4 wrestlers eye spots in NCAAs

With the regular season in the books, Indiana wrestling has been preparing for the Big Ten Championships that are right around the corner.  

IU (9-10) suffered through what can only be described as a grueling season, facing health issues and physically harsh matches.  

With the Big Ten Championships this weekend, IU will have to fight for its spot among some of the best teams in the nation. Twelve Big Ten teams will be represented Saturday and Sunday in Champaign, Ill., and IU Coach Duane Goldman said he has been preparing for what should be a challenging tournament.

“The Big Ten is all about depth, and depth has pretty much cost us all year in dual meet situations,” Goldman said. “Big Ten is going to be a challenge, just as our dual meet season has been. It just gets back to the same situation we have been dealing with in our dual meets. We have a depth problem with our injuries.”

Though the team’s health has improved by leaps and bounds, such as with the return of junior Ryan LeBlanc, the Hoosiers have a long road ahead of them in this tournament, Goldman said.  

The Hoosiers will be battling against such teams as Penn State, who is favored to win, Goldman said. Penn State has won the Big Ten Championships the past two years.  

Iowa and Minnesota are expected to give strong performances, both of which have won the Championships three consecutive years within the last 13 years.  

While Indiana will enter into what Goldman called a “loaded” tournament, he said they are ready to compete and have been training hard.  

“We are just focusing on our training,” Goldman said. “We don’t even know who we are going to wrestle yet. We just focus on our guys and preparing ourselves to the best we can physically.”

The Big Ten Championships will act as the preliminary tournament for the NCAA Championships that takes place later in March.  

Each weight class will have a set number of wrestlers that is able to advance to the NCAA Championships.

Selections for the NCAAs are based on how many points the wrestlers rack up during each Big Ten match and their RPI scores through the year, which takes into consideration wins and losses and strength through the season.  

The Championships are mainly focused on individual performances, and the Hoosiers have a good shot of sending four of their wrestlers to the NCAA Championships, which is the ultimate goal.

“I’m looking to get Walsh, LeBlanc and Chalfant through to the NCAAs and Luke [Sheridan] is right on the bubble, and hopefully he can get through,” Goldman said.

These four wrestlers are all ranked within the top 10 in the Championships, and Goldman expects them to perform with urgency.

Although Goldman could dwell on the fact that the Hoosiers have been dealt a tough hand, he is instead choosing to focus on how he can advance as many of his wrestlers to the NCAAs as possible and have the best performance possible.

“We’re not bad,” Goldman said. “Roach is done for the year, and some other guys are done for the year. It doesn’t matter where we are at health-wise. They got to get out there and get it done.”