Completed Event: Wrestling versus NCAA Championship on March 20, 2025 , , NTS
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Final
Wrestling
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Duke Grapplers Enjoy Polish Breakfast Together
3/20/2006 12:00:00 AM | Wrestling
DURHAM, N.C. ? New York is known as a cosmopolitan city but the Duke wrestling team went through an international experience of their own just across the Hudson River in Bayonne, N.J. On a Sunday morning after wrestling against fellow top academic institutions Columbia University and Harvard University and enjoying the city that never sleeps, the Duke wrestling team found themselves preparing for an authentic Polish breakfast.
Konrad Dudziak, starting 197-pounder for the Blue Devils, is an immigrant from Poland after coming to the United States as a young child. He still speaks Polish perfectly, returns to train in Europe and last year won a Polish National title in freestyle. His father, Jaroslaw Dudziak, came over later but now runs, along with his wife, Iwona, Jaro's, a Polish restaurant in Bayonne. As a treat to the team for making it up to NYC, Jaroslaw served a lovely Polish breakfast.
The Duke roster is a diverse and experienced one, so some of the team members were well-prepared. This past summer part of the team traveled throughout Poland and Eastern Europe and those who attended, such as Dan Fox and assistant coach Corey Bell, warned the others of the delights to come. The meal started off slowly with true oatmeal.
While the Duke grapplers were fully prepared for what was to come, a few of the team members hail from areas that don't quite have the exposure to Polish culture. Whereas many wrestling teams from elite academic institutions are filled with successful prep school students, representing Duke were equally successful but differently raised wrestlers like Aaron Glover, emerging from rural Georgia, and Kellan McKeon, who has attended school in Switzerland and North Carolina. Philip Wightman has seen a lot emerging out of a boys town club in Omaha, Neb., but that hardly trained him for the second dish, a plate of scrambled eggs flanked by four Polish sausages.
Falling somewhere in between these levels of experience was the middle table, where the Shvartsman family sat. Daniel Shvartsman, a Massachusetts native, was joined by two of his siblings and his father, a Ukrainian native who emigrated from Moscow and the USSR 25 years ago. His stories and anecdotes entertained both head coach Clar Anderson and Mr. Dudziak, who had much in common with his fellow Slav. Despite familiarity with Eastern European food, this table did not eat near as much as their neighbors, passing along many dishes, like potato pancakes and the pierogis.
Even the nation's top wrestling state, arguably, got in on the fun. Addison Nuding enjoyed blintzes that he would never find in his hometown of Reading, Pa. Ohioan farm boy Wade Van Sickle was required to eat as much as possible to get his weight up to battle his competition at heavyweight but even he struggled with the six-course meal. Fortunately he had the support of the team's lone graduating senior, Levi Craig. Together they geared up for the last stage, dessert.
The way to truly tell that Duke was undergoing a cultural discovery was to gauge Coach Anderson's reaction to dessert. That he allowed the whole team to partake, breaking his usual “no sweets” rule, was a clear sign that they were learning while satisfying their taste buds.
The meal wrapped up on a cup of tea or coffee. On the walls were maps of Poland and amusing pictures of young Konrad. A few more laughs shared and the morning came to an end, with the team heading off to the Met. All in all it was another excellent educational event for all those involved with Duke wrestling, which soon enough may change its name to Team International.
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