Column: Wrestling dual outcomes independent of singles success

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The one thing MSU wrestling head coach Tom Minkel has been adamant about all season long is that if his wrestlers focus on taking care of their individual matches, the duals will take care of themselves.
But unfortunately for Minkel, despite several wrestlers taking care of business, the duals haven’t fallen the way of the Spartans (3-6 overall, 1-4 Big Ten).

Senior 174-pounder Curran Jacobs has won four straight individual matches, including two against ranked opponents and was finally recognized for his work on Tuesday, jumping from unranked to No. 11 in the InterMat college wrestling rankings. Jacobs boasts a 19-6 overall record and is 7-2 in duals.

No. 12 senior 157-pounder Anthony Jones Jr. also has been doing his part to help the team. Jones has recorded four major decisions and two pins along the way to a 15-5 overall record and a 7-2 dual record.

Before he was injured in the Reno Tournament of Champions, senior 197-pounder Tyler Dickenson accrued a 3-0 dual record and a 7-1 overall record.

But the Spartans field a team of 10 wrestlers for each dual, and, despite the unique format of wrestling, it still is a team sport. And as a team, the Spartans are underperforming.

The Big Ten is tough, but there’s no reason MSU shouldn’t be as tough, if not tougher, than the competition. And there’s no better place to start than this weekend, when the Spartans get their first crack at Nebraska since the Cornhuskers joined the conference and travel to Ann Arbor to take on East Lansing’s most abhorred team.

For Minkel, it has to be frustrating to watch his team drop these duals when it has so much talent. And while the Spartans have been plagued by injuries, it isn’t the first time individual performances have not translated to team success.

In its entire history, the MSU wrestling team has seen 19 individual national champions, but only eight Big Ten titles. In 2009, 133-pounder Franklin Gomez wrestled his way to becoming the national champion on a team that finished 6-10 overall and dead last in the Big Ten.

Of course, it’s much easier to coach one individual than an entire team. But the fact remains that wrestling is a team sport, and an individual win still is empty without taking home a team victory.

Redshirt freshman 133-pounder Terry Turner’s dramatic first-ever dual victory against Indiana would have meant much less had the team not pulled out a 21-20 dual victory in the same way “Rocket” lost its sheen when the football team failed to win the Big Ten championship.

Unfortunately, there’s no easy fix for the Spartans’ woes. Jacobs and Jones only can do so much, and it rests upon the rest of the team to step up and show that the Spartans are better than their record.

Jesse O’Brien is the wrestling reporter at The State News. He can be reached at obrie151@msu.edu.

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