Before the tournament, most thought the wild cards would come from 149 pounds, the deepest weight in the Big Ten, and perhaps 141, which featured eight ranked wrestlers. On Sunday afternoon, those doing the speculating zeroed in on three wrestlers. Surely, the thinking went, Minnesota’s third-seeded 165-pounder Tyler Safratowich would get one of the bids. He finished eighth, but was the highest seeded eighth-place finisher. The two other names bandied about were No. 6 seeds: Penn State 125-pounder Mark McKnight and Purdue heavyweight Christopher Kasten.
The smart money was on Safratowich and McKnight. But, when the meeting concluded, the two names were McKnight and Indiana 149-pounder Kurt Kinser. Safratowich was the first alternate, in case one of the 72 was injured and couldn’t go. What about Safratowich? Here’s where it gets interesting. Minnesota had already qualified nine wrestlers, but two of them — 157-pounder C.P. Schlatter and 184-pounder Roger Kish — had medically forfeited their final two matches on the way to sixth-place finishes.
The conference coaches seemed to be hedging their bets that they would be sending 72 healthy wrestlers to the big dance. In denying Safratowich a wild card berth, the message to Minnesota head coach J Robinson was this: If either Kish or Schlatter aren’t healthy enough to compete and win at the NCAAs, send Safratowich instead. It will be interesting to see what Robinson decides to do.
Big Ten well represented
As usual, all 11 Big Ten schools qualified at least one wrestler for the NCAA championships, which are scheduled for March 20-22 at the Scottrade Center in St. Louis. But just barely. Michigan State, which finished last in the team race, can claim but one qualifier. But for the Spartans, it’s most definitely high quality over quantity. MSU’s only qualifier is 133-pound champion Franklin Gomez. Iowa and Minnesota qualified nine wrestlers each. Sixth-place Wisconsin and eighth-place Indiana qualified eight each. Illinois (fourth), Ohio State (fifth) and Penn State (sixth) had seven each. Northwestern (tied for eighth) had six. Purdue got four through.
More than usual
At a lot of Big Ten schools, total attendance figures for the three sessions of the championships struggle to reach a total of 10,000 fans. Minnesota almost doubled that number. Here’s the attendance breakdown: Session I — 6,229; Session II — 6,391; Session III — 7,271. That’s a total of 19,891 fans for three sessions over two days. Most would say that’s to be expected since Minnesota is in the biggest metropolitan area of any of the 11 Big Ten schools.
We don’t need no seed
Conventional wisdom says Big Ten wrestlers have to put in yeoman’s work during the regular season to earn a high seed to ensure that they’ll survive the tournament and earn an NCAA berth. Nine of the Big Ten’s 72 NCAA qualifiers proved that’s not necessarily so. Indiana’s Kurt Kinser (8th, 149, but received a wild card), Ohio State’s Jason Johnstone (4th, 157), Purdue’s Luke Manuel (3rd, 165), Wisconsin’s Jake Donar (7th, 165), Indiana’s Trevor Perry (6th, 174), Wisconsin’s Trevor Brandvold (4th, 184), Purdue’s Logan Brown (5th, 197), Indiana’s Joe Fagiano (6th, 197) and Indiana’s Nathan Everhart (7th, heavyweight) all entered the tournament unseeded.
Seeds scatter, again
It’s always a dicey proposition to seed the Big Ten tournament. Health, motivation and good fortune all play a part in a wrestler’s performance once the bright lights shine. This year, all 10 No. 1 seeds made the finals. At six of the weights (149, 157, 165, 184, 197 and heavyweight), the championship finals were 1 vs. 2 matchups. Three others (125, 133 and 174) were 1 vs. 3 showdowns. Only 141 pounds, where it was 1 vs. 6, varied greatly from the seeded norm. But, of those 10 No. 1 seeds, only half (at 141, 149, 157, 174 and 184) won championships. Three No. 2 seeds (165, 197 and heavyweight) won titles. Two No. 3 seeds (125 and 133) won titles. So, while you may not be seeded to earn an NCAA berth, as the note above suggests, in 2008 you needed to be seeded no lower than third at your weight to win a championship.
Thanks to Andy Elder and the "Centre Daily Times" (State College, Pa.) for the article