Tom Franck, Staff Writer
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If I had to pick one word to describe a Division I wrestling season it would be “grinding “– both physically and mentally. November to March is a long time to be banging heads, making weight, and staying healthy while doing so. And because the season is so extensive, it’s perfectly understandable for a wrestler not to compete in every single event on a team’s schedule. Wrestlers and coaches agree that it’s better to “play it safe “when recovering from injuries and addressing health issues since the important thing is just to be one-hundred percent at the end of the season.
We’ve seen a good number of examples this season of wrestlers taking a break to let injuries heal and to err on the side of caution, health-wise.
“¢ Penn State’s highly-ranked Eric Bradley sustained an injury during a wrestle-off. Perhaps he could have come back sooner, but he only resumed competition recently.
“¢ 2004 NCAA champion Troy Letters of Lehigh probably could have returned to the mat last week, but took an extra week off and will return to the lineup this weekend.
“¢ Two-time NCAA finalist Kyle Ott, who’s had numerous injuries and knee surgeries over the years, wrestled only one match in the first semester, skipped the Midlands, and began his season in earnest with Illinois’ Big Ten schedule.
“¢ The one-hundred percent healthy Muzaffar Abdurakhmanov sat out the Midlands as well since American University head coach Mark Cody felt he should skip the event. Abdurakhmanov was injured at Midlands last year and Cody didn’t want to put him through the intense, two-day tourney again.
Also, when a team can afford to, it’s not unheard of for wrestlers to skip meets to reduce the wear and tear on their bodies from making weight. In his final two seasons at the University of Minnesota, 141-pounder Chad Erikson (who cut a fair amount of weight) sat out a good number of Big Ten duals in order to be fresh for the postseason. It’s tough to argue against the strategy as he became an All American in both of those seasons.
However, the act of withholding a wrestler from competition is not limited to injuries and health. There’s increasing scrutiny over the act of seemingly-healthy wrestlers skipping competition for post-season advantages.
The most criticized reason is seeding — when a wrestler that would currently get a higher seed than his opponent, doesn’t compete in order to not risk losing the seed.
A recent accusation of this practice came at the end of January during the Oklahoma State/Iowa State dual. At 174 pounds, Iowa State sent out Grant Turner instead of starter David Bertolino to face OSU’s Brandon Mason. ISU coach Bobby Douglas said Bertolino was sick, but many fans were suspect of the statement and smelled a seeding based decision.
Although Mason and Bertolino are 1-1 on the season (Mason winning the later bout), Bertolino beat Oklahoma’s Wes Roberts the night before and Roberts has defeated Mason. Therefore, by holding out Bertolino, it’s possible that Douglas was trying to secure the No. 3 seed in the Big 12 Championships for Bertolino. This would place his wrestler on the opposite side of the bracket from Missouri’s Ben Askren, the most dominating college wrestler this season.
Personally, I’m not sure what to make of the accusation. I think it’s an awfully big deal to not take Bobby Douglas at his word — that Bertolino got sick the night before after the dual with Oklahoma. Moreover, if it was for seeding purposes, it’s an awfully risky move considering that much of the Big 12 dual meet schedule had yet to be wrestled. In fact, if a seeding advantage was the reason, the ploy has backfired completely since Mason went on to upset then-No. 2-ranked Jacob Klein of Nebraska and still has a rematch with Wes Roberts on his schedule. I’m not saying that seeding-related withholdings don’t happen (or that they definitely didn’t happen in this case), but rather, if a coach is going to do it, that it’s more prudent to wait until the last dual meets of the season, where seeding variables become much more finite.
And while I believe that healthy wrestlers sit out for post-season advantages, I kind of think it has to do with not wanting to let opponents get a “free “match with them and then be able to come up with an intelligent game plan for a rematch. Seeding only means so much, but the ability of Division I college wrestlers to make adjustments is huge, and the ability to neutralize previously-effective offense is getting better all the time.
One of my favorite examples of how fragile rematches can be is from the 1998 season, where Minnesota beat Iowa in the National Duals finals — and then wrestled them in a dual meet five days later. Here are the results.
Jan. 18, 1998: Minnesota 18, Iowa 17
118 — Eric Juergens (Iowa) maj. dec. Brett Lawrence (MN), 14-5
126 — Doug Schwab (Iowa) dec. Pat Connors (MN), 9-5
134 — Mark Ironside (Iowa) maj. dec. Troy Marr (MN), 20-7
142 — Jason Davis (MN) dec. Jeff McGinness (Iowa), 3-1 (OT).
