Hlas: Brent Metcalf and Olympics are strangers, again

IOWA CITY — Brent Metcalf dropped to his knees Saturday afternoon, loudly sobbing behind a Carver-Hawkeye Arena tunnelway door that had slammed shut behind him.

This wasn't how it was supposed to go for Metcalf at the U.S. Olympic Wrestling Team Trials, not again. Not with two defeats in the arena where he had starred for three Iowa NCAA championship teams from 2008 to 2010. Not with the pursuit of Olympic immortality in Rio de Janeiro this August halted in his own backyard.

Not on a loss on tiebreaking criteria, just like when he was upset by Jared Frayer in the finals of the 2012 Trials here.

It was only 10:30 a.m. Saturday. A long day of wrestling in Carver had barely begun, but already the door had slammed on the 29-year-old, top-seeded Metcalf's Olympic dream.

He had lost to 9th-seed Frank Molinaro in a 143-pound quarterfinal bout that was 3-3 on the scoreboard, but 1-0 Molinari in the result that mattered.

The first criteria, whomever had a bigger scoring move in the match, belonged to Molinaro with his 2-point exposure early in the second period. When the former Penn State NCAA champ forced Metcalf off the mat for a point to tie the match with just 13 seconds left, it shot Molinaro into the semifinals and Metcalf into the darkness of the consolation bracket.