Disappointment Defined

dis·ap·point·ment
-noun
1. the act or fact of disappointing: All of his efforts only
led to the disappointment of his supporters.
2. the state or feeling of being disappointed: Her disappointment was very great when she didn't get the job.
3. a person or thing that disappoints: The play was a
disappointment.
4. Penn State's effort at the 2007 Big Ten Wrestling
championship.

The Penn State wrestling team had high hopes going into the Big Ten championship especially the way they wrestled over the last month. It was a forgone conclusion that Minnesota would walk away with the championship, but the #2 spot was wide open among four or five teams and the Nittany Lions felt they had a good shot. When it was all said and done though, something completely different happened Friday and Saturday; not only did PSU finish 4th but they had NO individual champions and they had two top ranked wrestlers going in. Phil Davis who WAS the #1 ranked wrestler in the nation at 197 not only lost once but also lost in the consy finals to take fourth. James Yonushonis who was also ranked #1 in the Big Ten lost to the third ranked wrestler. It was a disappointing outing from top to bottom.

Rankings vs. Finish

		Preseed	Finish
125:	Mark McKnight	#7	#6
133:	Jake Strayer	#5	#5
141:	Bryan Heller	UNSEED	#8
149:	Dan Vallimont	#6	#4
157:	Bubba Jenkins	#6	#6
165:	Dave Rella	#7	#8
174:	James Yonushonis	#1	#2
184:	Phil Bomberger	UNSEED	UNSEED
197:	Phil Davis	#1	#4
HWT:	Aaron Anspach	#2	#2

Looking at the overall picture if doesn’t look that bad as six wrestlers finished at or above their preseed ranking but I think the coaching staff, the wrestlers, and any fans would tell you that they expected much more then what they got.

Strayer was in a very tough weight class but he and the coaches believed he could do much better then the 5th place finish and I doubt anyone thought he would get pinned. McKnight continues to underachieve after the fast start to the season and his problems on bottom continue to plague him. Rella’s loss was unfortunate because the experience gained at Nationals would have really helped his development.

Day one went pretty good for the Nittany Lions with the exception of Davis’ 4-6 semifinal lost to #4 seed J.D. Bergman of Ohio State – a wrestler Davis pinned in the dual meet. Jake Strayer pulled a mild upset over #4 seed Zach Tanelli, of Wisconsin and Bubba Jenkins beat #7 seed Jake Murphy of Purdue to ensure a trip to Nationals (the top 7 seeds move on).

Day 2 was devastating for Penn State as they started off the day a half point out of second, but that would be the closest they got. Strayer got pinned by #3 seed Mack Reiter of Minnesota, Mark McKnight lost to Colin Cudd of Wisconsin in the fifth place bout, a wrestler he previously beat the day before, and Bubba Jenkins got pinned by #1 seed Mike Poeta of Illinois. Dave Rella’s season ended when he couldn’t pull out a win against #8 seed Max Dean of Indiana and finished 8th – one position behind qualifying. After going 8-0 in Big Ten dual meets this season Davis lost twice to wrestlers he should have beat. Davis lost 6-4 to #5 seed Dallas Herbst of Wisconsin in the consolation finals and his biggest margin of victory was only five points. The day ended for Penn State like it started as Aaron Anspach got pinned by #1 seed Cole Konrad of Minnesota. The pin was a very big exclamation point on a very bad day. In the dual meet this season, Anspach lost a hard fought 5-1 decision to Konrad but like the rest of the team, Anspach seemed to wrestle tentative and he paid.

The team has a week off before the Nationals start on Thursday March 15th and they have their work cut out. The difference between a good wrestler and an All-American wrestler is usually mental toughness and attitude and right now it looks like the team’s psyche is very fragile. Hopefully they can put this effort behind them and learn from their mistakes because it will take an exponentially larger effort then this weekend to come away with any individual titles.