Iowa entered Sunday's final two sessions at the Big Ten Wrestling Tournament with a mathematical chance of winning a third-straight Big Ten championship, but a very slim practical chance of doing so. Iowa had four finalists, as well as four in the consolation semifinals, which gave them a puncher's chance -- except that they needed pretty much all of their guys to win all of their matches today. And even then they may have needed some help in the form of losses from Penn State and Michigan, the other two teams vying for the Big Ten championship this season. "Win everything" is not a particularly viable (or realistic) strategy in the best of circumstances, and this was anything but the best of circumstances for Iowa; for one, they would need to beat multiple challenging opponents, including several who had beaten them several times previously. For another, this Iowa team is in far from great shape -- and we didn't even know the full extent of how beat to hell it was (is) until the day unfolded.
But let's start with the good news of the day, which was Alex Marinelli making some pretty cool history and joining some very exclusive company. Saturday Night Live has the Five-Timers Club for individuals who host the show five (or more) times and Big Ten wrestling has the Four-Timers Club, for wrestlers who manage to win four Big Ten championships. Given the pressure cooker environment of the Big Ten Tournament and the staggering amount of quality wrestlers in the Big Ten -- last night's semifinals featured a pair of matchups were were rematches of last year's NCAA Tournament finals at their respective weights -- winning four Big Ten championships puts you in truly rarefied air. As of today, that club includes Alex Marinelli, who claimed his fourth straight championship at 165 lbs with a 2-1 victory over Michigan's Cameron Amine.
Marinelli wrestled a match that was sound, albeit not particularly spectacular. He was the aggressor throughout much of the match and while he didn't turn that aggression into actual takedowns, he was able to turn that active approach (and Amine's penchant for backing out-of-bounds in response to Marinelli's attacks) into stall warnings from the officials. That paid dividends in the second period. After a scoreless first period, Marinelli got a quick escape to go up 1-0, then continued to exert pressure on Amine that eventually led to additional warnings and, ultimately, a point against Amine that gave Marinelli a 2-0 lead. He took that lead into the third period and after an energetic ride in which he nearly amassed a minute of riding time, he finally gave up an escape. Despite trailing by a point, Amine wasn't able to get any effective attacks against Marinelli's defense and the match ended with The Bull a 2-1 winner.
.@alexmarinelli65 slapped the 4-peat button.
— Iowa On BTN (@IowaOnBTN) March 6, 2022
That's 4-straight B1G titles for the Bull. @Hawks_Wrestling x #B1GWrestle pic.twitter.com/P8d5kLBNj8
The last Big Ten wrestler to win four Big Ten championships was Isaiah Martinez, who won a pair of titles at 157 lbs in 2015 and 2016 and a pair of titles at 165 lbs in 2017 and 2018. Ironically, Martinez's last title (in 2018) came in Marinelli's first season in Iowa's starting lineup. (Marinelli only had an opportunity to become a four-time Big Ten champion because of the extra COVID year granted to athletes during the pandemic.) Marinelli went 2-3 in the Big Ten Tournament that season, earning a disappointing sixth place finish. He never lost another match in the Big Ten Tournament.
With the victory, Marinelli becomes just the 17th wrestler to win four Big Ten titles. He's the 8th Iowa wrestler to do so, but just the first since Mark Ironside did so in 1998. The other Iowa members of the Big Ten Championship Four-Timers Club:
- Joe Scarpello: 175 lbs; 1947, 1948, 1949, 1950
- Mike DeAnna: 167 lbs; 1977, 1978, 1979, 1981
- Ed Banach: 177 lbs; 1980, 1981, 1982 | 190 lbs; 1983
- Barry Davis: 118 lbs; 1981, 1982 | 126 lbs; 1983, 1985
- Duane Goldman: 177 lbs; 1983, 1984 | 190 lbs; 1985, 1986
- Jim Heffernan: 155 lbs; 1983, 1985, 1986, 1987
- Mark Ironside: 134 lbs; 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998
Winning a single Big Ten title is hard. Winning two is harder still. Winning three? Extremely difficult. Winning four? Virtually impossible. Kudos to Alex Marinelli for achieving such a truly rare accomplishment and for delivering the goods year in and year out in the Big Ten Tournament for the past four seasons. NCAA Tournament success has unfortunately eluded The Bull thus far, but his Big Ten Tournament legacy is definitely worth of celebration.
