Now in his 21st year with the wrestling program, head coach Tom Minkel said preparing for the event happens on two levels: getting the team ready and hosting the actual event. So though the process is exhausting, he said ultimately hosting the tournament is a positive experience early in the season.

“The good thing is that we get to see a lot of great competition in our facility, so it’s worth it,” Minkel said.

Junior Michael McClure finished first in the 285-pound weight class, after defeating Ohio’s Jeremy Johnson 3-1 in an overtime thriller. McClure also won in the heavyweight division of last week’s Eastern Michigan Open, providing momentum for a strong start to his 2012-13 season.

Other top performers include freshmen Jordan Wohlfert (2nd, 174 pounds), Hermilo Esquivel (3rd, 125 pounds) and Garth Yenter (4th, 133 pounds); sophomores Ryan Watts (2nd, 157 pounds) and Luke Jones (4th, 197 pounds); along with experienced senior Dan Osterman (4th, 149 pounds).
However, the Spartans didn’t get out of the weekend unscathed.

Injuries affected the team, as both Osterman and 184-pound sophomore John Rizqallah were both forced to forfeit due to injury.

“I know a lot of us kind of got banged up today,” Osterman said. “(But) it’s one of the best tournaments in the country. I feel like overall, everybody is pushing through it. I saw a lot of improvement from last week.”

The event, which took place for much of the day on Sunday, took a physical toll on many of the wrestlers, as it’s the longest meet of the year thus far. Although acknowledging the struggle of participating in such a lengthy event, Osterman said that the biggest thing about the tournament is that it’s a grind.

“When you’re tired, and any time a match is getting tough, I think this teaches you to persevere and to push through it,” he said.

Due to the length of the event, Minkel said that having home court was important because the magnitude of the event allows for greater support for his athletes on campus.

“One thing is that you don’t have to travel … a lot of teams had to get up at 4,5 (a.m.) to get here,” he said. “We didn’t have to do that, so it’s nice having it at home. The other thing is our families and friends and everybody that follows Michigan State wrestling has a big event right here on campus, so there’s a lot of upside to it.”

Despite the advantage, Minkel believes that the tournament showed that the team has to work hard to perform at a higher level in the future.

“Because the level of competition is so high, everybody realizes that they have a lot of work to do, and it kind of varies from guy to guy,” he said. “We’ve seen some good competition, and now we’ll go back and watch the film and work on the specifics.”

The team features 13 true freshman, so in many ways, the MSU Open was an illuminating experience for them, according Watts, who finished second in the 157-pound division.

“It’s a big eye-opener because it’s a lot tougher than our last tournament last weekend,” Watts said. “It’s a way for our freshman to see where they’re at coming into college.”

Although Watts admits that some members of the team displayed an inconsistent effort on the day, he gave credit to the true freshman Wohlfert, who had a strong showing in the home meet.

The Spartans have a chance to redeem the effort, as they travel to Eastern Michigan Friday to begin their dual season, and Watts said that the MSU Open is a solid building block for what the team hopes to achieve.

“(The MSU Open) lets us know where we’re at right now,” he said. “It lets us know exactly where we’re at and what we need to work on.”