150 — Chad Kraft (MN) dec. Kasey Gilliss (Iowa), 8-3
158 — Josh Holiday (MN) dec. Ben Uker (Iowa), 9-7
167 — Joe Williams (Iowa) dec. Zac Taylor (MN), 5-3
177 — Brandon Eggum (MN) dec. Paul Jenn (Iowa), 7-3
190 — Lee Fullhart (Iowa) dec. Tim Hartung (MN), 7-6 (2 OT)
Hwt — Shelton Benjamin (MN) pinned Wes Hand (Iowa), 2:16
Jan. 23, 1998: Iowa 20, Minnesota 12
118 — Eric Juergens (Iowa) maj. dec. Brett Lawrence (MN), 18-4
126 — Pat Connors (MN) dec. Doug Schwab (Iowa), 6-3
134 — Mark Ironside (Iowa) maj. dec. Troy Marr (MN), 17-6
142 — Jeff McGinness (Iowa) dec. Jason Davids (MN), 6-2
150 — Chad Kraft (MN) dec. Jamie Heidt (Iowa), 4-0
158 — Josh Holiday (MN) dec. Ben Uker (Iowa), 9-3
167 — Joe Williams (Iowa) dec Zac Taylor (MN), 6-5
177 — Paul Jenn (Iowa) dec. Brandon Eggum (MN), 8-7
190 — Tim Hartung (MN) dec Lee Fullhart (Iowa), 6-1
Hwt — Wes Hand (Iowa) dec. Shelton Benjamin (MN), 7-3
That’s right. FIVE different kids got their hands raised! I tend to think that the “free look “risk is why so many wrestlers used to decline invitations to the All-Star Classic when it was in the middle of the season — a factor that’s been mostly neutralized by moving it to November. Because it’s now so far away from March (when wrestlers should be peaking), I think more wrestlers take a “why not? “approach to an invite these days. A “free look “isn’t as big a deal since they’re not the wrestler they’re going to be in March.
The question isn’t if withholding wrestlers from competition for postseason advantages happens. It probably does, particularly at the end of the season. The real issue is whether it hurts the team, the school, and even the sport? Probably — at least in the short term — but the tricky part is that the downside is very easy to measure while any benefits are very difficult to measure. When highly-ranked athletes don’t face each other in dual meets, it denies local fans the opportunity to see potential marquee match-ups. This obviously damages the promotion of wrestling and doesn’t encourage larger attendance numbers.
While many people in college wrestling say “Only March matters “– that isn’t to say that the rest of the season doesn’t. I think that teams want to win dual meets and do what they can to get the W. But it’s not uncommon for a team to be out of a meet before it’s over or, on paper at least, before it begins. When coaches hold athletes for postseason advantages, I think it’s when the team has already lost (or won) and they are looking out for the individual. If Travis Paulson had upset Johny Hendricks in the recent OSU/ISU dual then might we have seen Bertolino take the mat? Maybe — even if he was sick — the risk might have been taken for the sake of the dual. But as things actually went down, the Cyclones only had two wins going into 174 and the Cowboys had two national champs closing out the show.
When a dual is still on the line and the team needs them, it’s important to note how quickly post-season advantages for an individual can go out the window. At the 2000 National Duals, Brandon Eggum of Minnesota was injured, but for the semifinal against Oklahoma State, Minnesota needed him to perform. This was a decision that would prove costly to Minnesota for seeding purposes. The injured Eggum lost to OSU’s Daniel Cormier, 3-1, in overtime, but the Gophers won the dual, 17-16. This head-to-head match gave Cormier the No. 3 seed at the NCAA’s and Eggum the No. 4 seed, which placed him on the same side of the bracket as No. 1 Cael Sanderson. Had Eggum sat out, being a returning NCAA finalist, he could very well have been moved to the bottom of the bracket.
As I mentioned before, the real problem with all this is that any postseason benefits from withholding wrestlers are difficult to measure and even more difficult to prove. One of the most attacked sit-outs of a seemingly-healthy wrestler occurred last season when the Indiana Hoosiers traveled Illinois to face the Fighting Illini. At 125 pounds, Indiana forfeited to then-No. 2 Kyle Ott, instead of sending out then-No. 5 Joe Dubuque. This infuriated some wrestling fans and cries of “seed protection “were all over Internet message boards. However, if it was about seeding, it’s wasn’t very sound since Ott earned a higher seed in both the Big Tens (No. 1 for Ott, No. 2 for Dubuque) and the NCAA’s (No. 3 for Ott, No. 5 for Dubuque). However, the two wound up upsetting their way to the NCAA finals in what turned out to be their first match-up of the year. Dubuque won 2-0.
If Indiana coach Duane Goldman’s attitude about the dual was something like, “Hey, it’s late in the season and we’re not going to win as a team even if Joe does get a W here, so let’s not give them a chance to figure us out until the post-season “it’s kind of hard to argue with that. Indiana got shutout against Illinois, 37-0, and I’ve got to think an individual national championship goes a lot farther with recognition and recruiting than had that 2-0 bout with Ott taken place earlier and changed the dual score to 31-3.
But with no crystal ball, who’s to say that Dubuque couldn’t have won BOTH matches. You look at rivalries like Hartung/Fullhart or Pendleton/Askren, where one wrestler kept winning close, hard-fought matches and you can see that wrestlers can win consistently even in long-term series. Again, even if holding wrestlers has any value, it’s difficult to prove. The fact of the matter is wrestling is a sport that places its emphasis on March and any feelings we have of being short-changed before then are something we just have to live with. But if things go a wrestling fan’s way in the postseason, it can be easy to forget any regular-season disappointment.
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