Wrestling: Worst call EVER v. Ohio.

Submitted by BiSB on

The #12 Michigan Wrestling team fell 24-13 to #6 Ohio (YTO) in Columbus today. But the most interesting thing to come out of the day was easily the worst call I have ever seen.

For those of you who don't know much about wrestling, ask yourself this: does the Michigan wrestler (Justin Zeerip) have control over the Ohio wrestler (Nick Heflin) before the clock hits zero (or for, I dunno, the LAST 10 SECONDS).

This is probably as bad as the blown extra point call in the Syracuse game. Actually, it's probably worse.

EDIT: Embed fail. Video in first comment.

pug150

February 3rd, 2012 at 11:50 PM ^

I wrestled for 13 years and have coached for the last 18, both high school and college. This call is borderline criminal. Weight is on the hands of the OSU wrestler, with the UM wrestler behind him--its clearly 2. At one point the official actually signals 2 reversal when the OSU guy goes to his back--he then waves it off and signals 1 and then he signals 2. At the very least its 2 reversal. The proper call is 1 escape, 2 takedown for UM. Its plausible to score it 2 reversal (UM), 1 escape (OSU) and 2 takedown (UM), as a previous poster stated...in any event, IT IS NOT POSSIBLE for this to be scored 1 escape. McFarland should have been thrown out for arguing--gotta have your guy's back in that situation--even if you know the official won't change the call.

pug150

February 3rd, 2012 at 11:50 PM ^

I wrestled for 13 years and have coached for the last 18, both high school and college. This call is borderline criminal. Weight is on the hands of the OSU wrestler, with the UM wrestler behind him--its clearly 2. At one point the official actually signals 2 reversal when the OSU guy goes to his back--he then waves it off and signals 1 and then he signals 2. At the very least its 2 reversal. The proper call is 1 escape, 2 takedown for UM. Its plausible to score it 2 reversal (UM), 1 escape (OSU) and 2 takedown (UM), as a previous poster stated...in any event, IT IS NOT POSSIBLE for this to be scored 1 escape. McFarland should have been thrown out for arguing--gotta have your guy's back in that situation--even if you know the official won't change the call.

bronxblue

February 3rd, 2012 at 9:32 PM ^

Yeah, I don't know much about wrestling beyond attending a couple of my brother's HS meets, but that definitely looked like 2 points there.  He clearly established position after the exchange.

M-Dog

February 3rd, 2012 at 9:35 PM ^

I used to wrestle.  That looked like a clean reversal.  You could possibly make the case that it was an escape and a takedown, but at minimum it was a 2 point reversal.

 

Sione's Flow

February 3rd, 2012 at 9:37 PM ^

Wrestling refs are some of the worst, when I wrestled in high school, some of the stuff they called was ridiculous.  Although their ignorance can benefit you sometimes, like when a college all-american came and coached our small town squad, we had a ref award five points, because our guy did something he had never seen before, so he didn't know how to call it.

swan flu

February 3rd, 2012 at 9:46 PM ^

theres no such thing as a reversal AND escape.  one or the other.  in order for it to be an escape, both wrestlers need to return to a neutral position.  the OSU guy was never back to neutral, so it was a straight reversal.

BiSB

February 3rd, 2012 at 9:45 PM ^

They never broke contact, but there is a brief moment in which they are both (sort of) up and facing each other, and the Ohio wrestler has lost control. You could argue they were neutral at that point. 

Either of those calls would have been within the realm of acceptable. It could have been a reversal, and it could have been 1 and 2.  The call they made... uh... yeah. Notsomuch.

swan flu

February 3rd, 2012 at 9:48 PM ^

aw shit i just figured it out.

 

Zeerip NEVER had both arms behind the OSU guys arms.  His right arm remained on the OSU guys neck.  It is a stupid technicality and i disagree with it, but the ref at least has some ground to stand on.

swan flu

February 3rd, 2012 at 9:54 PM ^

technically "control" can be defined as hips on hips, BOTH arms behind the bottom man's arms.  Because Zeerip's right arm remained on the neck, and the OSU guy kept hold of Zeerip's right arm, the ref CAN say "no control."  In this situation I think its pretty clear Zeerip was in control but I can at least understand why the ref thought there was not clear control.  College refs can get real stupid sometimes.

BiSB

February 3rd, 2012 at 10:06 PM ^

From the NCAA rulebook:

A takedown shall be awarded when, from the neutral position, a contestant gains control by taking the opponent down to the mat in bounds and beyond reaction time. When a significant portion of the defensive wrestler’s weight is borne on a hand(s), it is considered control.

