Wrestlers’ climb to Olympics begins at South Point

Every year around this time the U.S. Open Wrestling Championships are held in Las Vegas. Usually the Convention Center is the site. This weekend it’s the South Point.

The Open Championships are significant because in many years they are the first rung on the Olympic ladder. This year they’re also an appetizer for the 2015 World Wrestling Championships at the Orleans Arena Sept. 7 through 12.

Yes, Grecos and Romans are coming from around the globe, as well as the top freestyle wrestlers. I’m told you don’t want to miss it.

Anyway, as soon as you set foot in the South Point on Thursday morning you couldn’t help but notice the American Grecos and Romans and freestylers.

Most were sporting backpacks. Some were congregating near Benny Binion’s statue. A lot were emerging from the corridor by the swimming pool. Maybe they had gone for a dip, or were checking out the local talent. More likely, they were just trying to make weight — there’s also a spa back by the South Point swimming pool.

Up in the equestrian arena and conference center, wrestling mats were spread out like area rugs at an Ikea showroom. Wrestlers in all shapes, sizes and kilos were grappling for position.

On the ground floor of the Priefert Pavilion, where they usually keep the rodeo livestock, wrestlers were sitting around on the floor, waiting to weigh in.

This is where I found Logan Stieber.

He was wearing scarlet and grey, which are the Ohio State colors. Next year, in Rio de Janeiro, he’ll most likely be wearing red, white and blue with stars and stripes — the Team USA Olympic Team colors and accents.

This Stieber kid looks tough. He weighs 65 kilos — around 143 pounds. He’s from Monroeville, Ohio, where he won four individual state championships. Then he went to Ohio State, where he won four NCAA individual championships, which is real hard to do. He led the Buckeyes to their first NCAA crown.

Pat Smith of Oklahoma State, Cael Sanderson of Iowa State, Kyle Dake of Cornell, Logan Stieber. These are the only wrestlers to have won four NCAA individual championships.

Whereas Stieber was 119-3 as a Buckeye, Sanderson was 159-0 as a Cyclone. Sanderson also won the gold medal at Athens in 2004. They put his picture on the Wheaties box.

Next to professional prizefighting, amateur wrestling might be the toughest sport there is. Ski jumping also can be difficult when one loses his balance on the big hill and goes hurtling over the edge, and I’m sure there are others. But there’s no place to hide in a boxing ring, or on the wrestling mat.

But whereas the best boxers can make $180 million on one night, or $120 million for losing and lying about an injury, amateur wrestlers will never make that kind of cash. They may make a little money, if they turn pro and join the UFC. But for the majority, even the very best, about the most to which one can aspire is to be on the Wheaties box.

Logan Stieber just wants to make the Olympic team.

He competes in a stacked weight division, which is why they had him pre-seeded sixth coming into the Open Championships.

“Stieber as a sixth seed ... is comical at best,” somebody posted on the USA Wrestling message board when the pre-seeds were announced May 1.

When they were listed after the official seeding meeting at the South Point on Thursday, Stieber was No. 3. Brent Metcalf was No. 1. Metcalf wrestled at Iowa; as a high schooler in Michigan, he was 228-0.

Former Hawkeyes and former Buckeyes don’t always see eye to eye, at least during football season. Had Metcalf and Stieber met in the later rounds, it could have been interesting.

Alas, Stieber lost 5-4 in the quarterfinals to Kellen Russell. It was an exciting match, and Russell is a former NCAA champion from Michigan — there’s that rivalry thing again — and a former Open winner. It was only a minor setback.

“I want to make the world team; I want to win Olympic gold medals,” Stieber said before weighing in. “That’s been my goal ever since I started wrestling, ever since I starting liking it.

“At this level, everyone’s really good. The guys at the top are all couple of times national champions. Maybe there’s a little target on my back, but I was ranked sixth here (coming in), so I’m not even the top guy ranked. There’s other guys who have a bigger target.”

I spoke to Lou Rosselli, one of Stieber’s coaches at Ohio State, and Bill Zadick, one of the national team coaches, and some other wrestling people about Stieber having won four NCAA titles, and his gold medal aspirations, and the target on his back.

Each predicted he was capable of hitting the bulls-eye on the international scene against the Russians and the Bulgarians and the Iranians and the other wrestling nations.

“Sure, we think he’s good enough to do it,” said Rosselli, who was wearing a Woody Hayes-style Ohio State coaching cap. “The weight class is very deep; there’s a lot of great competitors in there, so one match at a time, wrestle to his potential, and he can be in the thick of it.”

“The sky’s the limit for Logan Stieber,” said Zadick, who was wearing the red, white and blue. “He’s passionate; he loves what he’s doing out there.”

When I asked if Stieber was good enough to get his picture on a Wheaties box, Bill Zadick said “Yes, I think so.”

Zadick also wrestled at Iowa, for the legendary Dan Gable. His opinions about Wheaties boxes and other wrestling matters can be trusted.

Las Vegas Review-Journal sports columnist Ron Kantowski can be reached at rkantowski@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0352. Follow him on Twitter: @ronkantowski.