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Some wrestling perspective by the numbers

"NU Sportscorner" by Henry Rosoff
Sunday, March 23, 2008, 11:59 am

Many people don’t realize how dominant the Big Ten Conference is when it comes to wrestling. Still, this year was particularly incredible, even for the best wrestling conference. The 2008 NCAA Wrestling Championship wrapped up yesterday. Take a look at these post-tournament numbers:

21: NCAA team wrestling titles for Iowa alone (including this year).

10: Weight classes (out of ten) that had at least one Big Ten wrestler in the final.

4: Weight classes that had an all Ben Ten final.

7: Weight classes where Big Ten champions were crowned.

5: Big Ten teams that finished in the top ten of the team standings, with Iowa, Ohio State and Penn State, in that order, occupying the top three spots.



One final note:

Northwestern ending a disappointing year, one where they were expected to compete for a national championship, but fell short, on a high note. Senior Dustin Fox won his first ever individual national title.

The heavyweight was expected to win, but the mean by which he won was what made the title truly special. Fox’s opponent, Ohio State’s J.D. Bergman, used a head slap strategy. There’s nothing illegal about it, contrary to what someone unfamiliar with the sport might think.

However, during the course of the match it caused Fox’s forehead to bleed, headgear to come apart and probably broke his nose. From a strategy standpoint, it also slowed the match down and didn’t allow Fox to lean on Bergman and use his extra size to ware down the lighter heavyweight.

In the end, a battered and bloody Fox took the match 4-2 with the only takedown of the match in the second sudden victory period.

Northwestern finished 13th as a team at the championships.