He doesn't need to be behind the arms. For example, if he was trying to work a turn and was doing so from above the head (trying to force a half, a cradle, etc) he could do so and still be in control.

swan flu

February 3rd, 2012 at 10:12 PM ^

I'm just tellin you what I've been told by referees themselves.  I coached wrestling for a few years and wrestled myself for 10.

 

And I have heard that in order for the there to be complete control, the offensive wrestler must have both arms behind the bottom man's arms.

 

EDIT- the issue is not "control while the top man is working a turn" the issue is "INITIAL control." and refs get real picky about that.  If Zeerip's right arm was controlled by the OSU guy, Zeerip could be seen as not in control. 

 

Again, im not defending the ref, just saying what he may have been seeing.

BiSB

February 3rd, 2012 at 10:18 PM ^

Then maybe, MAYBE I would understand. No, actually, I wouldn't. But it would be at least something. But the ref GAVE him the escape and the two points, and then just forgot.

Again, though, throughout my six years of wrestling, that was control every single time. The Ohio wrestler wasn't moving. He was on all fours, completely passive and dominated, with his weight on his hands and the MIchigan wrestler sunk in hip-to-hip. That's control.

AceUofMer

February 3rd, 2012 at 10:16 PM ^

Should have been called one of two way. Reversal, escape, takedown. A 4-1 exchange. Or, escape takedown. A 3-0 exchange. I've officiated with one of those guys on multiple occasions. The fact it didn't get worked out is not a surprise. One of the reasons I got out of that part of the sport has to do with how some other officials think. Until they realize officiating is not a sport in itself, moments like this won't change. they're are some very good guys. But, they are more few then the stubborn. And this isn't just in NCAA officiating. It's throughout the sport to the Olympic level.

vablue

February 4th, 2012 at 9:20 AM ^

He clearly has control and is behind him. If you listen, the ref says time ran out before he got around behind him. The commentators point out that the riding time clock expired, because of the early reversal call, so the second ref was looking at that. Embarrassing for both the refs and Ohio. The score keepers should have helped them out, but they were wearing a bit to much Scarlett.

Wolverine Convert

February 3rd, 2012 at 9:53 PM ^

The ref gave 1 point and then gave 2 points....That equals three. (after he waived off the original near reversal).

The bald ref went brain dead and the other guy should have correct the obvious error. All of the people at the scorers table (including people from both teams) should have had those points written in their books already.

The Michigan coaches gave up without enough fight. Zeeryp got screwed which affects his record for possible future seeding at the B1G tournament, etc. Good thing it did not affect the outcome of the overall meet.

brendandavis22

February 3rd, 2012 at 9:53 PM ^

Ask Ryan Churella about bad calls during a wrestling match. This was bad but in the end a fairly meaningless dual meet. Churella got boned in a national championship match against current UFC star Jonny Hendricks. YouTube it...

brendandavis22

February 4th, 2012 at 8:16 AM ^

I can't seem to find a video of the full match but the third period was worse.  The "pin vs. non-pin" call at the end of the second was bad.  Most thought it was pin, but in the 3rd period Hendricks was awarded 2 takedowns which were not even close to a takedown and ended up winning the match.  The ref for the Churella-Hendricks finals match was Gary Kessell and a very common term in the wrestling community now is "Getting Kessell'd".   Zeerip got Kessell'd!

Ramses

February 3rd, 2012 at 11:20 PM ^

Joyce made a blatantly bad judgement call on a play that was at least in the ballpark of an immediate reaction. This call happened in a 15 second time frame where he apparently had an assistant ref who spoke another language and couldn't bring himself to tell the lead ref how incompetent he had made himself look. I have followed wrestling for twenty plus years and this was the single worst call I have ever witnessed. The referee showed a complete lack of credibility. It was almost as if his mind went blank and he erased what he had just seen in the previous 15 seconds. Justin Zeerip should have the loss expunged from his record and receive a written apology from both refs and the BIG.   

mGrowOld

February 4th, 2012 at 10:48 AM ^

I sure wish i understood the sport well enough to know what I'm looking at but if you guys are pissed off then I'M PISSED OFF TOO!

Wrestling Uber Alles!

mendrygal

February 4th, 2012 at 12:31 PM ^

If you listen closely to the refs explaining to Joe, the main ref tells him that the clock ran out before he had control (which wasn't even close) and so he only got the 1 point escape.  You hear Joe yell back that Justin had him for "10-12 seconds", which he did.  Amazing mental meltdown by the ref.  That really hurts after getting jobbed in the Minnesota duel as well.