By Mike Finn

The way Minnesota coach J Robinson looked at it, making the World Team was a perfect goal for Dustin Schlatter … even though the Gopher wrestler had not competed in freestyle in nearly four years.

            “He won the (Ohio) state tournament as a freshman. He won the Junior Nationals as a sophomore. He won the NCAAs as a freshman,” cited Robinson, who brought Schlatter from Massillon, Ohio, where he was a four-time state champion before winning an NCAA title for the Gophers as a true freshman in 2006. “He’s always done everything ahead of his class.”

            That was the case at the recent World Team Trials where he defeated home-town favorite Travis Paulson in the Championship Series. It is true that Schlatter benefited from having his ball color pulled four straight times by an official to determine offensive advantage in a leg clinch. It should also be noted that Schlatter had suffered plenty himself the past year; dating back to the 2008 NCAA tournament, when he finished seventh amidst a season of injuries.

            “I think I needed a break,” said Schlatter, whose career record at Minnesota is 100-7. “I was batting a couple of injuries that year and the year before. I needed to take a step back and focus on what I needed to work on.”

            That is when Schlatter and Robinson eventually agreed that the Gopher redshirt the 2008-2009 college season. But how would Schlatter spend the winter?

            “We kind of used the idea, ‘Why don’t you make the World Team this year?’” recalled Robinson. “It would be hard to do. Not many have done it. It turned out to be a really good motivator for him.  It was a different level. He had to train hard to get there.”

            Schlatter, who earned his three All-American honors — he finished third as a sophomore in 2007 — at 149 and 157 pounds, also spent the year getting bigger … and earned a spot at 163 pounds in Council Bluffs, Iowa, May 30.

            “I don’t know how much different I am,” said Schlatter, who finished third at the U.S. Nationals in April. “There were a lot of things I worked on this year.  I might have to adjust my style. Wrestling bigger guys is a little different. For the most part, it will be similar.”

            Robinson believes it was pure talent that took him to the top of the ladder at the Trials.

            “He has a very uncanny sense of position,” Robinson said. “One thing when you have so much success at his age, you are aware of so many more things; aware of not only your position but the other guy’s position.”

            Schlatter may have benefitted from a battle of defensive wrestling. But he believes he wrestled smart against the former Iowa State All-American.

            “I knew if someone did get a takedown, that was going to be the period because that was the strength of both of us.”

            And Schlatter has no better strengthen than accomplishing goals when no one else expects that he can.