In 2007, the All-Star Classic again had a vision in promoting wrestling, this time as an effort to showcase the sport at the University of Oregon and give support the movement to save the Oregon wrestling program which is set to be discontinued following the 2007-08 season.
The verdict: 4,380 wrestling fans came to barn-like McArthur Court to see 20 of the nation's elite wrestlers in one of the sport's premier events.
Leading the performances on Monday night at the 42nd annual event presented by the United States Marine Corps were 133 and 141-pound winners Lou Ruggirello and Charles Griffin of Hofstra, 197-pound winner Phil Davis of Penn State and heavyweight winner Tervel Dlagnev of Nebraska-Kearney.
The dual started with a solid match between returning NCAA champion Paul Donahoe of Nebraska and fourth-ranked Jayson Ness of Minnesota at 125 pounds.
The two wrestled a very similar style of offense, both riding tough on top, looking for turns with tight rides and half-nelsons, but Donahoe came up the winner, scoring two and two from a late third-period scramble for a 5-2 victory.
Ruggirello followed with the first of Hofstra's two victories and gave the top-ranked Golden Gophers two losses in the first two bouts.
A late replacement for top-ranked Coleman Scott of Oklahoma State, Ruggirello continued his torrid pace this season by picking up a 6-0 victory over two-time All-American Mack Reiter of Minnesota.
Ruggirello scored with a passby in the first period and rode Reiter for much of the match, building over three minutes of riding time and adding a third-period takedown to take the 133-pound match 6-0.
While the match is unofficial and won't count for individual ranking purposes or NCAA seeding down the line, Ruggirello has now defeated two wrestlers ranked #2 this season. In the Pride's opening dual, the New York native pinned Missouri's Tyler McCormick on November 10 and on Monday, topped Reiter.
"I've been practicing with the best guys in the nation every day," said Ruggirello. "So it's just like going out there and wrestling one of them."
Unlike last season, where Ruggirello, then a true freshman, dropped a few matches early in the season before he caught fire en route to the first of likely more Colonial Athletic Association titles.
"It's a lot more mental. I'm a lot more confident," said Ruggirello. "I'm staying with my offense instead of trying to wrestle defensively. It helps me out. He's a real tough kid and it helps me out a lot mentally."
Griffin defeated Oklahoma State's Nathan Morgan 9-4 with five third-period points and an additional point for riding time.
Morgan controlled the tempo for much of the match, getting in deep on Griffin several times and scoring on a pair of single-leg takedowns.
Trailing 4-3 in the third, Griffin planted Morgan hard to the mat for the takedown and held Morgan on his back for a three-count and two nearfall points. Griffin then locked up a Mason tilt, rolled through and scored three more nearfall points to win going away.
"It was kind of instinct," said Griffin. "I didn't expect what I did to happen. I knew I was down, so I had to do something. When I picked him up, I knew he was exposed, so I just tried to hold him down."
It gets Griffin back on track after his 6-1 loss to Penn State's Jake Strayer this past Saturday.
"I'm having a hard time making weight this year and I'm starting to get it under control and feeling good and wanting to wrestle," said Griffin. "(This win) just gives me more confidence and more to want to come out here and wrestle."
Dustin Schlatter gave Minnesota its first individual win on the night and his second straight All-Star Classic victory. Schlatter topped returning NCAA runner-up Josh Churella 3-2 at 149 pounds, scoring the only takedown of the match in the first period.
Schlatter beat Oklahoma's Matt Storniolo last year in Dallas.
Illinois' Mike Poeta upended returning NCAA runner-up Craig Henning with a first-period fall that originated from a deep Poeta double which Henning countered with a waist lock and tried to create a scramble to keep from being taken down. Poeta came through the back door, gained control briefly while stacking Henning and scored the fall.
Michigan would pick up one victory on the night as Eric Tannenbaum topped Patrick Pitsch of Arizona State 4-0. Tannenbaum scored the bout's only takedown with a snap-and-spin in the second period and added an escape and a riding time point for the final margin.
Keith Gavin of Pittsburgh was solid in an 8-4 victory over Navy's Matt Stolpinski at 174 pounds. Gavin was adept at scoring this slide-bys and controlled Stolpinski on the mat for much of the bout.
In what's becoming a budding rivalry, Jake Varner picked up his second straight victory over Minnesota's Roger Kish, putting the Gophers at 1-3 on the night, with a 2-0 victory at 184 pounds. Varner scored a second period escape and rode out Kish in the third period for a riding time point. It was the only matchup of the night involving wrestlers from the #1 and #2-ranked teams in the nation.
At 197, Davis, ready to make amends to wrestling fans for not making weight at last year's event, was pressured much of the match by Northwestern's Mike Tamillow, but it was Davis' unconventional style and trademark cradle that gave him the 6-2 win, nearly pinning Tamillow in the second period.
"I wasn't able to wrestle the quality of match that I wrestled against the last two guys," said Davis.
As far as the cradle, Davis said: "I did kind of pull that out of nowhere, but it worked and I'm glad about that."
Davis fought off relentless attacks from an offensive-minded Tamillow, who was in deep on numerous single leg attacks, only to come up empty.