The other defining story of the day was, unfortunately, injuries and medical forfeits. There were 12 medical forfeits in placement matches on Sunday, including two in championship finals matches -- both, sadly, by Iowa wrestlers. Jaydin Eierman medically forfeited out of a rematch with Penn State's Nick Lee at 141 lbs and Tony Cassioppi also medically forfeited out a rematch with Minnesota's Gable Steveson at 285 lbs. Those medical forfeits came on the heels of a medical forfeit by Michael Kemerer in the 174 lb semifinal last night (and subsequent forfeits in the consolation rounds this morning), as well as a medical forfeit by Drake Ayala in the 7th place match at 125 lbs. Those forfeits are obviously very disappointing -- you go to a wrestling tournament because, well, you want to see guys wrestle. And it's especially disappointing to see forfeits in the championship finals, the showcase matches of the entire event. That sucks, no question.
But the reality is that wrestling is a brutal sport, injuries happen, and Iowa has been hammered hard by the injury bug this season, and especially over the last few weeks. The notion that Tom Brands and Iowa used these medical forfeits as a means to duck opponents is not one that holds much merit -- or sense. You duck opponents because you fear the consequences of losing -- but Iowa had far more to gain by competing and possibly winning these matches than they would have lost by competing and losing the matches. Eierman could have jumped to the #1 seed with a win over Nick Lee, but a loss probably wouldn't have have altered his seed much, given that he'd already lost to Lee once this year (his only loss of the season). Likewise, Tony Cassioppi had plenty to gain from a (wildly unlikely but theoretically possible) win over Gable Steveson, but little to lose from another defeat to an opponent who's regularly defeated him over the past three seasons. The situation was largely similar for Michael Kemerer at 174 lbs as well.
And, of course, there's actual physical evidence of these guys dealing with injuries. Ayala missed several duals earlier this season because of a shoulder/collarbone injury and he's been sporting a brace on his shoulder since returning to the lineup a few weeks ago. Ditto Kemerer, who also clearly re-aggravated a shoulder injury during his quarterfinal match with Ohio State's Ethan Smith yesterday. Eierman showed up at the Big Ten Tournament sporting a hefty knee brace yesterday and was visibly limping at times during his quarterfinal win over Ohio State's Dylan D'Emilio. Cassioppi's injuries were less obvious, but he's also been sporting a sleeve on his leg recently (and not as a fashion statement) and has come up limping after some scrambles in recent matches.
Asked about the situation after the tournament, Tom Brands provided this response:
Iowa coach Tom Brands: "We made the best decision for our individuals going forward there's tough decisions to be made every day. Our record demonstrates that we will make tough decisions when we have to."
— Cody Goodwin (@codygoodwin) March 7, 2022
The simple fact is that this Iowa team is pretty clearly very banged-up, and at the worst possible time. (And of course this battered Iowa team is already missing its best wrestler, with Spencer Lee out for the season.) It sucks and it's a lot of things -- disappointing, frustrating, shitty -- to have two medical forfeits in the Big Ten Championship finals. Unfortunately, shit happens and sometimes it all happens at once.
Aside from Marinelli, the only Iowa wrestler to compete in the finals was Austin DeSanto at 133 lbs, who once again fell in a close match to Penn State's Roman Bravo-Young. After a scoreless first period, they traded escapes to start the second and third periods. The decisive points came in the third period, as DeSanto attacked and got to RBY's legs but couldn't finish; RBY was able to scramble and expose DeSanto's shoulders at an angle less than 90 degrees for a three count, which netted him two neutral danger zone points, the equivalent of a takedown. That wound up being the deciding factor in the match. DeSanto was once again the aggressor in the match and controlled the ties pretty well, but he continues to not be able to turn any of that activity or aggression into actual takedowns and points. Until he figures out how to do that, we're going to keep seeing the same result in his matches with RBY.
While Iowa ended up finishing third in the Big Ten team race (129.5 points), the team race itself was a thrilling battle between Michigan and Penn State that came down to the final weights. After winning their first three title matches (133, 141, 174), while Michigan went 1-3 in their first four title matches (winning 125, losing 157, 165, 174), Penn State seemed poised to all but clinch the title with a win at 184 from Aaron Brooks, the undefeated two-time defending Big Ten champion. Instead, he gave up a taekdown in the final seconds and another in sudden victory to lose to Michigan's Myles Amine in the most thrilling match of the finals. That match ended up securing Michigan's first Big Ten team title since 1973. While it's disappointing that Iowa couldn't complete a three-peat this weekend, Michigan wrestled a great tournament and certainly deserved their championship. Also, we're never that upset to see Penn State come up short...
FINAL TEAM SCORE
1) 143.0 -- Michigan
2) 141.5 -- Penn State
3) 129.5 -- Iowa
t-4) 91.5 -- Northwestern
t-4) 91.5 -- Ohio State
