Going Out on Top
3/31/2020 10:09:00 AM | Wrestling
KENT, OHIO- Tim Rooney was one of hundreds of thousands of student-athletes who saw their respective seasons cut short. While the end of his championship season was taken away from the fifth-year senior, one thing was given to him, the distinction of going out as a champion.
It's a fitting title for him. The Columbus, Ohio native is the consummate student-athlete. A consistent All-Conference performer both on the wrestling mat and in the classroom, Rooney won 112 matches in his career, carrying a 3.8 grade-point average. While his red-shirt senior season had an a-typical ending, it was business as usual for the exercise science major for much of the season.
"When I wasn't training, you could probably find me in our lab," Rooney said. "It's crazy now to think that just days ago my life was blood tests and wrestling. We had learned about this virus in its early stages but never thought it would have this kind of impact."
The regular season had been a grind for Rooney and the Golden Flashes. A team heavy on under-classmen, the Flashes embarked on a lengthy schedule to get wrestlers the experience they needed for the conference season.
"We wrestled 18 dual meets plus a number of tournaments," Coach Jim Andrassy said. "We asked Tim and the seniors to do a lot from both a wrestling and leadership standpoint. Towards the end of the season, we realized we needed to do what was best for our wrestlers on an individual level and started to give them time off."
Tim didn't wrestle at the Cleveland State Open and missed the regular season finale against Clarion. Those breaks were needed. The grind of making weight, training, class and wrestling were taking its toll.
"I pretty much freaked myself out before every dual meet," Rooney said. "I knew that I was good enough to beat most wrestlers, so I put a bunch of undue pressure on myself that just built throughout the season."
If you just watched him wrestle, you'd never know there were other factors at play. Rooney just kept winning. He picked up three top-30 wins in the second half of the season, pushing his ranking up the charts. Entering February, he was a consensus top-20 wrestler at 133 pounds. Riding an eight-match winning streak, everything came to a screeching halt with a last-second loss on his senior night against Cleveland State.
"Every match to that point was a little more paralyzing," Rooney remembers. "I was able fight through until that Cleveland State match where I could barely move."
That's what made the upcoming tournament so freeing. It served as a respite of sorts for Tim, a light at the end of the tunnel. The demands of dual meets, rankings and records were all but gone and his focus could solely shift to wrestling and his number-one seed in the 133-pound bracket.
"I thought the MAC tournament was the best-case scenario for Tim," coach Andrassy said. "He didn't have a lot of dual match experience when he came to school, that has never been his strongest area. The tournament setup really plays to his strengths."
With the MAC expanding to 15 teams, it increased the number of available spots for the National Tournament, the top-five wrestlers would automatically qualify at 133 pounds.
"Going into the tournament, my entire focus was using it as a steppingstone to Nationals," Rooney said. "I didn't care if I was first, third or fifth, so long as at the end of the weekend, I was heading to Minneapolis, that's all I cared about."
That mentality proved huge for Rooney as he and the team headed west to Northern Illinois University for the two-day conference tournament. Flanked by friends and teammates Jake Ferri and Raphael Rodriguez, Rooney was as loose as he could remember heading into the event.
"I kept those two by my side through the weekend," Rooney remembers. "Both of them can make me laugh and keep me loose, you need that in tournaments."
Rooney knocked off Drew Marten of Central Michigan 9-3 in the opening round. It was a solid win for Rooney as Marten would go on to finish third overall. The win set up a rematch with Justin Patrick of Cleveland State, the last wrestler to beat him in the regular season.
"I knew there was a good chance I would see Justin (Patrick) in the tournament, he's a good wrestler," Rooney recalls. "I also knew that if I stayed relaxed and focused, the wrestling would take care of itself."
The wrestling did just that as the top-ranked Rooney advanced to the semis after a 6-3 victory, avenging the earlier-season loss. More importantly, the victory put him one win away from that coveted berth to Nationals. That next match would not be easy as Lock Haven's DJ Fehlman owned a top-30 ranking and had 23 wins on the season.
"DJ was one of the wrestlers I was excited about entering the MAC when it expanded," Rooney said. "His talent would bring another spot in Nationals for the conference. I kept telling myself just one more match, because I knew this one wouldn't be easy."
The 133 semi-final was a defensive struggle. Fehlman kept his distance throughout regulation and the scoring was limited to an escape for each wrestler. The first extra period mirrored regulation, each wrestler scoring an escape and nothing more, it was on to the second overtime.
"I love the finality of the sudden victory and I have been historically very good in overtime," Rooney said. "Overtime doesn't change what I do, only when I do it. I knew that I would need to pick up the pace in the second overtime and see if he could match my quickness."
Fehlman continued his defensive approach and wasn't ready for the increased tempo. Rooney increased the movement in the second overtime and eventually got Fehlman to open up. The senior took advantage and secured a take down and the 4-2 overtime win. A spot at Nationals had been secured and a trip to the MAC championship match awaited. Rooney jumped to his feet and let out a scream of unbridled excitement. That titular image would be one of the great photos from the tournament.
