The No. 10 Michigan wrestling team left the Michigan Open in East Lansing yesterday with mixed emotions of its performance. The Open was the first of the year, and acted as an indicator of the season to come.
"I was fairly pleased with our performance," Michigan coach Dale Bahr said. "There were many bright spots, but there were also many areas where we know we need improvement."
Of those bright spots, the brightest came from the performances of freshman Damion Logan at 126 pounds and junior All-American Jeff Catrabone at 167. Both won their respective weight classes.
"Jeff basically dominated his weight class and reached the finals without really any close matches," Bahr said.
Bahr was especially pleased with the performance from Logan, a true freshman. Logan, wrestling in only his second collegiate tournament, came out of high school as the top-ranked wrestler in his weight class. Logan stepped in to replace junior All-American Brandon Howe, who is sidelined with a shoulder injury.
"Logan really proved himself at this tournament, and showed us that he will really be an instant contributor to our team," Bahr said. "With this type of early tournament, we hope to have the older guys round into the shape they were at last season and to have the younger guys get a chance to start to establish themselves at this level."
Of the older wrestlers, the Wolverines received positive results from their three healthy returning All-Americans. Catrabone (167) won his class. Junior Bill Lacure (158) finished third in his class, losing in the semifinals to Michigan State's two-time All-American Chad Bailey. And heavyweight Airron Richardson placed second, losing in the finals to an assistant coach from Michigan State.
Coaches and other non-students are allowed to wrestle in open-style tournaments such as this one.
Michigan, along with Ohio State, Michigan State and Northwestern, represented the Big Ten, while other smaller schools such as Mt. Union and Muskegon Community College and wrestling clubs such as the Buckeye Wrestling Club also competed in the Open. The open-style tournament also does not score team points, only individual rankings in each weight class.
"This was an early-season meet where we had the opportunity for a lot of guys to wrestle and had the opportunity to see a lot of different schools," said Michigan assistant coach Joe McFarland.
"This kind of atmosphere is good for the team early in the season to be able to compete with out too much pressure."
Another Michigan bright spot came from sophomore Corey Grant (134), who placed second. Two freshmen, Luiey Haddad and Otto Olson, also placed in their weight class. Haddad (134) finished sixth behind Grant, and Olson (158), a true freshman, finished sixth.
The lowest point for Michigan was 118-pound sophomore Chris Viola's injury-default from the tournament.
Viola injured his groin in his quarterfinal victory. He tried to compete in the semifinals, but lost due to the injury and had to default before his match in the back draw.
"Chris could hardly walk after his quarter final match but he wanted to try it in the semis," Bahr said. "Maybe we shouldn't have let him go, but we did, and the injury was just too bad and we had to pull him after the semifinal."
Viola finished sixth for the Wolverines, one place behind Michigan freshman Matt Warner. Other Michigan wrestlers who placed in the tourney were junior Jon Newsom (126) and Jeff Reese (150).
"Overall we put in a decent effort," Bahr said. "Any given tournament like this we have three or four guys wrestle above their expectations, three or four at their expectations, and three of four below where they should be. We need to get those guys who are below to pick it up and then we can move on and be a better team."
Michigan will travel to Wisconsin on Friday for the Northern Open.