COLUMBIA - Every sport is a numbers game. Basketball, baseball, golf, track, they are all the same. Practice, play, repeat. Over and over and over and over.
Wrestling is no different. It is all about mat time. At last week's state wrestling championships here, more than two dozen qualifiers arrived with at least 50 matches on their 2008-09 resume. Lower the bar to, say, 45 matches, and the qualifiers who can reach that mark skyrockets. At least a hundred walk in with that many matches.
Devon Fenstermaker walked into the state meet with fewer matches than most wrestlers ring up in two busy weeks. The Seckman junior had been on the mat only 13 times this season when he climbed off the team bus at Mizzou Arena. Fenstermaker might have been in the doctor's office more times this season than he had been in the Jaguars' lineup.
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Wrestling is no different. It is all about mat time. At last week's state wrestling championships here, more than two dozen qualifiers arrived with at least 50 matches on their 2008-09 resume. Lower the bar to, say, 45 matches, and the qualifiers who can reach that mark skyrockets. At least a hundred walk in with that many matches.
Devon Fenstermaker walked into the state meet with fewer matches than most wrestlers ring up in two busy weeks. The Seckman junior had been on the mat only 13 times this season when he climbed off the team bus at Mizzou Arena. Fenstermaker might have been in the doctor's office more times this season than he had been in the Jaguars' lineup.
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