Born with one leg, Arizona St. wrestler wins NCAA title

Arizona State's Anthony Robles reaches for Virginia's Matthew Snyder during their 125-pound first-round match at the NCAA Division I championships Thursday in Philadelphia.



AP photo

PHILADELPHIA  Arizona State's Anthony Robles hopped off the mat at the NCAA wrestling tournament after a perfect season. Penn State coach Cael Sanderson, familiar with perfect seasons, notched the Nittany Lions' first team title since 1953. And an ex-Penn Stater brought Arizona State another title with a pin of one of Sanderson's young stars.

Born with one leg, Robles took the 125-pound title Saturday night with a 7-1 win over defending champion Matt McDonough of Iowa. Robles' three-day performance here earned him the Outstanding Wrestler award.

For Robles, it was the finish to a 36-0 senior season and a journey begun when he took up wrestling as a high school freshman in Mesa, Ariz. He was anything but a dominator at the start.

"I was a terrible wrestler, only about 90 pounds, but my mom told me God made me for a reason, and I believe that reason was for wrestling," says Robles, who was given a standing ovation on the podium by a sellout crowd of 17,687 at the Wells Fargo Center.

The finals were held on a mat rolled out on an elevated platform on the floor of the arena. Before his match, Robles moved briskly up the platform stairs on his crutches. Then he placed the crutches down near his coaches' seats and hopped to center mat.

He took control in the first period, jumping out to a 7-0 lead with a two-point takedown and two turns that exposed McDonough's shoulders to the mat for five more points. Robles uses his gripping power on those turns.

"My tilting is due because I have such a strong grip, and that's because of my crutches," he said.

Robles said that a few weeks ago he took inspiration from re-reading letters he had received from an elementary school in Georgia.

"I wrestle because I love wrestling," he said. "But it inspires me when I get kids, even adults, who write me on Facebook or send me letters in the mail saying that I've inspired them, and they look up to me, and they're motivated to do things that other people wouldn't have thought possible."

Penn State's Sanderson went 159-0 during his wrestling career at Iowa State and coached there for three seasons.

He left to take over at Penn State, when in his second season the Nittany Lions have won their first NCAA team title in over a half century.

Penn State clinched the team title during Saturday's consolation finals, where it had two wrestlers place third.

The Nittany Lions sent a tournament high three wrestlers into the finals. They had one champion, sophomore Quentin Wright at 184 pounds. He beat top-seeded Christopher Honeycutt in Friday's semifinals, then defeated second-seeded Robert Hamlin of Lehigh in the final, 5-2.

Penn State's Frank Molinaro was beaten 8-1 in the 149-pound final by sophomore Kyle Dake of Cornell, who was the NCAA champ last year at 141. Dake put on a riding clinic, staying on top of Molinaro for 6:17 of the seven-minute match.

In the next match at 157 pounds, previously unbeaten Penn State freshman David Taylor was pinned in the second period by Arizona State's Bubba Jenkins.

Jenkins was an NCAA runner-up at Penn State in 2008, prior to Sanderson. He was dismissed from the Penn State squad last season.

"We had team rules, and he chose not to follow the rules, and so I dismissed him from the team," said Sanderson, without elaborating. "It's nothing personal. He's a great kid and I'm happy for him."

Jenkins held nothing back at his post-match press conference.

He said his match with Taylor wasn't personal, when it came to Taylor.

"Not towards David. Definitely towards Cael," said Jenkins. "He didn't think I was good enough or the right kid to win it all at that weight class or any weight class, and he got rid of me. And one man's trash is a whole country's treasure."

Sanderson and Penn State went home with their team title.

"We're the national champs, and that's something to be really happy about. I'm really, really proud of these guys," said Sanderson.

"We had some kids that didn't quite reach their goals. And so you just have to — I'm kind of focused on — you just got to focus on the positives."

With a champ, two runner-up and a two third-place finishers, Penn State scored 107.5 team points, followed by Cornell (93.5), Iowa (86.5), Oklahoma State (70.5) and American University of Washington, D.C. (65.0).