NCAA Tournament wrap-up

Coach Franke and I returned late Sunday evening from an action packed weekend in St. Louis for what turned out to be a very exciting NCAA tournament. First thoughts on the tournament: wow! It was an amazing experience from start to finish and anyone who likes wrestling should try to see this thing live. The pure amount of athleticism displayed was incredible, and the team scores were way closer than anyone thought, giving many of the matches a great deal of buzz in the arena.


I had pretty fantastic seats that were only a few rows above where the athletes were sitting, and it seemed like a large percentage of very close and exciting matches were on the mats on my side, including multiple matches by Arizona State's Anthony Robles, who was just an absolute stud from the top position. This is truly an amazing story, and the crowd loved him.

ASU's Anthony Robles was born with only 1 leg. He finished 4th.

Aside from the wrestling, I was fortunate enough to meet many, many big names in college wrestling, including Coach Franke's former roomate, J Robinson of Minnesota, Jeff Buxton of Blair Academy, Dan Hodge (as in the Hodge Trophy), and many others. I also got to spend some time with Coach Franke's college coach, Rummy Macious, seen here with Franke and Buxton.

Also along for the trip were W&L alumni Jim Crytzer and Tim Valliere, both of whom hold all-time wrestling records, and are great friends of the program.

Already looking forward to next year's tourney in Omaha and implementing some of the things I saw while there. Here are a few more pictures.

NC State's Caldwell moments before winning what some are calling one of the biggest upsets in the history of college wrestling. It was an amazing match.

Cornell's Jordan Leen works for a takedown. Leen was the defending National Champion and finished 3rd after losing a tough match in the semifinals.

Coach Franke, Wade Schalles, and Rummy Macious

Wade Schalles is one of, if not the most dominant high school and collegiate wrestlers ever. He was known for his uncanny pinning ability. By his senior year in high school he pinned every wrestler he faced all the way through the state tournament where he pinned the returning state champion. In college he was "only" a 2x NCAA Champion due to technicality issues in his eligibility. He pinned 56 of his collegiate opponents with a 78-5 career record. Wade Schalles was on his way to the 1976 Olympics when he broke his neck in the Olympic trials finals.