Two Stanford Wrestlers Are In The Quarters
Stanford is shutting their program down after this year but, two athletes are in the quarterfinals.
Wrestlers Real Woods and Shane Griffith of Stanford are both in the quarterfinals and have been underdogs this entire tournament.
Woods is #21 at 141 and is set to wrestle the #4 seed, Tariq Wilson from NC State and Griffith, who is #8 at 165 and is taking on #1 Alex Marinelli from Iowa. Griffith and Woods are HOT right now and I really like their odds against these top seeded wrestlers.
While these guys are underdogs due to their seeds, they’re also underdogs because Stanford is getting rid of their wrestling program after this season. They are one of two college wrestling programs in California that is getting rid of their program. The other team is Fresno State.
Griffith and Woods are giving the middle finger to the Stanford Cardinal by wearing plain black singles that do not represent the universities logo. I think that the whole wrestling community backs their decision in doing this.
Woods beat #12 Grant Willits from Oregon State 6-3 in the first round. Then he faced off against #5 Demas from Oklahoma and pulled off another upset with a 5-1 win.
At 165, Griffith started the tournament with a 5-2 win over #25 Tucker from Michigan State. In the second round, Griffith had a tough match against #9 Luke Weber from North Dakota State. He was able to escape the match with a 7-5 win.
I would love to see both of these guys All American and then leave Stanford next season. These guys are tough and elite wrestlers that will be great fits for whatever program they wrestle for next season.