Gary will be returning with a new blog on May 16. This week, he’s asked RCN’s Jim Best to guest blog. Viewers should recognize Jim from RCN-TV’s coverage of high school wrestling.
About two years ago, when it was announced that the 2016 N.C.A.A. Division 1 National Wrestling Championship tournament was going to be held at Madison Square Garden in New York City, I thought to myself, Well, I will be watching the tournament on television that year because I am surely not dealing with the hassles and cost of getting in and around New York City for a wrestling tournament. However, as the tournament time got closer, and the tournament hype grew, I found myself purchasing tickets and making hotel reservations, and man, am I glad for the change of heart!
Much to my surprise, New York City and Madison Square Garden were more than ready to host such an event. Driving into the city on St. Patrick’s Day morning (the first day of the tournament), was a little tricky, but once in the city and parked, I found it easy to check-in to my hotel, walk to Madison Square Garden (which was only two blocks from the hotel), and get in and out of the arena efficiently, even with metal detectors at the front doors when fans entered for a round of wrestling. Over the course of the three-day tournament, I had a few conversations with folks who had come to the tournament from places like Iowa, Missouri and Oklahoma. For the most part, they too were pleasantly surprised at how manageable it was to get around the city, and most of them were doing some sight-seeing in between rounds of wrestling because this was their first trip to “the big apple.” The only semi-complaints that I heard were over the price of beverages, particularly the ones that are golden in color and are purchased in draft form…but those folks seemed to quickly adapt to the higher than expected prices!
The tournament unfolded over a three-day time period. Similar the N.C.A.A. basketball tournament, brackets for each of ten weight classes are pre-determined by “seeds”. Each weight class has 32-35 qualifying wrestlers, and the first round of wrestling begins on a Thursday morning. Unlike the March madness basketball tournament, every competitor who qualifies for the tournament has the chance to wrestle at least two matches due to a full consolation bracket. In each round, with the exception of the Saturday morning round (that round is all consolation bracket matches), a championship round is contested, and at least one consolation bracket round is contested, with the exception of the championship finals on Saturday evening.
As for the wrestling, the tournament was action-packed and full of upsets, as it usually is. From the very first round of wrestling, highly seeded wrestlers were tested, and in many cases, upset by lower-seeded or non-seeded wrestlers. The storylines of the tournament included Penn State handily taking another team title under the coaching of Cael Sanderson. Of the nine Penn State wrestlers who qualified for the tournament, five advanced to the finals. Of the five Penn State finalists, two were freshman (both lost in the finals), and two won their respective weight class. Both of Penn State’s champions were Pennsylvania products (Nico Megaludis and Zain Retherford), and Pennsylvania accounted for the most All-Americans (to be an All-American, a wrestler must place in the top eight in his respective weight class), as has become the norm in the last few decades.
Local wrestlers who competed in the tournament this year included Zach Horan (Nazareth/Central Michigan), Mike Ottinger (Parkland/Central Michigan), Corey Keener (Blue Mountain/Central Michigan), Randy Cruz (Bethlehem Catholic/Lehigh), Darian Cruz (Bethlehem Catholic/Lehigh), and Pete Renda (Brandywine/N.C.State). Both Pete Renda and Randy Cruz achieved All-American status. I am sure that I missed a few names in that mix, and I apologize greatly to those wrestlers, mainly because I know from personal experience, how hard it is to qualify for that tournament, and every wrestler in the tournament deserves special recognition! All of the local wrestlers competed well, and all are continuing to maintain District XI’s reputation as one of the “toughest wrestling districts in the country.”
At the conclusion of the tournament, the “buzz” among the fans was that the championship finals may have been the most exciting in recent history. Every match was action-packed, with both wrestlers risking potential disaster at times in order to score points on his opponent. The finals ended in dramatic fashion as Kyle Snyder, a twenty year old sophomore from Ohio State, defeated Nick Gwiazdowski, a two-time defending champion from North Carolina State, in a battle of giants at heavyweight, with a come from behind, sudden death overtime victory. In the sports world, it doesn’t get much more dramatic than that!
As I have described to some of my non-wrestling friends and colleagues, attending that tournament is the equivalent to a football fan attending the Superbowl, or a college basketball fan attending the Final Four-it just doesn’t get any better in terms of action and atmosphere. For three days in March, approximately 18,000 diehard wrestling fans converge at the site of the championships to watch the best college wrestlers in the country compete against each other, and then we get to meet at the local eating establishments, in between the rounds of wrestling, to discuss and relive the most exciting moments over a burger and some cold beverages…it truly is a “live, eat and breath” wrestling experience! Next year, St. Louis, will again play host to the tournament. I’m counting down the days!
