Osu’s Gutches Earns Top Seeding To Olympic Trials
Les Gutches felt ill before Saturday night’s title match. Kevin Jackson was feeling the pain afterward.
Gutches, the 23-year-old reigning NCAA wrestling champion from Oregon State, fought off a week’s worth of sickness to win the 180.5-pound freestyle title at Saturday night’s U.S. Nationals, beating Jackson, 31, the reigning Olympic titlist, before 3,567 in the Convention Center. With his 5-2 overtime win, Gutches became one of 10 wrestlers to earn top seeding for the U.S. Olympic Trials, to be held June 7-8 in Spokane.
“I actually felt terrible,” Gutches said. “I was sick and I’ve actually been recovering as the tournament went on. I felt like I had a lot going against me, but somehow I fought it off.”
The victory came with 10 seconds left in OT and was a breakthrough for Gutches, who beat Jackson for the first time in four tries. “I feel like, if anything, I’ve had to beat not only Kevin Jackson, but Kevin Jackson’s reputation. I really do feel like that. I felt like I got put down for a long time when I shouldn’t have and I actually felt like a couple of those calls could have went my way (Saturday night), where I think if it was Kevin, I think it would have been points for him.
“I’m not complaining about the refereeing. I’m not making any excuses. I’m saying that I had to work that much harder to win, I think, because of his experience and his reputation.”
Gutches took Jackson’s national title; Jackson borrowed Gutches’ closing argument.
“No, I don’t have a beef with the officials,” echoed Jackson, who then explained why, in his view, officials erred when they penalized him for fleeing the mat in the closing seconds. The decision allowed Gutches to select the up position when the match resumed, setting up the outcome.
“They know the deal, they know the situation,” Jackson continued. “They know, in a close match, sometimes guys get called for passivity, sometimes you get a chance to turn the guy on top. They know my style, they know what I do, they know I can turn (an opponent over). Therefore, they know if they put the guy down, I’ll turn him. Therefore, they won’t call him for passivity. Although he was a more aggressive wrestler, I think I maybe deserve at least one more caution. The referees wanted to make a call, they wanted to call it.”
While Jackson didn’t have a beef with the officials, Kendall Cross clearly had one with Terry Brands, his sometimes bitter rival at 125.5 pounds. Cross won his second straight national championship Saturday, prevailing 5-2, an outcome Brands would not accept. As Cross savored his win, Brands refused to come to the center of the mat, choosing instead to escape by leaping from the elevated surface. He returned, apparently inspired by the crowd’s hostile reaction.
“It took away from it,” said Cross, who defeated Brands for last year’s national title, only to lose two of three matches when Brands rebounded at the World team trials. “Terry Brands is an icon in our sport and he has done a lot of great things for our sport. And I just hate to see him act like that because a lot of kids look up to him.”
Cross said he is intent on making the Olympic team when the trials come to Spokane.
“I really honestly have felt that I have always been better (than Brands),” Cross said. “It’s just that he has taken me out of my game plan in the past. Today was completely different, but I still can do better. I can widen the margin. I can beat him worse. I’ve always been one to rise to the occasion, when it’s special, when it’s big. And I’m going to do that this year.”
Brands’ twin, Tom Brands, beat John Fisher at 136.5 pounds. In other title matches, 1988 Olympic champion Kenny Monday won at 163 and 1995 Sullivan Award winner Bruce Baumgartner defeated Tom Erikson 2-0 in OT.
, DataTimes