New head coaches for Wheaton, Limestone and Dakota Wesleyan

May 31, 5:06 PMCollege Wrestling ExaminerMark Palmer

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Jim Gruenwald (Photo/Wheaton College)

In April, at least four major college wrestling programs got new head coaches: Penn State, Iowa State, Illinois, and Arizona State.

In the last week of May, three more colleges announced the hiring of new head wrestling coaches: Wheaton, Limestone, and Dakota Wesleyan.

Wheaton hires Gruenwald: Jim Gruenwald, a two-time member of the US Olympic Greco-Roman wrestling team, has been hired as head coach of the Thunder wrestling program at Wheaton College. He replaces Dan Weber, who served the program as its head coach for one season.

Prior to being hired by the college in west suburban Chicago, Gruenwald served as an assistant coach for US Greco Roman wrestling team at the US Olympic Education Center in Marquette, Michigan since 2005.

Among the highlights of Gruenwald's mat career: He finished sixth at 60 kg in the Greco-Roman competition at the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, and placed tenth at the 2004 Athens Olympics. He was also three-time US Champion.

Gruenwald is a 1994 graduate of Maranatha Baptist Bible College, earning a Bachelor's Degree in Secondary Math Education in 1994. He compiled a four-year record of 154-19 on the mat in his career at Maranatha. Gruenwald was a three-time National Christian College Athletic Association (NCCAA) National Champion, earning MVP honors in 1989 and 1991. A former Wheaton Invitational Champion, Gruenwald is a member of Northwestern University's Midlands Invitational Tournament 20-Win Club, with 22 career victories at the prestigious tournament.

Limestone makes Goodale its head coach: After serving as interim head coach last season, Trent Goodale has been named the head coach for the Saints wrestling program at Limestone College. He had assumed the interim title in fall 2008 when former coach Ben Stehura accepted the head coaching job at Cleveland State University.

"I am very excited about the opportunity to continue to build the wrestling program at Limestone College," said Goodale. "There is a lot of work yet to be done for this program to be where I want it to be. I very much believe in this program and this school. I look forward to what is yet to come."

Goodale first joined the staff at the Gaffney, South Carolina-based college as an assistant coach in 2006. A native of Osage, Iowa, he attended the University of Iowa where he earned a bachelor of arts in communication studies. He was a four-year letterwinner for the Hawkeyes and was a 2004 NCAA Division I national qualifier.

Dakota Wesleyan promotes Sedivy: Dakota Wesleyan University announced that former Tiger wrestler and assistant coach Matt Sedivy will be school's new head wrestling coach. He replaces Josh Hardman, who is now head coach at the University of Indianapolis.

Sedivy graduated from Dakota Wesleyan in 2006 with a bachelor's degree in physical education; two years later, he earned a master's from South Dakota State, In addition to his experience as a wrestler and a student assistant coach at Dakota Wesleyan, Sedivy also spent two years as a graduate assistant coach under Jason Liles at SDSU, where he gained valuable experience coaching, recruiting South Dakota and the surrounding area and learning how to run a program.

Most recently, Sedivy was an assistant wrestling coach at Grand Island Senior High School in Nebraska under former DWU head wrestling coach Mike Schadwinkel. Sedivy coached Grand Island to the 2009 "Class A" State Championship. His squad also had seven individual state finalists, four individual state champions and it set state records for scoring and pins at the state tournament.