By Mark Walters
Last year in the bowels of St. Louis’ Scottrade Center as the 2008 NCAA Championships came to a close, sophomore Jonny Bonilla-Bowman said that he had 363 days left until the 2009 championships.
“I need to remember how this feels,” said Bowman, now a junior.
Fast forward to now, and the wait is over.
Beginning this morning at 11, the best wrestlers in the nation will again convene in the Gateway to the West for the NCAA Championships.
Having missed several weeks of solid training due to an abdominal injury suffered against Cornell in February, Bonilla-Bowman said after winning his second consecutive CAA title that he was going to have to get back some fitness.
“The next two weeks have gotta be the worst hell that I’ve ever been through,” Bowman said of the two weeks leading up to now. “I couldn’t be on the mat for like two-and-a-half weeks when I got hurt so this has to be a whole new level of training right now.”
Bonilla-Bowman enters this year’s championship tournament with some unfinished business as he finished last year one win away from becoming an All-American. Classmate Lou Ruggirello was just as close to All-American status at 133 pounds, and the defending Manuel Gorrarian Award recipient will look to improve on last year’s performance.
At 174, senior Alton Lucas will be trying to add another All-American trophy to add to his mantle that already contains one from last year. He was disappointed after losing in the CAA finals, but was optimistic about returning to St. Louis, citing Charles Griffin, who lost in his senior CAA championship bout only to rebound and become a two-time All-American, finishing third last season.
The Pride will be wrestling eight-strong this weekend as six members of the team qualified automatically at the CAA tournament, while two more received at-large bids. Bowman, Ruggirello, Lucas, Ryan Patrovich (165) and Joe Fagiano (197) are all returning to nationals while Steve Bonanno (125), Justin Accordino (141) and PJ Gillespie (149) are all making their debuts.
Highly under the radar, Gillespie is taking to the mat with upset on his mind. He won his weight class in the conference tournament seeded sixth and intends to turn some heads in St. Louis.
“Hopefully I can go out there knock some people off and get on the podium.”
Like Gillespie, Bonanno is aiming high.
“Without a doubt, I can see myself as All-American this year,” Bonanno said. He has heard about the gauntlet that is the NCAA tournament, but knows it is a new beginning.
“Everyone’s been saying that it’s a whole new season.”
Fagiano mirrored that, “Everything that’s happened up until now doesn’t matter. You got a new season in two weeks, and you just gotta refocus and know how good you are and believe in yourself and just wrestle when you get down there; have fun.”
Fun, maybe, but grueling is more like it.
This gauntlet of a tournament is a spectacle of sorts, something head coach Tom Shifflet knows well.
“It’s a tough weekend,” Shifflet said. “For me as a coach, it’s obviously different from the athlete, but I’ve been on both sides of it and I can tell you that this tournament is just brutal. It’s brutal emotionally, physically, mentally.
“It’s either your weekend or it’s not.”
In addition to Shifflet, his coaching staff is well-versed in the national tournament. Joe Dubuque was a two-time national champion at 125 pounds at Indiana, Joe Rovelli was a four-time NCAA qualifier for the Pride, Rob Anspach was a two-time NCAA qualifier at Hofstra, and Terry Madden was a Division III All-American and national champion at Hunter College.
Although this is his first nationals appearance, Gillespie’s mind is in the right place.
“Every match is all mental,” Gillespie said. “You just can’t give up, you just gotta keep goin’, act like you’re never tired. Never show anyone that weakness.”
Wrestling Notes and Quotes
Coach Shifflet is optimistic about his guys that are wrestling at nationals for the first time. He views their situations as advantageous being that they have nothing to lose and everything to gain.
“For some of the younger guys that have never been there, there’s no pressure. Just go out and wrestle,” Shifflet said. “You’re in the best situation.
“You’ve got guys that are returning All-Americans, guys that have been successful out there that are gonna put some pressure on themselves. Just go out and wrestle. Take the next week-and-a-half, prepare well and go out there and see what kinda breaks you can make for yourself. If you approach it that way, you can end up becoming pretty successful at that tournament.”
Out of the eight, five of the Pride are ranked in the USA Today/InterMat/NWCA poll. Steve Bonanno is 19th, Ruggirello is 8th, Bonilla-Bowman is 14th, Patrovich is 20th, and Lucas is 9th.
The Pride will look to improve upon their 15th place finish last year in the tournament’s team scoring. Its best finish was in 2007 when it was 7th in Shifflet’s inaugural season. Iowa is a heavy favorite to defend its title, which would give it 22 total titles for the storied program. Oklahoma State leads all schools with 34.