By Mark Walters

St. Louis? Ten weight classes and more than 300 qualifiers from 74 schools wrestling in 640 matches over a three-day span, with an overall attendance of roughly 90,000 people. Yet they call a 65-team tournament that culminates in April, “March Madness.”

I spent last weekend in the “Show Me” state covering Hofstra in the NCAA Wrestling Championships. Hofstra’s Sports Information Director, Jim Sheehan, told me Thursday before the first session that I would have cauliflower ear by the end of the weekend. I didn’t get it, but now I want it.

I had a front row seat on press row next to a great crew of guys at Takedown Radio, and a student journalist from the University of Minnesota who let me borrow his laptop to check Facebook in between sessions.

The Iowa-Iowa State rivalry was explained to me by Grant Turner, a former Cyclone wrestler of Iowa State. He described it as “the most intense thing you’ll ever experience.” Believe me, it was no mistake that the Iowa fans were completely sectioned off from the Iowa State fans in the St. Louis Scottrade Center.

I was introduced to the religion of wrestling in the Midwest, and just how dedicated the fans are.

I met media professionals, some of which hadn’t missed the championships in several decades. I walked past elated wrestlers after they had just won national titles, and others who had just felt the agony of defeat.

There were pounds of paper in the form of media notes, guides, press releases, updated brackets, and other stats, figures and commentary. I learned just how anal-retentive the NCAA can be when it made us pout whatever we were drinking into blue-paper Dasani cups adorned with the NCAA logo. This, of course, was only when the matches were aired on ESPN.

I found out that student-athletes have a higher graduation rate than the general student body. I missed being a student-athlete, a fraternity I once belonged to here at Hofstra.

I walked around the Gateway to the West and bumped into total strangers from Iowa, Illinois, Mizzou, Minnesota, Ohio, and Pennsylvania among other places. When I proudly stated where I was from and what I was doing, I was met with recognition as Hofstra is one of the few private schools among wrestling’s elite.

As a Penn State football fan, I’ve always been a Big Ten enthusiast. While it excels in most sports, the conference owns wrestling. Seven of the ten national champions were from Big Ten schools, and the top three teams were Big Ten member institutions. But there we have Hofstra, slugging it out with the best of them.

Take for instance the unseeded Jonny Bonilla-Bowman beating the No. 4 seed from Indiana. Then there’s Lou Ruggirello pinning Wisconsin’s Zach Tanelli in 2:35, en route to winning the Manuel Gorrarian Award for recording the most wins via pinfall in the least amount of time at the championships.

How does Hofstra compete? Where does this small private school from Long Island get off performing like that?

For starters, Tom Shifflet is continuing the tradition that was here when he arrived in Hempstead two seasons ago. Past and current coaches instill an attitude that the kids carry on. Recruiting is important, but put simply, Hofstra has some tough SoBs doing work in the wrestling room. The guys want to win at the highest level of competition.

A sidebar about a past coach: Tom Ryan, the former Pride head coach who is now at Ohio State, would not coach his guys when they wrestled against Hofstra. Not in dual meets, not at nationals. That’s a class act.

Still, this past weekend, I saw the Pride’s toughness. While falling in love with the Midwest and the blue-collar sport it embodies, I witnessed true beauty in one of the purest forms of sport.

After a dog-tired Alton Lucas told me he got off to a rough start because he wasn’t properly prepared for one of his successful matches, he said that he just “manned up,” because on a tough day at the national tournament, “that’s what he was there to do.” Then there was Charles Griffin sitting swollen-faced with a black eye that Lucas described as looking like a “butt-hole.” After suffering it in his semi-final bout, he was just happy to still be wrestling.

I got chills when the crowd got up before each session, especially the championship round. As AC/DC’s Thunderstruck blared and all present were titillated, I could feel the energy. The Scottrade Center had a pulse measurable on the Richter scale. More chilling still was witnessing Navy’s Ed Pendergrast, a third place All-American, stand at attention while others bobbed up and down or swayed back and forth during the National Anthem. To him, it just meant a little more. Equally as patriotic was Matt Kyler, a sophomore at 141 pounds from Army, earning his All-American status. That’s an All-American in the truest sense.

The Pride finished 15th in the nation, a disappointment for Coach Shifflet who is already preparing for next year.

As for me? I’m reading and studying up. I’m trying to get as much fuel for the fire that’s been lit inside of me. St. Louis will again hose the NCAA Wrestling Championships in 2009, and as the sun sets on the 2008 season, we bid farewell to seniors Charles Griffin, Joe Rovelli, Dace Tomasette, and possibly Tom Daddino.

I can’t wait to go back to the Arch next March