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Wrestling Coaches

Coach John Garriques

John Garriques enters his second season as a Head Coach of the Centenary College Wrestling program that has seen its share of success the past few seasons, including the school’s third National Qualifier last winter. Coach Garriques comes to Centenary by way of a very well known wrestling program at Phillipsburg High School, where he had been an assistant for three seasons under legendary coach Rick Thompson. At Phillipsburg, which happens to also be his Alma Mater, Coach Garriques was directly involved with every aspect of the daily activities within the program. During his stint with the Stateliners, the team won three Skyland Conference Championships, one Group 4 Championship, and had three individual state place winners, Prior to his return to Phillipsburg, John was an assistant for one year at Middlesex County College in Edison, NJ. While at Middlesex John coached five National Qualifiers, one All-American, and coached the team to a 4th Place finish in the NJCAA national Tournament.

Coach Garriques wrestled for Phillipsburg High School, where he was a three time New Jersey State place winner.  He also helped his team to receive recognition of being number one in the state, three years in a row. In 1997, his senior season, Coach Garriques was a New Jersey State Finalist taking second place at the State Tournament. John was also named a High School All-American that same season, for his second place finish at the NHSCA National Tournament. During his high school years, Phillipsburg won three Group 4 State Championship and three Skyland Conference Championships. Upon graduation, John attended Gloucester County College in Gloucester, NJ. In his freshman year he became a Junior College National Champion, on his way to becoming a two-time Junior College All-American in both 1998 and 2000.  During his career at Gloucester he also helped the team win Two National Team Championships. From there he transferred to Seton Hall University in the fall of 2000, and was an NCAA National Qualifier. John then completed his wrestling career the next season at Hofstra University where he also became a National Qualifier, for the second consecutive year. While at Hofstra, coach Garriques helped the Pride achieve National Recognition, as they were ranked in the top 20 in the country, and CAA conference champions. Coach Garriques’ High School and College career record stands at 224-44. Along with his wrestling accolades, Coach Garriques also holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Liberal Studies with minors in Psychology and Communications from Seton Hall University in 2004.

Coach Garriques currently resides in Phillipsburg, NJ with his wife Jacqueline.

 

Coach Chris Denker

Chris Denker begins his second year with the Centenary wrestling program.  Denker, a Hackettstown, NJ native returned home last winter to join the staff of Head John Garriques.  Denker was a four-year starter for the Blair Academy Wrestling team.  Throughout his career there, he was a two-time Prep School National Wrestler, placing seventh one season and second the following year.  He also placed fifth at the High School All-American Tournament.  Following his graduation in 1996, Coach Denker wrestled one season for American University.  He currently works a police office in Bernardsville, NJ.

 

 

 

 

Jason Hanisak returns for his second season as the Centenary’s Strength and Conditioning Coach.  Hanisak has been involved in exercise and fitness his entire life.  He began experimenting with weights in middle school and high school trying to gain size for his own sports career.  After graduating high school he began getting serious about strength training.  He became a certified personal trainer and started competitive powerlifting in the local area.  Over the next six years Coach Hanisak trained many athletes ranging in ages from 8-40.  In January 2006, he created Hanisak Sports Performance which is based in Mansfield Township, NJ.  He specializes in training athletes for improved sports performance and does on-line consulting.

On the competitive side of the sport, Coach Hanisak began competing on the professional circuit in 2006 and in his first meet at the IPA World Powerlifting Championships he earned a first place finish in his division and set four world records.

His knowledge and background in the area of physical will certainly be a huge benefit to the Cyclone Wrestling program.

 

Coach Jeremy Mayer

Assistant coach Jeremy Mayer begins his second season as a member of the Cyclone Wrestling coaching staff. Mayer was a District 1 champion in 2001 for Hackettstown High School. He then moved on to earn a degree in History with a certification in Secondary Education from Wilkes University. While wrestling for Wilkes, Mayer was a four year starter and two year captain. During the 2004-2005 wrestling season, Mayer was crowned champion of the Middle Atlantic Conference and earned an automatic bid to the NCAA Division III Wrestling Championships.

 

 

 

 

Coach Dave Post

Dave Post joins the Cyclone Wrestling Staff for the first season this winter.  Coach Post is a 2007 graduate of Cornell University where he competed in four seasons where the wrestling team finished 11th, 10th, 4th and 5th in the NCAA Division I Championships, respectively.  He graduated Magna Cum Laude honors with a Bachelors of Science in Biometry and Statistics.
   
Prior to attending Cornell, Coach Post attended Phillipsburg High School in New Jersey where he was a two-year captain of the Stateliners.  The 2000 and 2003 teams which he competed on were Group IV and III State Champions.  He was a four-time District I Champion, a two-time Region I Champion, and placed 5th and 3rd in the New Jersey State Championships during his junior and senior seasons.  He finished his high school academic career ranked fifth in his graduating class of over 300.
   
At Cornell, Coach Post won two open tournaments on his way to earning a varsity letter for the Big Red.  He was a 2004 Buffalo Open Champion and a 2006 Wilkes Open Champion.  In the 2006 New York State Collegiate Championships, he wrestled to a third place finish.  Coach
Post was a member of Cornell's 4.0 Club for athletes that earned a 4.0 in at least one of their semesters, and he was a member of The Cornell Tradition honor society.  Coach Post currently resides in Phillipsburg, New Jersey where he is a mathematics teacher at his alma mater.