Well Stanford, the ball is in your court. My only question to Bernard Muir, the Stanford athletic director is, how can you cut a program that just had an All American and a National Champion?
Absolutely shameful and disappointing.
Last night, Shane Griffith won the National Title at 165 pounds over Pittsburghs Jake Wentzel, 6-2. Wentzel looked really good from his feet and put pressure on Griffith due to Wentzel’s strength when he is in under and over hook positions.
Griffith was able to counter Wentzel’s power with his quickness and was able to score early on. With his great technique and immaculate toughness, he was able to solidify himself as a National Champ.
The Stanford wrestling team went into the season knowing that this season would be their last one together. None of their wrestlers went into this weekend as favorites and they embraced the underdog mentality.
Both the coaches and wrestlers from Stanford went into this tournament with a plan to give the middle finger to the Stanford athletic department.
Each wrestler wore plain black sweat pants, plain black tee shirts, plain black singlets, and a warmup hoodie that said “Keep Stanford Wrestling”. The coaches wore black suits for the finals with no Stanford insignia as Griffith wrestled.
After Shane Griffith won his finals match, he grabbed his hoodie quickly and threw it on. The arena in St. Louis rang with chants yelling “Keep Stanford Wrestling”.
Griffith was even awarded the Outstanding Wrestling Award, which is given to the wrestler who performs the best at the National Tournament.
If Stanford goes through with cutting the program, where will a guy like Griffith end up?
He’s a Jersey kid that went to the other side of the country to get a top notch education and next season, he’ll be looking for a new home.
I think he could fit well on a Michigan or Northwestern team because of their high level of wrestling and notoriously great academics. He could even look to transfer to Princeton or Cornell to be close to home and at an Ivy League college.
Wherever Griffith and the other Stanford wrestlers end up next season, I hope they have great success and prove to Stanford why they shouldn’t have cut their program.