Everything is relative. And while it is easy and convenient to sit back and judge the success of something based on a single number, it is not always the best measure of progress and accomplishment.
Case in point: the Portland State wrestling team’s performance at the Pac-10 Conference Championships last weekend. They finished last out of the nine teams competing with a final score of 32 points. The winning team, Boise Sate, by comparison racked up 172.5 points.
Not one wrestler received an invitation to the NCAA Championships.
They had only six wrestlers place and the highest ranked of those, senior Bryan Cantrell, who competes in the 165-pound weight class, finished just out of the top five. Alex Bubb and Henry Kofa, also seniors, placed seventh and eighth, respectively, in their classes.
It is the end of an era for the three, who have now finished competing in the highest level of the sport. They have left their shoes on the mat, which is the modus operandi for retiring wrestlers.
Unfortunately, the rest of the team may have to go into retirement right along with them.
What these numbers failed to say is that the team accumulated double the points that they did in the previous year. They also had twice the number of wrestlers place than the previous year and more overall wins in bouts than they did the last two years combined at the championships.
And despite what would seem as a monumental loss when looking solely at the numbers, head coach Mike Haluska sees the competition as the highlight of the season. He is proud of his team.
“It would have been easy for them to give up,” he said. “Considering all of the things stacked against them since the beginning of the season.”
He is referencing the debacle that the team has had to endure this year over their perceived academic struggles and the resulting inquest into the team’s viability commissioned by PSU President Wim Wiewel. The times were also challenging on the mat, as the Vikings struggled within conference action.
For all the ups and downs and the still-to-be-determined fate of the program, the support from the student body has been “unbelievable” Haluska said.
Bubb says the peer support was most keenly felt when the ASPSU president attended a match after it came to light that the program might be axed.
“As the team continues to get better, more people will come,” Bubb said. “The team will continue to grow and do better if given the chance.”
More than additional money, Haluska said, support would help the team achieve the high goals they have already begun to set for themselves, and that support needs to come from the athletic department too, according to those currently invested in the program.
“A lot of the wrestlers feel that [athletic director] Torre Chisholm always says negative things about the team,” Bubb said.
Haluska himself feels that the athletic department simply doesn’t have time for the team after working through the other, more high profile sports.
But Bubb is quick to point out that the staff that work at the Stott Center are a pillar of support for the team, especially the academic and office staff.
Should the university president decide to eliminate the team, a part of Portland State culture and history could be lost.
But with the proper support and funding from the department, it is easy to believe the program would only keep developing and in time the numbers would catch up with the spirit of the team.