Wrestlers to learn their fates on Wednesday

By Guy Cipriano

Basketball calls it "Selection Sunday."

For the CDT/Steve Manuel

Penn State freshman Frank Molinaro, left, who finished eighth in the Big Ten Championships, is one of three Nittany Lions looking for an at-large berth into the NCAA tournament.

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Wrestling now has 'Wait and See" Wednesday.

The NCAA wrestling committee opened meetings Monday to determine 52 at-large berths for next week’s national tournament in St. Louis.

The meetings are a product of a new qualifying system implemented this year.

At-large bids will be determined by using a variety of factors, including head-to-head competition, qualifying event placement, quality wins, results against common opponents, winning percentage, RPI and coaches rankings and number of bouts contested within a weight class.

And, yes, some Penn State wrestlers find themselves on the bubble.

Freshmen Frank Molinaro at 141, Tim Darling at 157 and heavyweight Cameron Wade all came within one victory of earning automatic qualifying spots during this past weekend’s Big Ten Championships at the Bryce Jordan Center. Molinaro and Darling finished eighth in seven-qualifier weights. Wade finished sixth in a five-qualifier weight.

The trio advanced to place bouts despite entering the tournament unseeded, and coach Troy Sunderland said he thinks all three have a chance of receiving at-large berths.

Molinaro appears to have the best case of three.

Molinaro entered this past weekend at 25th and 26th, respectively, in the RPI and coaches rankings. He went 1-3 in the conference tournament, losing to first-seeded Kellen Russell of Michigan, fourth-seeded Mike Thorn of Minnesota and seventh-seeded Ryan Prater of Illinois.

Molinaro’s lone victory was a 7-3 decision over Indiana’s Andrae Hernandez, the No. 8 seed and 2007 All-American.

“With the way he wrestled this weekend, he deserves to be there,” Sunderland said.

Molinaro isn’t so sure. He said he might have squandered his chance of an NCAA spot with a 12-3 loss to Prater in the place bout.

“I know it was basically my only chance to nationals,” Molinaro said. “That was my goal. It was a last option. It was a rough match in that last bout.”

All 10 weights will include 33 wrestlers. Twenty-eight bids at 141 were awarded through conference tournaments.

Molinaro (19-16), Penn State’s first bubble wrestler, used three adjectives Sunday to describe how the 48-hour selection period could feel.

“Depressing, lame, boring,” he said.

“The league has a lot of ranked guys,” he added. “There’s a chance, but I’m not going to get my hopes up, though.”

Neither Darling (15-11) nor Wade (15-14) entered the weekend among the top 33 wrestlers at their weights in the RPI and coaches rankings.

Darling, who didn’t become a starter until February, went 1-3 and defeated eighth-seeded Ben Jordan of Wisconsin this past weekend. He was pinned by Michigan State’s Anthony Jones in the seventh-place bout. Four at-large spots are available at 157.

Wade went 2-3, but defeated sixth-seeded Corey Morrison of Ohio State and seventh-seeded Eddie Phillips of Michigan to reach the consolation semifinals. Wade split time with Stefan Tighe during the Big Ten season. Four at-large spots are available at heavyweight.

The job of determining at-large bids falls on the six-person NCAA wrestling committee, whose chair, Brad Traviolia, attended this past weekend’s Big Ten tournament. Traviolia, the Big Ten’s deputy commissioner, said the committee performed a mock selection last year.

“But this year it’s for real,” he added. “The pressure will be on. We are deciding who’s going to be in, who’s going to be out. It will be a methodical process, but we will take notes and I think we have a great group of individuals on the committee who do a good job and we will see how it works out.”

The Division I committee also includes Boston University’s Carl Adams, Cornell’s Andy Noel, Virginia’s Steve Garland, Central Michigan’s Derek van der Merwe and Oregon State’s Jim Zalesky.

“We’re hoping all this bubble talk is good for the sport,” Traviolia said.