When in 2022, 24-year-old Gable Steveson thought he had had enough of wrestling, he was wrong. That was not the end and he returned stronger than before. But now the end may actually be here. Entering the Maturi Pavilion last Friday, for the very last time Steveson donned the Gophers’ colors at his home. As the Minnesota Gophers faced off against the Iowa Hawkeyes, 5,307 people watched with bated breath as the world stood still.

Now, despite the crowd’s tension, wrestling seems to be quite easy for Gable Steveson. Facing off against No.11 Ben Kueter, Steveson took just 2 minutes and 48 seconds to register a 19-3 technical fall victory. This emphatic win took the tally of Steveson’s wins to 63. Unfortunately for Steveson, despite his jaw-dropping feats on the mat, Minnesota Golden Gophers, did not secure a victory. In fact, facing off against Iowa, the Gophers incurred their eleventh straight defeat with a 23-11 scoreline. 

Suffice it to say that the Minnesota Gophers were not happy about it. However, after the game was over, significant complaints about the manner in which the match was officiated were brought to limelight by the Gophers’ head coach. Right from the beginning, it was quite obvious that the officials were taking quite a conservative approach. Their lack of enthusiasm to award points to either of the wrestlers had a significant impact on the matchups. 

For example, the eighth-ranked Vance VomBaur would probably have gotten a technical fall if the officials were not so conservative. In the end, the 141-pound wrestler walked away with a 14-10 victory, earning three team points. Looking at the officiating, Gophers’ head coach, Brandon Eggum seemed frustrated. He opined that even his own wrestlers should have been called for ‘stalling.’ Venting out his frustrations, Eggum stated, “I never want to win a match based on a call, but at 157 [pounds], the kid was retreating a lot. And that, you know, makes it difficult. You lose your composure. You keep walking, and that’s what happened.”

Eggum particularly seemed concerned with the 157-pound match where Tommy Askey and Jacori Teemer lock horns. With Askey suffering the loss, Eggum stated that he was walking most of the time, which made it difficult for his wrestler to catch up. “We walked right into a shot, but you keep doing that for seven minutes…you know, we kept reminding him, but that’s good for Askey to kind of remember that,” Eggum opined. Meanwhile, with a swarm of complaints coming from the Minnesota camp, their only silver lining, Olympic champion Steveson’s confidence in the team is as good as before!

Gable Steveson puts his belief in the Gophers

Surely, what Eggum stated holds weight. Initially, Askey led the match 1-0. He also clinched the first points of the match to commence the second period with an escape. Now, with Teemer stalling, had Askey been awarded a point, it would have enabled Gophers to win the match and give him enough opportunities to secure a pinfall. Nonetheless, even after the loss, Steveson is not losing hope. 

The Indiana native shared his thoughts on the subject with the Star Tribune, “Just coming back was a great thing for the team, and I feel like they believed in it. I believed in it, too.” Looking ahead, Steveson wants to bring his best to the table in his remaining two tournaments. “I’ve got two more tournaments, and I’m going to bring the hammer,” he added. Dominating his way into the NCAA wrestling realm, Steveson will now look to impress in the Big Ten Championships starting March 8-9. Thus, gathering a mixed feeling from his final home game, it now remains to be seen how the 24-year-old wrestling sensation and the Gophers perform in the future.