When you bet on horses in Vegas, finishing fourth means that you just missed winning money. Well, over the weekend, the Michigan wrestling team finished fourth out of 45 teams in the Las Vegas Invitational, just missing its goal of a top-three finish.
"Overall, we had a pretty successful weekend," 150-pound wrestler Bill Lacure said. "I think that most of us really wanted to place in the top three. We're a little disappointed."
Highlighting the weekend was junior Jeff Catrabone's 100th career win and first-place finish at 167 pounds, while Chris Viola placed second at 118 pounds. Lacure placed second in his weight class, and heavyweight Airron Richardson grabbed third. Freshman Damion Logan finished sixth at 126, while Corey Grant placed seventh at 134.
Michigan coach Dale Bahr credited Catrabone with providing strong team leadership.
"Jeff's doing a great job for us," Bahr said. "He dominates on the mats. When Jeff wrestles, it's one of the few times the coaches can relax, because he dominates his weight class. When the new rankings come out around Christmas, he should be ranked in the top three in his weight class."
"Catrabone had a great tournament," Lacure said. "No one's really touching him. He dominates everyone."
To advance to the finals, Lacure had to beat Eric Siebert from Illinois.
"Siebert is kind of a nemesis for Bill, because he beat him twice last year," Bahr said. "Bill had control of the match. ... We expect (Lacure) to compete for a national title."
Losing to defending national champion Sheldon Thomas from Clarion University, Viola wrestled a telling tournament.
"I think Chris is beginning to realize that he can fight for a national title," Bahr said. "He's always pictured himself as a good wrestler, who maybe could go with the big boys."
Logan, meanwhile, dislocated his shoulder during his sudden-death overtime quarterfinal match.
"I dislocated my shoulder," Logan said. "It kept popping out, but we kept putting in back in. It affected me a lot, but I had to kind of adapt. It kept popping out easier and easier each time it came out. Right now I can't even take my shirt off."
Even with the injury, Logan wrestled a strong tournament.
"For a freshman, he is proving to people nationally that he may be ranked in the top 12 or 16 in the country," Bahr said. "He had a real good tournament."
Although he surprised many people, Logan would have liked to have finishedhigher.
"I wasn't supposed to do as well as I did, but I expected to do better" Logan said. "I was on a roll. I wrestled fifth-year senior Eric Jetton from Wisconsin. We had a pretty good match. I just ran out of time."
The Wolverines will now enjoy a much-needed month off.
"This was our peak tournament," Bahr said. "It had an NCAA championship-like atmosphere."
Catrabone agreed that some time off will benefit the team. "We now have a month off to stay strong, keep in shape and heal up any injuries," Catrabone said.
Now that they have finished this tournament, Bahr said that the team now needs to shift its attention a little closer to home.
"We're going to take a couple of days off and practice," Bahr said. "We'll relax a little bit. The guys have to change their focus from competition to finals. Academics have to be most important."
KRISTEN SCHAEFER/Daily
Bill Lacure and the Wolverines finsished fourth out of 45 teams at the Las Vegas Invitational last weekend. Michigan has a month off before its next meet.