Wattenberg's Last Stop: 2003 National Championships
Joey Creighton

The man with arguably the most successful collegiate career of anyone to come out of Chico, CA is only days away from seeing it end. How it ends is up to him, as Clint Wattenberg heads to Kansas City, MO to compete in the 2003 Division 1 National Championships on Thursday, March 20th.

Clint takes on Greg Parker at the EIWA tournament (credit: amateurwrestlingphotos.com)

The three day wrestling extravaganza will be the final mark on Clint's collegiate wrestling experience, and if you ask him, you get about what you would expect from a guy ranked #4 in the nation.

"I'm going into this tournament with the goal to be named National Champion," said Clint, who is 35-3 on the season and seeded 4th in the tournament. Last year Clint finished sixth at the National Championships, earning All-America honors.

If the seeds hold true, Clint will find himself opposite Greg Parker of Princeton in the semifinals. Parker, ranked #3 at 184 lbs, has been two of Clint's three losses. He pinned him in their most recent meeting, at the EIWA Championships. Clint was leading 4-2 at the time of the pin, which occured with :35 left in the match.

Josh Lambrecht, the #6 seed, beat Clint last year 11-6, but lost to Clint THIS season 6-3. Assuming all the favorites win, these two will square off in the quarterfinals.

Jessman Smith of Iowa is the #1 seed. Jessman had won his and Clint's first three matchups, dating back to last year. However, at the NWCA All-Star Meet, their fourth and latest match, Clint pinned him at the end of the second period. If Clint can get by Lambrecht and Parker, and Smith wrestles to his seed, these two will see each other in the finals, wrestling for the most coveted honor in collegiate wrestling.

Clint however, isn't too hung up on the seeds.

"If I'm going to be a National Champion, I'm going to have to beat everybody anyway," he said, which is not technically correct, but gets his point across.

I'm trying to be as objective as possible, but I'm a pretty close, personal (huh huh) friend of Wattenberg who will there in person cheering him on. It's difficult to fathom just how far he's come from the high school nerd who wrestled at 152 lbs. There were high school wrestlers better than him in our state, but he's blown them away at the collegiate level, reaching unprecedented heights. And he's not done yet.

Even after he started wrestling for Cornell, I still hadn't figured it out. It wasn't my fault. He wrestled at 165 lbs and to be honest, his first season was kind of a blur. I don't even know if he started, since I wasn't able to follow it as well as I can today thanks to better websites. I know he won the Mat Jam Tournament because I was there in person, but if you asked me who he wrestled against, I wouldn't have known. Were they any good? I dunno.

Then, in late 1999, he horribly fucked up his knee, tearing all three ligaments and ending his season. He was miserable for a good couple weeks, then soon got over it despite nothing but a long and annoying road of rehab ahead of him.

The following season (00-01) found him back on the mat at 165 lbs, and he got ranked as high as 12 or so in the nation during the season. He had a disappointing showing at the 2001 EIWA Tournament though, which is what determines who goes to Nationals. He finished fifth and didn't qualify. On top of that, he injured his other knee. Not as bad, but still, it's not like your knees are real expendible parts of your body in wrestling.

Over the off-season it was decided that Clint would move up to 184 lbs, a whole two weights higher than where he had been. He was already very strong for his weight, but the 165 lb class was putting too much stress on his knees. The 184 guys would be slower. To say the least, Clint was thrilled, because he wouldn't have to cut weight anymore (or least as drastically) and that all he had to do over the summer was "eat and lift."

And then he proceeded to have an outstanding season, going 41-7, picking up All-American honors and going through the most competitive tournament in college wrestling without once being taken down.

He took that momentum and carried it into 2002-2003, posting the numbers you saw up above. Which leads us to now. A career mark of 115-30. A possible two-time All-American, possible 2003 National Champion. One of the best writers on this site.

And don't even get me STARTED on all his wiffleball accomplishments!

--Follow Clint at the 2003 National Championships, starting Thursday, March 20th and going through Saturday the 22nd--

themat.com
wrestlingmall.com
wrestlingreport.com/forums/eiwa.mv
www.ncaasports.com/wrestling/mens

Apparently ESPN2 will be doing a tape-delay broadcast of the finals on Saturday night.
And live audio feeds are pretty easy to find from one of the above sites.

(For local visitors, also note that PV grad ('99) Jeremiah Jarvis will also be competing at the National Championships at 157 lbs, wrestling for UC Davis. He's currently ranked 17th in the nation.)