Sesker's Slant: Thoughts, Reflections on the NCAA Wrestling Championships

ST. LOUIS – I’ve now been to 19 NCAA Wrestling Championships, and it remains an outstanding event.


This year was no exception with attendance records being set for the entire tournament, including the finals.


St. Louis has jumped back up to being my favorite place to have the event.


The Scottrade Center remains a very good arena with plenty of room on the floor and on press row.


The revitalization of downtown St. Louis, with the new Ballpark Village, also has greatly added to what has been a great host city for this event. Let’s keep St. Louis in the NCAA rotation.


There were some great, and a few not-so-great moments, in the 2015 NCAA Championships. Congratulations to the Ohio State Buckeyes for winning their first NCAA title.


Here are some final thoughts and reflections on this year’s event:


It’s been a pleasure and an honor to watch Ohio State’s Logan Stieber capture four straight NCAA titles. It wasn’t easy. He won very close finals bouts over Oklahoma State’s Jordan Oliver and Iowa’s Tony Ramos in earning his first two titles. Oliver ended up with two titles and Ramos with one. Stieber is the easy pick for the Hodgre Trophy. Outstanding wrestler and outstanding young man.


Cael Sanderson and Penn State will be back, and in a big way, next season. The Nittany Lions won four straight NCAA titles from 2011-14, and will have redshirts Nico Megaludis and Zain Retherford back in the lineup. Megaludis is a two-time NCAA runner-up and Cadet World champion Retherford was fifth as a freshman. Throw in freshman redshirts Bo Nickal, Jason Nolf and Nick Nevills, along with returning Big Ten champion and two-time All-American Morgan McIntosh, and Penn State may be the pre-season favorite in November.


I wish the referees would have checked the score at the end of regulation in the 157-pound quarterfinal bout between Kent State’s Ian Miller and Cornell’s Brian Realbuto. The Kent State coaches didn’t raise a challenge flag, but they did ask the refs about the score. The refs absolutely should have checked it out at that point. These matches are too important to not do that.


North Carolina State’s Nick Gwiazdowski is one of the most exciting college heavyweights I’ve seen in a long time. He’s a great athlete who is great on his feet.


In a sport where risk-taking may not always be at a premium in matches, Iowa State’s Kyven Gadson went for broke and it paid off. Gadson launched Ohio State’s Kyle Snyder with his patented throw – “The Gadson” – and it paid off with a dramatic fall and an NCAA title. Wrestling needs more of that – a lot more. I loved Gadson’s interview with ESPN, where he said he wanted some ice cream. Classic.


I’m a big fan of the silky smooth technique and the determination of NCAA champion Cody Brewer of Oklahoma.


My rankings of the four four-time NCAA champs: 1. Cael Sanderson. 2. Kyle Dake. 3. Logan Stieber. 4. Pat Smith. By the way, all four were really good.


Isaiah Martinez of Illinois will be the next four-time NCAA champion.


I want to see more guys wrestle a go-for-broke style like West Virginia freshman Zeke Moisey.


This may sound a little wild, wacky and extreme, but award three points for the first takedown in a match. That is a big incentive to get more action going early and put more points on the board. And also provide incentive for the guy who falls behind to pick up the pace and open up. Or keep a takedown at two points and quit awarding points for escapes. Or add a shot clock like international wrestling has.


Oklahoma State’s Alex Dieringer does it the right way. He wrestles an attacking, aggressive style and he puts on a show for the fans. The two-time NCAA champion, at 157 and 165, may seek his third title in three different weight classes next year. We may see him at 174.


I can’t help but admire the job Ohio State coach Tom Ryan has done. And he’s done it with class and dignity. The Buckeyes will definitely be in the mix to win it again next year.


What happened to the aggressive, attacking style of the Iowa Hawkeyes?


Get rid of +2. You should not be able to enter +2 on the Track Wrestling scoring system during a match. It has to be entered as a takedown, escape, near fall, etc.


I can’t wait for the 2016 NCAA Championships at New York City’s Madison Square Garden. It’s the most famous arena in the world in the media capital of the world. It’s going to be awesome.


Add a pushout rule. Make guys stay on the mat.


Coaches and athletes should be required to do interviews with the media during all sessions of the NCAA tournament. Ohio State’s coaches and athletes all did interviews, and it seemed to work out pretty well for them.


Issue media credentials to those people who are actually working. When a guy is sitting on press row with no computer and no notebook in front of him, and just watching wrestling and eating the free potato chips, he probably isn't working.


Teams that score less than 0 points shouldn’t have anyone on the NCAA Wrestling Committee.


Not sure there is a better representative of our sport than Oregon State’s Jim Zalesky. Genuinely great guy who is a very good coach. And a total class act all the way.


You can have fun and win in this sport. Look at Penn State and Ohio State. They were throwing footballs around during their respective pre-tournament workouts in the arena on Wednesday. You still can smile and laugh and enjoy yourselves in a demanding, grueling sport like wrestling.


Best interview award: Missouri’s J’den Cox. He’s articulate, insightful, intelligent, charismatic and funny. He’s a quote machine. The sport needs more guys like him.


Kudos to the professionalism shown by the folks at ESPN. Great broadcasts with great insight and announcing. And done the right way. Thanks for putting so much wrestling on television, and thanks for making Logan Stieber No. 1 on Top Plays on Saturday night. Awesome.


Get rid of riding time. Make guys work for a fall.


#FreeIanMiller

Feel free to provide any feedback to me at csesker@usawrestling.org or to my Twitter account @csesker