by Olivia Pannecouk
Events and Promotions Director
Rochester University wrestler Kyle Scott qualified for nationals at the WHAC Wrestling Championship, which was hosted for the first time at Rochester University on Feb. 11.
Scott, a junior in the 197 weight class, placed third, which automatically qualified him for nationals. Scott also competed in nationals last year, and he is now the first Rochester wrestler to go to nationals two years in a row.
Wrestling is an individual sport, but the team's overall scores are still taken into play when figuring out how each team placed in the conference. According to the WHAC website, the final conference rankings were:
Indian Tech
Marian
Lourdes
Rochester
Cornerstone
Siena Heights
Cleary
In wrestling, not every team competes against one another. According to Athletic Director Clayton Bissett, each wrestler is seeded by the coaches and is put into brackets based on their weight and seed the night before the event. After a player wins, he then moves on to the next opponent. Bissett also said because of this process, some wrestlers even competed against their teammates.
With a total of seven teams competing, this was the largest wrestling tournament Rochester University has hosted. These teams included regular conference teams such as Indiana Tech, Cornerstone, Siena Heights, Lourdes and Cleary, but this tournament also included Marian, who is an affiliated member of the conference for wrestling. This team is an affiliated member because their regular conference does not have enough wrestling teams.
Rochester University Athletic Director Clayton Bissett said, "If this were an event that was set up so that we had to bid on it, I would bid on it every year."
Having all of these teams in one location as well as almost 250 fans gave the Garth Pleasant Arena a lively and interesting atmosphere. Rochester University Athletic Trainer Rachel Hinton said, "It was a very exciting experience to be able to host a conference tournament because it is a very high level of competition, which makes it fun to watch."
Wrestling, along with track and field, cross country, cheer and bowling gets the opportunity to host WHAC championships on a rotating basis. This means that by looking at each conference team alphabetically, the WHAC board will ask the next school on the list if they want to host and if they have the resources to do so. Last year Rochester was asked if it would like to host this event, and the university hosted both the wrestling and competitive championships.
Scott will move on to nationals, which will be held in Wichita, Kansas, March 3-4.
Twenty-eight wrestlers from the WHAC will compete at nationals.