Wrestling: Coach reviews go well at NCAAs

DES MOINES – Dick Simmons is heavily involved in college wrestling.

Cornell College's Associate Director of Athletics is in his second-year of a five-term on the NCAA Wrestling Committee.

The responsibility placed him in the center of a provisional rule at the NCAA Division I Wrestling Championships this week at Wells Fargo Arena. Simmons served as the communicator of official reviews and coaches challenges, which was implemented on a trial basis for the postseason and select duals this season.

Coaches receive three challenges per tournament. Coaches maintain the number of challenges as long as they are successful after consulting video replay. Officials can review a call on the mat as well.

“Any official reviews or coaches' challenges are called to us,” Simmons said about his head table duties. “We communicate to the announcers and we're tracking the reviews and challenges.”

Simmons hinted the review process cut down on coaches' warnings for questioning and arguing calls.

“I do believe it is the right thing and gives the officials a chance to look at a situation to solve it differently,” Oklahoma State Coach John Smith said before the tournament. “We made a good decision. I shouldn't say ‘we' because they did it without giving the coaches a choice in it, which is good.”

According to NCAA officials, there were 45 coaches' challenges and 16 officials' reviews in the first 630 matches before Saturday night's finals. Twelve coach's challenges were successful, and five reviews changed calls.

The process is a learning experience. It has been used in the postseason and all three NCAA tournaments. Cornell hosted the NCAA Division III Wrestling Championships last weekend at the Cedar Rapids Ice Arena.

Simmons, the NCAA Division III Wrestling Committee Chairman, said the NCAA has implanted improvements discovered during the previous tournaments. Things went relatively smooth once they determined table-worker configurations, according to Simmons.

“We've had some kinks,” Simmons said. “Being the first year, Division II learned some stuff the first week. Last week at Division III, we learned some things and came up with new forms.

“This week, we added some phone lines for instant communication.”

He plans to apply what he learned this week to suggest and enact improvements. The rule has been somewhat effective.

“I think it has for the first year of the experimental rule,” Simmons said. “There are things we still have to tweak, if they decide to continue the rule.”

Simmons noticed fans at the Division III tournament were confused or unaware of what was happening during the reviews.

“We wanted to get that smoothed out,” Simmons said. “We wanted to help education fans on the process.”

One criticism is the ability for coaches to use it as a way to create a break for a wrestler and regain their wind. Some coaches have said the process interrupts the flow of matches and competition.

“I don't think that any of the coaches disliked it at their dual meets,” Smith said. “We will have to find out. There will be times we go through it. Is it holding up the tournament? Is it holding up matches?”

During the fifth-place 165-pound match between Iowa State's Michael Moreno and Illinois' Conrad Polz, a review last many minutes, leading Polz to wear a shirt to stay warm. Officials had to rule on the exchange of two reversals, but then had to refigure riding time, causing the lengthy delay.

Simmons said that was the longest review so far, and the exception not the rule.

“We're tracking the average review times,” Simmons said. “We're going to be able to get all the stats together from all divisions, look at everything and see if it interfered. Things seemed to flow pretty well.”

Simmons enjoys his position with NCAA wrestling and has been an asset to the sport.

“I enjoy wrestling and working the championship,” Simmons said. “It has been fun.”

ALMOST PERFECT

Predicting the finish of an elite wrestling tournament is tough. When a field is seeded, it is common for someone to crack the mold, like University of Northern Iowa's David Bonin at 157, who placed fourth, and Iowa State's sixth-place 165-pounder Michael Moreno.

The 133-pound weight class was nearly seeded perfect. All top-eight seeded wrestlers earned All-American status. The top two seeds, Ohio State's No. 1 Logan Stieber and Iowa's No. 2 Tony Ramos, reached the finals. Third-seeded Tyler Graff, of Wisconsin, was third. Edinboro's A.J. Schopp was seeded and placed fourth.

No. 7 Jon Morrison, of Oklahoma State, was fifth. Minnesota's No. 5 seed Chris Dardanes placed sixth. Oklahoma's No. 8 seed Cody Brewer was seventh, while Missouri's eighth-place Nathan McCormick was seeded sixth.