“Welp…”
The lobby of a hotel the morning after a tournament is an interesting experience for a coach. Wrestlers, coaches, fans, and parents run into each other after the event and share small talk about the prior day’s events. After a great performance, the lobby is a welcome and exciting place to be. After a not so good performance, there is a bit of uncomfortableness.
Yesterday at 8:00 am the Lobby at the Hilton Garden in Raleigh was not the celebratory space this coach was hoping for, as one could imagine. I am slow to process things, so 10 hours after the final whistle and 8 hours of sleep later, my thoughts about the tournament were similar to the sounds of the slot machines in a vegas casino.
As I exited the elevator, the lobby was full of the regular crew that follows the team around. I ran into Zach Hanson’s mom, Bridgette, and as I walked over to give her a departing hug, she tilted her head, shrugged her shoulders, raised hands slightly from her hips and with palms facing towards the sky, simply said, “welp…”.
I quickly responded, mirroring her body language, ‘Yep, “welp” sums it up perfectly.’
And that was all that was really said about the situation.
I’m not sure what the exact definition of welp is or even if it is a true word, and I’m not going to bother to look it up, because at the moment that “welp,” carried a lot of meanings.
The first, most obvious, interpretation was, “welp…that didn’t go as planned.”
Overall, we underperformed with only four wrestlers meeting or exceeding their seed (Miranda, Garvin, Stemmet, and Ming), three falling below their seed (Knox, Abas, Norman), and two not placing (Cholakyan, Monteiro).
We will spend a lot of time examining what led to this performance, and there will be many variables to consider, but if I had to identify one thing we lack as a program, it is consistency.
Coach Brucki has a saying to the wrestlers that they always have to be the “same guy.” Whether they are in the NCAA finals or the first round of the smallest college open in the country, they need to compete the same way. Whether they scored the first takedown or not, they need to compete the same way. I could go on and on. We need more consistency in our performances and it will be a focus and priority for the program moving forward.
Shortly after there was the intensely uneasy, “welp…there are four wrestlers that could earn an at-large bid.”
Of all the weird scenarios I could have imagined I would never have considered that Tyler Knox, Jaden Abas, and Lorenzo Norman would have needed an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament, especially considering the fact that they earned NCAA allocations for the ACC.
True freshman Grigor Cholakyan had a great season which also would keep him in the conversation for an at-large, but his weight was tough at the ACC, and considering coming back from injury so quickly, I wasn’t as surprised he would need an at-large…to be clear, I was surprised as I fully believed he could place high enough to earn a slot…just not as surprised as the others.
I think this situation really highlights the fact that the ACC tournament is really, really tough. At Knox’s weight, the champion, Kai Orine, who is a former all-american, didn’t earn an allocation for the conference. Knox also lost to the #1 seed in the 3rd/4th match. In the match that determined the final wrestler to earn a trip to the NCAA tournament at 174, Lorenzo lost to a former all-american. Abas had the returning National champion at his weight and lost to a former all-american in the semi-finals. The wrestler Grigor beat in the first round came back to take third and earn himself a trip to the NCAA’s.
We learned very quickly that there are very few easy matches at the ACC tournament. It was a good lesson to learn in our first appearance in the ACC, and as a staff I think it will be important to talk about with the team before entering next year’s tournament.
Fortunately, Tyler, Jaden, Lorenzo, and Grigor had some very good results throughout the season and when considering who else needed at-large bids in the full NCAA field, the selection committee chose them ALL! While the “welp” around getting the at-large bids was uneasy yesterday morning, this coach can breathe a sigh of relief as we now have 8 wrestlers heading to the NCAA tournament!
The optimistic interpretation was “welp…at least four guys are guaranteed to go to NCAA’s.”
The rollercoaster of emotions of a NCAA qualifying tournament are intense. Wrestlers are fighting to keep their season alive…to keep their dream alive. A large portion of their young life has been dedicated to get to this moment and four guys ensured that dream was kept alive.
