Washington standing tall
With support from former Portage teammate and Griffith graduate, Indiana standout returns from injury to qualify for NCAA Tournament
Donnell Washington joked that he had a headache.
The Indiana redshirt junior was disappointed after finishing eighth in the 174-pound weight class at the Big Ten Tournament over the weekend.
But Washington, a 2019 Portage graduate, also appreciates any opportunity he gets to be on the mat, especially after the year he has had.
So he wasn’t sure how to feel.
“It’s a lot of Advil,” he said with a laugh. “I’m still trying to piece things together. We’ll get out there again in a few weeks.”
Washington was referring to the NCAA Tournament, which begins March 16 in Tulsa, Oklahoma. After receiving an at-large bid on Wednesday, he will wrestle there for the third time in his career with a No. 17 seed among the 33 wrestlers in the bracket at 174.
Washington (23-7) is ranked No. 15 nationally by both InterMat and FloWrestling. He went 13-9 last season, although the final two months were marred by an injury he suffered during a dual meet against Purdue on Jan. 29, 2022.
“I finished the season, but it wasn’t that great,” he said.
Washington qualified for the 2022 NCAA Tournament. But two weeks after the season ended, he underwent surgery to repair a torn lateral collateral ligament and a tibial fracture, a procedure that put four screws and two wires in his left leg. Washington wasn’t allowed to bend that leg for three months.
“That was pretty rough,” he said. “There were a lot of treatments. It was a long process. But I just leaned on our coaches and trusted the process.”
Indiana coach Angel Escobedo, a 2005 Griffith graduate, said the staff encouraged Washington during every step of that arduous process.