Gold and Black is a multi-platform media company that covers Purdue athletics like no one else.
Issue link: http://read.uberflip.com/i/405025
122 ILLUSTRATED VOLUME 25, ISSUE 2 f SABATELLO HOPES DROP DOWN PUSHES PRODUCTION UP D anny Sabatello had a revelation while he was eating fast food over the summer: If I can eat this and drink pop and still make weight at 141 pounds, why not just drop down a weight class to 133? "I started watching what I was eating and cut off pop and my weight went down a little bit," Sabatello said. "If you're going to be all in, be all in. I just decided if I could go 133 and be big, strong and perform well, then let's do it. So far, my weight's been good and I feel good. " Sabatello hopes the drop in weight class will help him build off of a breakout sophomore campaign that saw him double his win total from 11 to 22 and lead Purdue in decisions (19) and backpoints (35) and place second in wins (22) and takedowns (73). "Last season I totally bought into the Big Ten college wrestling system," Sabatello said. "My first couple of years I might have made mistakes and gotten off track, but last year I was fully bought in on getting better each practice. As the season went on, I just continued to make strides." Sabatello exceeded expectations in his first sea- son as a stalwart in Purdue's lineup with upset wins over No. 18 Laike Gardner of Lehigh, No. 8 Steven Ro- drigues of Illinois and No. 14 Joey Lazor of Northern Illinois. He won nine of his first 12 matches with the three losses coming to top-five wrestlers and emerged victorious in six of his final seven matches of the reg- ular season. Teammate Braden Atwood said Sabatello expected to win every match regardless of the opponent's ranking. "He's not said to be the best wrestler, but he'll go out there and take it to whoever he's wrestling," Atwood said. "To me, that's more than you can ask for." Sabatello eighth-place finish in the Big Ten Cham- pionships earned him an at-large bid to his first career NCAA Championships, fulfilling a lifelong dream. He was one of just three Boilermakers to qualify. "Right when I got there, I was all jacked up," Sabatel- lo said. "The butterflies were sinking in and everything, being on the mat with all the great people there and all the people who have come before me in history wres- tling in that tournament. It was pretty exciting." Sabatello's stay at the NCAA Championships didn't last long. He held a 3-0 lead over Minnesota's sixth-ranked Chris Dardanes before a takedown and riding time from the second period tied the match at 3-3 and sent it into sudden victory. Eight seconds in, Dardanes promptly de- feated Sabatello with a takedown. The loss pushed Sa- batello into the consolation round where he fell to N.C. Purdue The top four Big Ten wrestlers at 133 pounds graduated. Danny Sabatello thinks his move to that weight class could have him back in the NCAAs.