Young Spartans hoping for fresh start

All year long, the MSU wrestling team trains for one particular moment of its season — the Big Ten Championships.

So forget about MSU’s 6-10 overall record, its 1-7 conference record and the youthful inexperience of a team that could have five freshmen in its starting line this weekend. Anything can happen at the Big Ten Championships, and now it’s here.

“You try to do as well and as much as we can in the regular season, but now everybody starts from scratch,” MSU head coach Tom Minkel said. “Your record doesn’t really mean anything now. You can be the defending champ or you can be an unseeded wrestler. Everybody has the same shot.”

The 2009 Big Ten Championships take place Saturday and Sunday in State
College, Pa.

Although the Spartans finished the dual-meet season in 10th place in the Big Ten standings, they have a chance for a better showing this weekend.

At the year-end championship, each team brings its full starting lineup for the weekend. Depending on how each individual places, his team gets so many points for first place, second place and extra incentives for winning by pin or major decision.

With the Big Ten Championships coming at the end of the year, Minkel said he has a good reason to think the Spartans will fare better this weekend.

“We weren’t a particularly strong dual-meet team, mostly because we’re so young,” Minkel said. “It’s as much about getting better a week at a time and I think we’re better now certainly than we were when we started.”

While the Big Ten Championships can provide the Spartans with a chance to redeem themselves as a team, the real dream lies within the individual. The main goal for wrestlers heading into the Big Ten Championships is to finish high enough in their weight classes to advance to the NCAA Championships, which are March 19-21 in St. Louis, Mo.

With the Big Ten being the best wrestling conference in the nation, Minkel said it’s possible the top four-to-seven
wrestlers in each weight class could advance.

MSU has five individuals who are pre-ranked in the top eight of their respective weight
classes — junior Franklin Gomez (No. 2 at 133 pounds), sophomore Anthony Jones Jr. (No. 7, 157 pounds), senior Rex Kendle (No. 8, 165 pounds), redshirt freshman Ian Hinton (No. 8, 174 pounds) and junior Nick Palmieri (No. 7, 184 pounds).

Gomez, the defending 133-pound Big Ten champion who finished third in last year’s NCAA Championships, is currently ranked No. 2 in the country with an overall record of 18-2.

With the team having nearly two weeks since its last meet, Gomez said he’s feeling good heading into the championship — mainly due to a recent massage.

“I always try to (get one) because it helps so much, like, right now I feel so loose,” Gomez said while rolling his shoulders. “I was getting one every week at the beginning of the season. That was really helpful. But now for this semester, I think I only had one, so this was like my second one the whole semester that I’ve had.”

With Gomez ready to go and the Spartans in the midst of a relatively healthy season — Palmieri’s sore knee is the only injury Minkel could think of — the Spartans hope to send as many as four wrestlers to the NCAA Championships.

“We hope to advance as many guys as possible to the NCAAs,” Minkel said. “That’s the prize, is becoming an All-American and getting a national championship. Our goal is try to win as many matches as we can and advance as many kids as we can, that’s really what it’s all about.”