Tense. Nerve-racking. Horrible. Fun?
The blood round certainly does elicit some true emotion from wrestlers, even when they’re just talking about it.
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“It goes Battle Creek, then blood round,” Richmond senior Graham Barton said, ranking only the team state finals ahead of the blood round in terms of intensity. “The blood rounds, the whole atmosphere, the whole crowd is just intense. And the match, and everything – it’s fun.”
The consolation semifinals in regional tournaments — which were held Saturday — have earned the nickname of the blood round, a name fitting for the intensity of the matches it describes. Normally a round that goes largely unnoticed during the regular season, during the consolation semifinals at the regional, a win sends a wrestler to the Palace of Auburn Hills for the individual state finals — this season held March 5, 6 and 7 — while a loss ends an individual season.
The term blood round can be used in all three weeks of the postseason individual tournaments. While it’s intense in the district and state tournaments, neither has the combination of loss and gain that the regional does.
In the district, a loss in the blood round ends your season, denying you a chance move onto the regional. At the state meet, it’s the difference between placing or not. It’s also the consolation second round, not the consolation semifinals.
It’s during the regional, however, where the round makes the most dreams and breaks the most hearts.
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“That is a very cold round,” Richmond coach Brandon Day, who wrestled in it three times in the late 1990s, and has coached many wrestlers through it, said. “You watch great kids, who had great seasons, but say their weight class was just loaded. They were good enough to be state placers and they lose by a point in the blood round, you feel so horrible for that kid. They did everything right and it just doesn’t happen.
“Ed Henry (a 2007 Richmond graduate) in 2006, he was in the blood round, winning by 14, hammer locks the kid up and goes to turn him to his back, kid rolls through, catches him on his back and pins him. What do you say to that kid? Luckily for us, we have the team state finals. But in that moment, what do I say to that kid to get him out of that rut?”
Getting to the individual state tournament is the goal for any high school wrestler. While some are certainly aiming for state titles or placement, getting there gives everyone a chance, and it often plays out that way, no matter where one places at the regional.
Marysville’s Nino Bastianelli survived the blood round this past year, and finished fourth in the regional. Entering the state tournament as a freshman who would have to open with a regional champion (the state tournament is bracketed by a formula), there were no expectations for Bastianelli. But by winning in the blood round, he had given himself a chance, and he wound up taking advantage of it, knocking off New Boston Huron’s Judah Caballero in the first round, and eventually placing eighth. He very nearly made the semifinals, losing 9-6 in the quarters.
“I was pretty excited (after winning his blood round match), and pretty happy because I knew I was going to states,” Bastianelli said. “That was one of my goals last year.
“(Wrestling in the blood round and wrestling at the state tournament) is pretty close, tension-wise. I think the Palace is more nerve-racking, because there’s more eyes on you.”
Brady LaFore missed out on that chance a year ago, losing 10-3 in the blood round against Greg Stark of Armada. Stark, who had finished one place behind LaFore at the district, did as Bastianelli did, making the most of his opportunity and placing eighth at the state meet.
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That’s been a source of motivation for LaFore this season.
“It’s stressful — it’s pretty stressful,” LaFore said Wednesday of the blood round. “Especially this year, it would be even more stressful, because if I do go in the blood rounds, that will be my last time ever trying to go for individuals. It will be stressful. But you just have to go out there and wrestle. You can’t just have nerves and think about it.
“The main goal I want to do is I want to place in the state. If I can’t do that, then at least make it to the Palace. I don’t want to get eliminated at regionals again.”
All wrestlers agree that the trick to getting through is to treat it like any other match. That, of course, is easier said than done.
“It’s tense,” Barton, who won a blood round match as a freshman and lost one as a sophomore, said. “No matter what you do, you can’t really help being nervous. It’s how you handle the nerves. The trick is to go out there and do what you have to do, and not think of it as putting too much pressure on yourself.”
It’s not just those on the mat who feel that tension.
“I get really into the matches,” Marysville senior Austin Thompson, who wrestled in the blood round as a freshman at Port Huron Northern, but was a regional finalist as a junior and senior, said. “When kids from team get into tight situations like that, I always get pumped up for them.”
Contact Paul Costanzo at (810) 989-6251 or [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @PaulCostanzo.
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