In his first main event All-Star Classic match, Dlagnev bested Cal State-Fullerton's Wade Sauer at heavyweight in the highest scoring match of the evening. Dlagnev and Sauer are two of the most mobile heavyweights in the nation and Dlagnev's offense proved to be a tad too much for Cal State-Fullerton's first-ever entry into the event.
"It felt great, I'm glad I got the opportunity to wrestle in it. It was fun to get invited, I was pretty excited," said Dlagnev.
The match was a 180 from last year's overtime match between Bode Ogunwole of Harvard and Spencer Nadolsky of North Carolina.
"I like putting up points," said Dlagnev, worn out from cross-country travel. "This whole weekend was kind of a haze for me. I went to Omaha and wrestled a couple of matches, then I came here. I just felt kind of weird. I didn't wrestle the way I wanted, but I'm glad I got to do it."
Sauer lost to Dlagnev last year 12-0 at the Cliff Keen Invitational in Las Vegas and came in ready, despite the short notice. "He's a tough guy, he's strong," said Dlagnev of Sauer. "He was prepared, he was keeping his hands down. He knew I shot. It was a fun match. I just have to re-adjust and really work on my stuff for the rest of the season."
Dlagnev was grateful for his invitation.
"I'm just thankful for the opportunity," he said.
Dlagnev was the first non-Division I wrestler to compete in the main event since 2004 when Montana State-Northern's Emmett Willson wrestled at 197 pounds en route to an NAIA title that year and an eventual Dan Hodge Trophy.
The event typically attracts the #1 and #2-ranked wrestlers in Division I, but bids, while rare, do go out to accomplished wrestlers from the smaller divisions in the NCAA and NAIA. Non-Division I wrestlers have frequented exhibition bouts.
Three Oregon colleges were represented in two collegiate exhibition bouts prior to the main event.
Oregon State's Jake Gonzales scored a 10-2 major decision over the top-ranked 125-pounder in the NAIA, Southern Oregon University's Trevor Lofstedt.
Oregon's Ron Lee defeated Stanford's Luke Feist in a 174-pound exhibition bout.
Oregon assistant coach Rick Stewart felt the Oregon community did make a statement on Monday, as nearly 2,800 tickets were sold in advance.
"I was pleased with the turnout, I think the final count ended up being 4,380 and we had good support from the surrounding area," said Stewart. "The high schools brought busloads of kids. (Southwestern) brought out 100-200 t-shirts and started throwing them around, letting people have those Save Oregon Wrestling t-shirts."
Southwest Oregon Community College showed up with several boxes of bright yellow t-shirts that read "Oregon Wrestling" in big letters with the words "Just Keep It" in between, a play on the Nike slogan of "Just Do it."
"Wrestling is not a dying sport in the state of Oregon," said Stewart. "It's always been very supportive of wrestling. With wrestling, in general everywhere, we have a problem, our events occur, you have tournaments all over the state at the same time and it conflicts with us at the University. We have shown at this point, if we can offset those dates we can get some good crowds and people want to come and watch the sport."
McArthur Court, nicknamed "The Pit," provided a very fan-friendly and intimate atmosphere for Monday's All-Star Classic.
"Mac Court's a great venue for wrestling," said Stewart. "The acoustics go hand-and-hand for the sport. As it turns out, it's great."
Monday's event was devoid of any senior athletic administration due to Oregon's Cross Country teams competing at the NCAA Championships in Indiana, where the men won the NCAA title and the women's team finished second. Stewart offered up his congratulations to his fellow coaches, but acknowledged the plight of Oregon wrestling is not going to go down quietly.
"The University is supportive of athletics, we just want to get back into the fold," said Stewart. "I think it's a situation where we have some obstacles to overcome, but I think we're going to get that opportunity. We can't run away from it. We have four months and we're going to keep fighting until it's over."
Results:
125: No. 1 Paul Donahoe (Nebraska) dec. No. 4 Jayson Ness (Minnesota) 5-2
133: No. 4 Lou Ruggirello (Hofstra) dec. No. 2 Mack Reiter (Minnesota) 6-0
141: No. 2 Charles Griffin (Hofstra) dec. No. 3 Nathan Morgan (Oklahoma State) 9-4
149: No. 1 Dustin Schlatter (Minnesota) dec. No. 2 Josh Churella (Michigan) 3-2
157: No. 3 Mike Poeta (Illinois) pin No. 2 Craig Henning (Wisconsin) 2:22
165: No. 2 Eric Tannenbaum (Michigan) dec. No. 3 Patrick Pitsch (Arizona State) 4-0
174: No. 1 Keith Gavin (Pittsburgh) dec. No. 2 Matt Stolpinski (Navy) 8-4
184: No. 1 Jake Varner (Iowa State) dec. No. 2 Roger Kish (Minnesota) 2-0
197: No. 2 Phil Davis (Penn State) dec. No. 3 Mike Tamillow (Northwestern) 6-2
285: No. 1-D2 Tervel Dlagnev (Nebraska-Kearney) dec. No. 3 Wade Sauer (Cal State-Fullerton) 11-7.
Exhibitions:
125: Jake Gonzales (Oregon State) maj. dec. Trevor Lofstedt (Southern Oregon) 10-2
174: Ron Lee (Oregon) dec. Luke Feist (Stanford) 5-2.
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