Spenser Mango

Morning mega-links: Bowl predictions, Army football notes, Olympic wrestling previews, more

By Kevin Lilley on July 6, 2012 Air Force, Army, Football, Uncategorized, Wrestling

Seven holiday hits for your Friday military-sports-reading pleasure (click through for the non-service-academy-football notes): 1. Everybody’s bowl bound. Blogging at The (Colorado Springs, Colo.) Gazette, Frank Schwab points us to football expert Phil Steele’s preseason bowl picks, which include all three service academies. Steele slots Air Force into the first bowl game of the season, playing Washington in the New Mexico Bowl on Dec. 15. Army punches its ticket to the Dec. 27 Military Bowl in Washington, D.C., to face Boston College, and two days later, Navy heads to San Francisco to face California in the Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl.…

Monday morning links: Spenser Mango in spotlight, Boise State-Big East questions, Dustin West results, another take on carrier homer derby

By Kevin Lilley on June 25, 2012 Army, Combatives, Football, Soccer

A half-dozen quick hits for a Monday morning (non-wrestling news after the jump): 1. Big time for the little guy. Army Sgt. Spenser Mango recently had his turn as the feature subject of “100 Olympic Hopefuls in 100 Days,” a series put together by our good friends at USA Today. Click over to read about the Greco-Roman Olympian’s path into the Army World Class Athlete Program, his Army duties when he’s not wrestling or training, and how much weight he has to cut to make the 55-kilogram (121-pound) limit. 2. Lester’s homecoming. Mango may have received the national press, but…

Tuesday military sports links: Airmen in NFL and CFL, sailor in Paralympics, wrestlers win in Serbia

By Kevin Lilley on June 19, 2012 Air Force, Navy, Uncategorized, Wrestling

From Denver to Calgary to London to Belgrade and all points in between, here’s a few quick hits spanning eight or so time zones: Oh? Canada? Air Force 2nd Lt. Spencer Armstrong’s college football career barely took off — the wideout missed five games his junior season with a hamstring injury, then broke his leg three games into his senior year, rejoining the Falcons in December for the 2008 Armed Forces Bowl (and that cool picture on the right). The Canada-born Armstrong was drafted by the Calgary Stampeders of the Canadian Football League in 2009, but as with other aspiring…

Wednesday roundup: International trip for Army wrestlers, Stann part of bad UFC trend, Big East playoff update

By Kevin Lilley on June 13, 2012 Army, Football, Mixed martial arts, Navy, UFC, Uncategorized, Wrestling

Three quick hits for a Wednesday morning, from Belgrade to Brian Stann to Big East football: 1. Pre-Olympic trip. Three Olympics-bound soldiers are among the seven elite U.S. Greco-Roman wrestlers headed to Europe later this week for the Gedza International tournament in Belgrade, Serbia, according to TheMat.com. Sgt. 1st Class Dremiel Byers (120 kilograms), Sgt. Spenser Mango (55 kg) and Spc. Justin Lester (66 kg), all members of the Army’s World Class Athlete Program, will make the trip; Mango and Lester will wrestle Friday, with Byers hitting the mat Saturday. At stake: A chance to fine-tune their mat game as…

Spc. Spenser Mango (blue) claimed an Olympic bid with a win over Max Nowry on Saturday in Iowa City in the 55-kilogram Greco-Roman final. (Getty Images photo by Matthew Stockman)

Wrestling roundup: Meet your new military Olympians

By Kevin Lilley on April 23, 2012 Army, Uncategorized, Wrestling

For two soldiers, it’s a return to the grandest stage in athletics. For another, it’s his first chance at his sport’s highest honor. For a fourth, all of that was just out of reach. Sgt. 1st Class Dremiel Byers and Sgt. Spenser Mango did what was expected of them over the weekend in Iowa City at the Team USA Olympic wrestling trials, winning their weight classes with 2-0 sweeps of their respective best-of-three championship finals. Byers had a bye to the 120-kilogram final and was without his highest-profile competition after Rulon Gardner decided not to weigh in, stalling his comeback…

Byers, Mango lead strong military presence at Team USA wrestling trials

By Kevin Lilley on April 19, 2012 Army, Marine Corps, Uncategorized, Wrestling

The London Olympics are less than 100 days away, and while some military athletes have already punched their tickets (and keep checking here for new Army qualifiers), the trials have yet to start in earnest. That changes this weekend in Iowa City. About 30 wrestlers with military affiliations will compete in the Greco-Roman and freestyle (men’s and women’s) tournaments to determine who’ll represent the U.S. on the mats. Click through for a quick guide for the once-every-four-years wrestling fan — the troops, the favorites, the story lines, the TV coverage and, of course, the flying squirrel.

Olympic wrestling update: Soldiers Byers, Mango earn spots for Team USA

By Kevin Lilley on March 27, 2012 Uncategorized, Wrestling

Wrestling’s rarely looked at as a team sport, especially at the elite level — one on one, no substitutions, no help beyond shouts from the sidelines. But Olympic qualifying for Team USA wrestling may be the ultimate team sport — still one on one, still no substitutions, but if a wrestler earns a qualifying bid in his weight class, it doesn’t go directly to that individual: Slap “USA” into the Olympic bracket for now, and whoever wins the U.S. qualifier in Iowa City next month gets the golden ticket. Need somebody to fight for their country, not just themselves? Find…

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