COLUMN: Trenge sees his future clearly – Saturday is his last wrestling day
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John Fuller (TheMat.com)
03/16/2005
He has dodged bottles being thrown on the playing surface. He's run into the stands to stop a fight. He's been disqualified for throwing a punch at one of his opponents. He even had to take anger management classes. Now, he is facing retirement. And that is just in one season. No, "he" does not refer to Ron Artest or any athlete in the NBA. Instead, "he" is Jon Trenge, Lehigh's 197-pound phenom that is now in his last year of college wrestling competition. Did I mention he has two bad eyes? Trenge is the leader of what Lehigh head coach Greg Strobel calls his greatest team yet. "Jon's had an interesting career," Strobel says of the two-time NCAA runner-up. "Interesting" would be an understatement. And that will include Trenge's retirement on Saturday afternoon, no matter what his finish is at this NCAA Tournament. Why retire at such a young age? Trenge is just hitting stride it seems. He is almost a lock to become a three-time All-American. Last summer, while taking an Olympic Redshirt from Lehigh, Trenge placed fourth at the 2004 U.S. Olympic Team Trials. It was the highest finish at the Olympic Trials ever for a Lehigh underclassman, and the top wrestler at his weight, Daniel Cormier, went on to place fourth at the Olympic Games. Trenge will retire because of a problem that first started right before the NCAA Tournament his freshman year of college. Just before the 2001 EIWA Championships, Trenge's season ended when he required laser eye surgery to repair a detached and torn retina. For Trenge, so much of the ending of that season was disappointing. He was 35-3 on the year and ranked in the top three in the country in every major poll. At the end of the year, Trenge reflected on a lost opportunity, as he watched Oklahoma State's Mark Munoz defeat Illinois' Pat Quirk in the NCAA finals. Trenge had defeated both of them in the regular season. As a sophomore, Trenge continued his great success. After winning the EIWA title, he tore the retina in his other eye. It seemed like a disaster. Another season ruined because of a freak injury - for a second straight year. The odds of tearing a retina in each eye, one year right after the other, are about the same as me winning an NCAA title. Very slim. But Lehigh coaches and the training staff found a pair of goggles that could be worn by Trenge while he competed. He then proceeded to compete in the NCAA Tournament where he placed second to Cael Sanderson, who was finishing his career undefeated. In fact, three of Trenge's four losses that year came to Sanderson. The scene was set for Trenge's junior season, one in which he was supposed to reach the pinnacle of the NCAA ladder. And after winning his second straight EIWA title, the top-seeded Trenge earned his second straight trip to the NCAA finals. Leading 3-1 heading into the third period against Minnesota's Damion Hahn, Trenge gave up two takedowns, the second with just three seconds left in the match to lose 5-4. The disappointment was hard for Trenge. But before last season, he had decided that his eyes could not take the punishment of everyday wrestling for five more years - what it would take to train for the 2008 Olympic Games. Instead, Trenge took and Olympic Redshirt, even though with him in the lineup, Lehigh would have made a very strong run at winning an NCAA team title. He fared well, knowing that it was his last opportunity to compete in the Olympics. Trenge's final season was to be a celebratory year. Instead, he was greeted with cheap shots by his opponents. Numerous times opponents would tug at Trenge's goggles, most likely with the knowledge that Trenge cannot compete with the eyewear. Trenge has lost three matches this season. Two of those are due to disqualification. After what he felt was a lack of calls against rough play in a match with Penn State's Joel Edwards, Trenge drove Edwards to a hardwood floor well out of bounds. The disqualification incited Trenge's father to throw a bottle of water onto the mat from the stands. At the time, Trenge plowed through the stands to calm his father down, though many did not know it was his father. To most fans, it was a re-enactment of the Pistons-Pacers melee. In a separate incident, after Trenge called a timeout in a match against Minnesota's Matt Koz, he was charged by his opponent, and in one motion, Trenge threw a punch at Koz, getting disqualified once again. Strobel suspended Trenge while anger management courses were taken by the Lehigh senior. "We've had him do a lot of education things and some anger management. He's under pretty good control now," Strobel says. Now, Trenge is walking into the NCAA Tournament as the top seed for the second time. He is in what many college coaches have called the deepest weight class in the country, and to win a national title, he will have a 2003 NCAA finalist and a 2003 NCAA champion to go through among others. Trenge will go down as one of the greatest wrestlers in Lehigh history. He has 128 career wins versus only 13 losses. He was the fastest to reach 100 wins in school history, and this year he became the first Lehigh wrestler to ever win two Midlands titles. Even with bad eyes, it will not be hard for Trenge to reflect on his career with pride. Many in the wrestling community have always felt that winning an NCAA title is somewhat of a career award for time well served. If that is the case, then a Trenge coronation on Saturday is to be expected.