The ultimate goal had been accomplished; Rooney had earned a spot at the National tournament. Now all that stood in the way of a MAC tournament title was a rematch with Allan Hart of Missouri on championship Sunday.
"I knew that winning a MAC championship would be big for him, the school, the program, even if he didn't know it, especially with the MAC expanding and Missouri traditionally dominating," Coach Andrassy said. "I knew that since he didn't have to worry about qualifying and could just focus on wrestling, that he would have a good shot beating Hart again."
Hart and Rooney had met once before as a part of the dual meet at Kent on January 19th. Rooney picked up his second fall of the season in that match. He caught Hart on a shot late in the third period, swinging what had been a defensive, back-and-forth contest.
"I've known Allan for some time," Rooney said. "I don't like the forced animosity and stigma that wrestling can have, Allan and I are going to be boys afterwards, regardless of the result."
Hart would take a similar approach as DJ Fehlman and one that mirrored his strategy from the first meeting. A long, lanky wrestler for 133 pounds, the sophomore would keep his distance and seemed unwilling to get into an upper-body battle with Rooney. The defensive struggle again provided just a solitary escape point for each wrestler. For the second-straight match, Rooney would head into his beloved overtime.
In a brilliant piece of gamesmanship, Rooney got Hart into a similar position as the first dual. Hart was bracing himself for an attempted throw, the moved that solidified the fall in the first meeting. While he prevented the throw, he played right into Rooney's hand, who immediately countered with a takedown move that secured a 3-1 victory and the MAC championship. Coach Andrassy jumped to his feet, a robust cheering section went wild, but Tim had a grin on his and gave a simple thumbs up to his supporters.
"People were happier than I was after I won, "Rooney recalled. "To me, the title would have been something that may have come along the way to qualifying, which was the ultimate goal. Now that it's over, it still hasn't sunk in yet, I don't know if it ever will."
Rooney, fellow qualifier Andrew McNally (174 pounds) and the team took the next two days off, a scheduled break from the grind of the tournament. That Tuesday night news broke that the Mid-American Conference basketball tournament would not be open to the general public. It was the first of several dominoes to fall in rapid fashion. The team still held Wednesday's planned practice, remaining under the belief that the National Tournament would be held in some capacity.
"In my mind, I thought they'd (the NCAA) do whatever it took to hold the championships," Coach Andrassy said. "I knew that the NCAA wanted to hold every championship because of the media revenue, I and the team continued to believe they would do whatever possible to hold the events."
News soon followed that the championships were still planned, but were going to be held without fans, news that was a bigger blow to Tim than no tournament at all.
"I love a big crowd, it's my favorite part of the season whether it was at the state, conference or national level," Rooney said. "I wanted to be able to compete for 25,000 fans but especially my dad and my family one more time. A lot of people think he (father Tim) is a big-time wrestling dad. That couldn't be further from the truth, he doesn't even know the names of the moves. He just thinks that what wrestling has allowed me to do, where it allowed me to go, is the coolest thing in the world."
The team gathered earlier than normal on Thursday for another practice, still holding out hope that the National Championship would still be held. News quickly started to come down of the cancelations of various conference basketball tournaments. First the Big-10, then the SEC and moments later the MAC. Cancelation of the National Tournaments seemed inevitable.
"I found out about the tournament like everyone else, I found out in real time," Coach Andrassy said." I think we knew it was coming, but then our guys starting texting and talking about it. I never got the chance to tell the guys individually."
For Rooney, the official news came down as he was pulling into meet his girlfriend and Jake Ferri for dinner, in the form of an alert on his cell phone. His wrestling career was officially over, news that he had bracing himself for over those final days of the season.
"I probably cried for a few minutes, then haven't been sad about it since," Rooney said. "I can't control why it's being canceled. While I'm disappointed that I didn't get to wrestle, I know that I went out having the most fun I had wrestling in a long time, in front of friends and family and not an empty arena."
The senior admits that he's ready to move on, knowing full well that a person his size should not weigh 133 pounds. The exercise science major now turns his attention to physician's assistant school at Baldwin Wallace, a Division-III school in nearby Berea, Ohio. While the two-year program will be incredibly intensive, Rooney doesn't plan on distancing himself from the sport he loves.
"Most people binge on Netflix, I watch wrestling videos," Rooney chuckled. "My love of the sport is weird to most people. I've reached out to the Baldwin-Wallace coaches and will help out as much as I can, even if it's just working with guys in practice."
Rooney will have a lot in common with the Yellow Jacket wrestlers. Baldwin Wallace captured their second regional title in three years before their season came to a halt before the National Tournament. It's a fitting transition for Rooney, a championship wrestler now working with a championship team.
Players Mentioned
