Stanford’s Griffin wins NCAA title in wrestling
Sophomore wins NCAA wrestling title while he, his teammates try to keep program alive
Stanford’s Shane Griffith had extra motivation on his way to winning the 165-pound national championship in the NCAA wrestling tournament over the weekend.
He and his Cardinal teammates were in St. Louis battling for something bigger than winning wrestling matches. They were fighting to keep their wrestling program alive.
Facing mounting revenue losses during the pandemic, Stanford announced in July it would be dropping wrestling and 10 other sports at the end of the school year in order to save money.
When the eighth-seeded Griffith pulled off the upset on the mat, beating third-seeded Jake Wentzel of Pittsburgh in the finals, it may have been the final wrestling match in the history of Stanford’s program.
The crowd at Enterprise Center, which knew Stanford’s plight and had seen Griffith and the Cardinal wrestlers wearing “Keep Stanford Wrestling” hoodies throughout the weekend, began chanting “Keep Stanford Wrestling” as a victorious Griffith walked off the mat.
“I have received so much support here, and I’m just hoping for the best,” said Griffith, a redshirt sophomore from New Jersey who was named Outstanding Wrestler of the tournament. “I want to make this nationally known. We have young guys staying and fighting the battle.”
Griffith admitted he wasn’t always sure it would even be worth even competing in what appeared to be a lost season for he and the Cardinal.
“I was actually not planning on wrestling this season, given our circumstances at Stanford,” Griffith said. “It just seemed unfeasible to get where I wanted
to be in time. Then along the way I was talking to coaches, staying motivated, trusting the process almost, kind of cliché.
“In the middle of the night one night I just texted my dad. I said, ‘You know what, we’re not gonna question it. We’re gonna rip it and we’re gonna win NCAAs this year.’ And he said, ‘All right, buddy, I’m going with you.’ ”
At the end of this year’s journey, Stanford’s wrestlers competed in the national championship while wearing simple black singlets with no school logos as a form of protest against the university’s decision.
“Just some more motivation to go along with it,” Griffith said.
Yet, the efforts to keep the program alive have hardly been passive. Wrestling alumni at Stanford have launched fundraising efforts to try to endow the program, and have raised a reported $12.5 million toward that goal, according to The Associated Press.
Other Stanford sports on the chopping block due to budget cuts include men’s and women’s fencing, field hockey, men’s rowing, lightweight rowing, sailing, squash, synchronized swimming and men’s volleyball.
It’s difficult to say where the efforts to retain wrestling and any other sports go from here, but Griffith is glad to have helped raise awareness while perhaps going out in style.
“I don’t know. I think I played my role here,” he said. “Hopefully this is a big turnaround in their decision.”