haven and in the first round. He hit me with a right cross and then I covered right up, and after that he never really got me with anything else,” Marcov said. “About 45 seconds into the match, I threw a right hook at his body and snapped my wrist on contact, dislocating it, and the ref stopped the fight.”

Dowd believes Marcov would have defeated his opponent, who earned third place, if it wasn’t for the freak injury.

“Ben [Marcov] had this guy cold. Within a minute this guy knew he was going to get beat, until Ben smashed a bone in his right wrist, and that was the end of that,” he said.

Nick Nelson took third place in the 185-pound weight class after what Dowd believes was a very controversial decision.

“Nick [Nelson] won his first fight against the kid from Navy and in the fight with the kid from Army. Nick [Nelson] landed 185 punches and the guy from Army landed about 58. I counted them, and the kid from Army won on a split decision,” Dowd said. “The ref looked at the cards and said that the kid from Army won.”

Dowd hinted at a biased referee as the reason for the loss, but said Nelson will still be a great fighter.

“It was political because that referee and I never got along. Nick Nelson will be national champion next year,” he said.

Dowd said he was glad to take his boxers on the trip because it was more than just a boxing experience.

“Any time you box, you meet a lot of nice people,” Dowd said. “There’s no jerks in collegiate boxing, and it’s just fun because you get to go places. Ben [Marcov] and Nick [Nelson] had never seen Lake Tahoe, and Ben [Marcov] had never flown before.”

Dowd believes at least five of his fighters will qualify for next year’s nationals.

“Boxing is alive and well at Iowa State and has been for the last 28 years,” he said.

Now that competitions are finished for the year, Dowd said practices will slow down a bit but certainly won’t come to a halt over the summer.

“During the summer, we practice on Mondays and Wednesdays from 5:30 to 6:30,” he said.

“Boxing is a wonderful sport and I wish more kids would come down to State Gym and give it a try.”

Iowa Golden Gloves

Weight – Name; place

Men’s Division:

141A – Ryan Hanssen; 2nd

141B – Devin Hanssen; 2nd

152A – Matthew Schwark; 2nd

152B – Johnathan May; 2nd