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Washington Evening Journal
111 North Marion Avenue
Washington, IA 52353
319-653-2191
Chiri and Swafford Recognized
Mark Chiri and Brian Swafford have been together for 36 years and are the dynamic duo of wrestling coaches. Together their resume is truly impressive. They were both rewarded on Oct. 21 at the Iowa Wrestling Coaches and Officials Association (IWCOA) convention in Des Moines for their decades of molding boys into first rate wrestlers and fine young men.
Swafford received the State of Iowa Gold Standard Award for Assistant Wrestling Coach, and Chiri was inducted into the National Wrestling Hall of Fame as a Head Wrestling Coach. All of New London is so happy for these men who have received this much-deserved recognition for their decades of hard work, dedication, sacrifice, and success in high school wrestling.
Impressive is an understatement when one sees the remarkable record:
- Duals — Career Dual meet record @ NLHS — 468-235-3; 14 times qualified for Regional Duals; Regional Dual finalist — 9 times/won 4 titles; and State Duals — 1992 (1A placed 4th), 2004 (2A Qualifier), 2007 and 2010 (1A Qualifier).
- State Tournament Results — 115 Individual Qualifiers; 10 State Champions; 55 Place Winners.
- Sectional Results — 10 Championships/12 runners-up
- District Results — 12 Championships/12 runners-up
- State Team Results — Top 25 — 23 times; Top 10 — 7 times; State Runner-up — 2008
- Highlights — Coached the 30th 4x State Champion — Marcel Lopez; Coached the all-time career winner with 221 wins as a 4-time medalist — Dominic Lopez; Coached 44 wrestlers with over 100 wins; Coached 2 wrestlers with over 200 wins; Coached 32 sets of brothers including their own sons.
Congratulations to two of the best plus their wives, Karen Coe Chiri and Elissa Armstrong Swafford, truly their co-coaches.