If I’m being honest, my gut was in knots when Jason Miranda and Peter Ming were competing this weekend. Neither has been to the NCAA tournament despite getting close in the past, so I wanted them to break through in the worst way. Fortunately, they wrestled well enough to ensure they will make their first trip to the NCAA tournament!
These two seniors, along with Abas and Stemmet, have been through so much adversity with the Stanford wrestling program, and have been such amazing leaders through it all, and to see them all make it to one last dance is amazing. I am so thankful that we get to do this NCAA tournament with these seniors and I think their presence will have a big positive impact on the performance of the collective group.
Then came the historical “welp…Hunter Garvin won the first ever individual ACC title for Stanford.”
Hunter was amazing in the tournament and even though he had some close matches, he was the “same guy” as a competitor regardless of the situation, and was able to win his first conference title after falling short at last year’s Pac 12’s. He also cements his name in history as the first wrestler to win an individual ACC championship. On a personal note, he is the first conference champion since I arrived at Stanford, so he will always be “my first conference champ.”
Finally, there is the “welp…we could have an amazing performance at the NCAA’s.”
Last year we had a similar performance at the Pac 12’s where we took 4th place as a team without any champions and then went to the NCAA’s and as a team had one of the best NCAA performances in Stanford history. Fortunately, we will have 8 wrestlers at the NCAA tournament in Philadelphia and they all have the potential to score points and bring hardware back to Stanford. We may have had a small setback with our ACC performance, but the mission continues and the primary goals are still achievable. We can’t wait to get to Philly!
Results:
133 – (3) Tyler Knox, 2-2 (4th)
maj. dec. (6) Tyler Chappell (PITT), 14-3
lost to (2) Connor McGonagle (VT), 1-0
maj. dec. (5) Gable Porter (UVA), 10-2
lost to (1) Ethan Oakley (UNC), 3-1
141 – (3) Jason Miranda, 3-1 (3rd)
lost to (6) Briar Priest (PITT), 9-2 (SV)
maj. dec. (7) Christian Colman (DUKE), 15-1
dec. (5) Jayden Scott (UNC), 4-1 (SV)
dec. (6) Briar Priest (PITT), 6-3
149 – (3) Jaden Abas, 2-2
fall (6) Finn Solomon (PITT), F2:38
lost to (2) Lachlan McNeil (UNC), 4-1 (SV)
lost to (4) Koy Buesgens (NCST), 4-1
dec. (6) Finn Solomon (PITT), 8-6
157 – (5) Grigor Cholakyan, 1-2
dec. (4) Sonny Santiago (UNC), 4-2
lost to (1) Rafael Hipolito (VT), 14-4
lost to (3) Dylan Evans (PITT), 8-1 (SV)
165 – (1) Hunter Garvin, 2-0 (1st)
maj. dec. (5) Mac Church (VT), 11-1
dec. (2) Nick Hamilton (UVA), 5-1
174 – (2) Lorenzo Norman, 2-2
maj. dec. (7) Gaetano Console (DUKE), 12-1
lost to (3) Luca Augustine (PITT), 4-1 (SV)
lost to (5) Lennox Wolak (VT), 8-5
fall (6) Rocco Contino (UVA), F5:50
184 – (5) Tye Monteiro, 0-2
lost to (4) TJ Stewart (VT), 7-1
lost to (3) Gavin Kane (UNC), 15-3
197 – (2) Nick Stemmet, 2-1 (2nd)
tech. fall (7) Kwasi Bonsu (DUKE), 22-5 (3:21)
maj. dec. (3) Andy Smith (VT), 12-4
lost to (1) Mac Stout (PITT), 10-2
285 – (5) Peter Ming, 1-2 (4th)
lost to (4) Dayton Pitzer (PITT), 8-2
dec. (6) Connor Barket (DUKE), 10-4
lost to (3) Nolan Neves (UNC), 16-5
