Reaction to defeat

Minutes after Jake Varner's loss in the 184-pound finals, members of the media converged on Cael Sanderson to question him after the team's fifth-place finish.
Sanderson didn't know of the team's final placement and hadn't spoke to Varner. But the second-year coach gave his reaction to the conclusion of his standout pupil's defeat.
"Obviously he's upset; he's a competitor. You know, he wrestled hard, you know. He's got nothing to hang his head about. He's got to get ready, keep his head up and get ready for next year," Sanderson said. "I mean, he had a great year. He's going into his junior year - he's a two-time NCAA finalist, you know, that doesn't happen very often.
“He's a great leader for our team; he's doing a phenomenal job. I'm extremely proud of him, and I told him that going in, you know, just go out there and wrestle hard, and he did. You know, he was real close. It's sports, sometimes the ball doesn't roll your way."
Varner's loss cast a distinctly somber the ISU wrestling team's 2008 NCAA Tournament. Sanderson, assistant coach Tim Hartung, and several wrestlers thought the team performed well, but just did not finish as well as hoped.
Here are several other thoughts from Sanderson, Hartung, and 141-pounder Nick Gallick, who finished fifth.

Iowa State assistant coach Tim Hartung
HIS FEELINGS ON THE TOURNAMENT
"Seven All-Americans is something to be proud of. I think it would have helped a lot of our guys in that round of All-American last year to break through, because it changes your expectations this year. Everybody, I think, coming in always says they want to be a national champion, which I'm sure they all do, but realistically it's hard to take that first step into being a national champ without being in that top-8, so I think it would have helped Zabriskie, Fanthorpe and Sanderson if they could have gotten in there last year.
But, you know, we always just ask the best effort out of these guys. We always try to keep it simple. And up and down the line we can't fault the guys on their effort. There is work to be done: guys have to get better, take care of different areas, whether it is anxiety and nerves and stress, or whether it is learning better skills for offensive attacks, but what are you going to do. Everyone else wrestled well too. I mean, you come in against a team like Iowa, which was the favorite, and they would have had to falter. And they - you look at them individually in weight classes. I'm sure they would have liked to do better in some weights, but didn't falter as a team. They wrestled well, and that's how it ended up. And a lot of other programs did the same. Ohio State, they were looking real good.”
“Our guys wrestled hard, and we have a young team, so we have a great nucleus of six All-Americans coming back next year, so it's just back to the drawing board right away."

ON COMING BACK NEXT SEASON
If you don't get what you want right now, you look to what you can do next year. The thing that sucks is that it is 360-some days [until the next NCAA Tournament], but that's the way athletics go. You've just got to use the experience that you gained this year and come back next year with maybe a more solid belief that this team can win and each individual can win, and come back and swing the bat again and see what happens.

ON JAKE VARNER
He works extremely hard. He deserved to win just as much as the other guy did, but when it comes down to it - and you can always say this and that - but when it comes down to it, you've got to score points. You've got to go take attacks. And even though he was moving [Pucillo] and really out-attacking him, there was another level there and [Varner] knows that and I'm sure he'll work on it and he'll come back swinging next year. I wouldn't want to draw him next year. He'll be on a mission next year — like he was this year — but he’s going to go back and work and get better. I guess the silver lining is he's got two more shots at it.

Ohio State 184-pounder Mike Pucillo
ON HIS FEELING FOR RIDING TIME IN THE SECOND TIEBREAKER
Not really one, two, three, but I knew roughly what 15 seconds feels like, what 10 seconds feels like. They actually stopped it when there was two seconds to go in the riding time, and I knew all I had to just hold for his first move. After I stopped the first move, I kenw I was ok on the riding time. I felt pretty confident he wasn't going to take me down, so I wasn't going to take any chances there.

ON HIS STRATEGY
I figured I could beat him at his own game. He's pretty good on top. I’m pretty good on bottom.


Iowa State head coach Cael Sanderson
ON THE TOURNAMENT
Iowa had an incredible year, and they really had a great tournament too and did an outstanding job. I think they obviously have a ton to be proud of … We're excited and looking forward to the future. I mean we're going to have some good teams coming. We're going to get better every year. We knew that, we knew that a couple years ago. It's my job to make sure that happens.

ON IOWA STATE’S PERFORMANCE
We had a great group of kids. Seven All-Americans — I mean, that’s pretty dang good. We're pretty happy about that. We just didn't do some things that it takes to do real well at a national tournament and that's get bonus points, you know, win some of those close matches in the championship brackets. I don't know if we had more than one or two bonus points in the whole [tournament], but that's part of having a young team and those are things that will come for us. So yeah, this team, they improved a lot. Seven All-Americans, you know, we've just got to step it up a little bit and get them higher up on the podium where they're scoring a few more points. But I'm proud of these guys. They wrestled hard. They all fought, they competed hard and we've got a lot to work with.

ON HOW VARNER WAS DEALING WITH THE LOSS
I haven't really talked to him yet. Obviously, he’s upset; he's a competitor. You know, he wrestled hard, you know. He's got nothing to hang his head about. He's got to get ready, keep his head up and get ready for next year. I mean he had a great year. He's going into his junior year, he's a two-time NCAA finalist, you know — that doesn't happen very often. He's a great leader for our team; he's doing a phenomenal job. I'm extremely proud of him, and I told him that going in, you know, just go out there and wrestle hard, and he did. You know, he was real close. It's sports, sometimes the ball doesn't roll your way.

ON REGROUPING AFTER A 1-for-7 QUARTERFINAL ROUND
We meet before every round. It was tough quarterfinal round for us. We knew to really compete we had to get some upsets, and we didn't, you know. We had some close calls, but that round of 12 [in consolations] is where we really had a great round and it brought us out of 12th or 11th place … These guys they pulled together as a team when they needed to. We just needed to win a couple more close matches to really be able to get up there.

ON VARNER’S CLOSE LOSS
Yeah, it’s tough, it’s tough, but those things happen. You've just got to keep things in perspective. This isn't life and death; this is a game. You know, Jake works extremely hard. He's going to do some amazing things, and he already has being a two-time finalist as a sophomore, you know. He has got a lot to be proud of.

Iowa State 141-pounder Nick Gallick
ON HIS IMPROVEMENT DURING THE SEASON
I had a slow start to the season. I had some stuff I needed to work on. A couple of us maybe needed to grow into the weight class a little more, but I think we did. We lifted hard and worked hard, and it paid off.

ON THE TEAM’S 7-for-7 PERFORMANCE IN THE ROUND TO BE ALL-AMERICANS
I’m impressed but I'm not surprised. We work hard all year for the second and third day. That’s what we're best at. Our conditioning is great. That was the big improvement I think, with everybody. 7-0 — I think other teams get tired as the tournament goes on. Not us.

ON HIS FIFTH-PLACE FINISH
I mean, I feel like I could have done better. I think I didn't wrestle very well in my quarters match. Improvements I need to make — still working on bottom. I think on my feet — I'm really comfortable on my feet with everybody. I'm comfortable on bottom now; I've improved a lot on it. But I think I need to keep working on it — top and bottom, even on my feet. There is definitely a lot of room for improvement.

ON BUILDING OFF OF THIS SEASON
There is definitely stuff to build off coming into next year. There are a lot of returners that are back that are going to be tough. There are a lot of guys that didn't place that are tough and are coming back next year, so we’re going to be tough. Never satisfied.