Too often, wrestling is considered an individual sport. In some respects, it is. However, there’s more team to it than given credit. The No. 4-ranked Ithaca College wrestling team, which has several of its 10 weight classes shared between two athletes, is a prime example of a wrestling team with a lot of “platoons.”

“Platoon” is a term often used in baseball, which means one of the eight fielding positions is split between two players throughout the season.

Usually, when a baseball team platoons two players, it is because they don’t have someone who can play every day. While in baseball a platoon is usually frowned upon, in wrestling the philosophy is much different.

“You want to do that at every weight,” Head Coach Marty Nichols said. “Hopefully you can do that at 10 weights. If you can do it in 10 weights, you’re in really good shape.”

When a specific weight class has more than one wrestler compete in it throughout the dual-match season, that usually means a team has depth at that spot, Nichols said.

This strategy has worked well  for All-Americans sophomore Seth Ecker and senior tri-captain Chad Winowich, who have only competed in half of the dual matches each.

Both Ecker, who competed at 125 pounds last season, and Winowich are listed at 133 pounds this season. Ecker bumped himself up a weight class heading into this campaign because he weighed closer to 133 coming in.

The Bombers have competed in 20 dual matches, and both Ecker and Winowich are 10–0.

“[Platooning] gives you a chance to heal up if you got something nagging you,” Winowich said. “Mentally, you can collect yourself … and refocus and go back out there when your name is called.”  

Nichols said it also helps with matchups. For example, having both Ecker and Winowich at the same class eliminates the chance of them having to wrestle against someone twice in a season.

From Ecker’s perspective, he has viewed sharing a weight class with Winowich as a chance to compete against somebody good in practice.

“Not everybody can practice with another All-American every day,” Ecker said.

Nichols said if wrestlers are sharing time at a specific weight class, they will become better. He said that if one wrestler in a weight class progresses, they all will.

Ecker and Winowich aren’t the only two Bombers who platoon at a particular weight class.

Senior tri-captain Joe Goetz and sophomore Matt Mahon split time at the heavyweight spot. Freshman Derek Brenon and senior John Dale have split appearances at 165, and freshman Josue Mendez and junior David Priest have also done so at 174.

“We’ve done more this year than any year because we have more depth than we’ve had,” Nichols said.

Ecker said the unity on the team is something that has stood out throughout the season.

“This year the sense of team is definitely greater than a lot of the teams I’ve been on,” he said.

Nichols said it’s no easy task to get guys with this type of talent agreeing to share appearances with fellow teammates. But in the Bombers’ case, it’s about the team first and the individual second.

“We’ve got some pretty mature guys,” Nichols said. “They understand what we’re trying to do. They know we’re trying to be National Champs. We want them to get better.”