Not even real sure where to start. I guess I'll start off by saying congrats to Old Dominion's Tristan Warner who for the second year in a row has won the highest GPA award for a college wrestler. Very impressed with that.
Next I want to talk about the annual Johnnythompsonnum1 Sportsmanship Award, that I have been giving out since 2002. I had a very difficult time deciding on this year's winner as I saw a ton of exceptional sportsmanship this year. I base it on a number of factors, including how a wrestler acts after a win, a loss and out and about. First let me call off some of the examples of excellent sportsmanship that I saw.
The Oklahoma State Cowboy fans really impressed me tonight when they put aside their rivalry of Oklahoma to give Cody Brewer a standing ovation after his national title.
Shortly after the 174 All American medals were given out, I saw Minnesota's Logan Storley, Nebraska's Robert Kokesh, Iowa's Mike Evans and Penn State's Matt Brown all in the tunnel shaking hands, congratulating one another and thanking one another for their great feuds. These guys four guys have been a joy for wrestling fans to watch over the last four years and have made the sport very exciting.
In all sense of reality the award this year could go to a number of people. As I was saying, I saw a ton of outstanding sportsmanship and class over the course of this tournament.
A very, very close second was Cornell's Nahshon Garrett who won and lost with humility and class all tournament.
The 2015 Johnnythompsonnum1 Sportsmanship Award Winner
Edinboro's A.J. Schopp who also won the Gorriaran award for the most amount of falls in the least amount of time. Coming back from a first round loss to practically pin his way to third place was incredibly impressive. It is my favorite story of the tournament. In his loss to Richardson and then in his seven consolation wins, he showed a great deal of sportsmanship.
I have got to talk about the parity of wrestling. Two weeks ago were the qualifying conference tournaments. Let me illustrate the parity of wrestling through the following examples....
Zach Horan of Central Michigan won the 141 MAC title. He did not place. However, second place Chris Mecate of Old Dominion and Lavion Mayes of Missouri both made the award stand.
Jack Dechow of Old Dominion has been more or less untouchable this season with only one loss coming into the tournament. Yet he goes 2-2, while Missouri's Willie Miklus who he beat for the MAC title, takes 7th.
Rutgers Anthony Ashnault who placed 5th at the BIG 10 took 8th at the NCAA's, while 4th, 3rd, 2nd of the BIG 10 failed to place at the NCAA's.
T.J. Dudley of Nebraska who placed 6th and Kenny Courts of Ohio State who placed 8th in the BIG 10 both made All American status, while the top 5 place winners in the BIG 10, including the champion Dominic Abounader failed to place at the NCAA's. If that doesn't help to illustrate the crazy parity in this sport, what will?
Points of interest.....
There were 7 Unseeded All Americans this tournament
Five wrestlers who lost first round came back to make All American. Six wrestlers who lost first round, wrestled back to the match to place and then lost again. In my opinion that would be the hardest thing for a wrestler to swallow. People talk all the time about how hard it is to swallow taking second, losing in the finals after you were so close to an NCAA title. In my opinion I think losing first round, and then working your way back winning three consolation matches in a row, only to lose that last one would be quite rough.
I've never seen a more anti-climatic ending to a wrestling match than what I saw between Matt Brown of Penn State and Tyler Wilps of Pittsburgh. Agree or disagree with me, but if I were the Pitt coaches in the moment, give the circumstances, I would have cut Brown and had Wilps try and win it in overtime.
My favorite final of the night was 197 lbs. I loved watching Iowa State's Kyven Gadson lock up that throw on Kyle Snyder of Ohio State and launch him. That was awesome!
They say that when history happens, those who are a part of it aren't always aware of it. I think that may be true because this tournament not only crowned the fourth four time NCAA DI champion, it also marks the first time that Ohio State has ever won a team title and the first time that Edinboro has ever placed in the top four.
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