Sprint, Wrestling full of weight watchers

As the season changed from summer to fall, so did the diet of Penn senior wrestler Yoshi Nakamura.

Needing to lose approximately 15 pounds to qualify at his 157-pound weight class, Nakamura started eating smaller, more healthy meals, "trying to cut out all the bad things."

His one guilty pleasure?

"Maybe a chocolate chip cookie every now and then."

Such is the life of Nakamura during the wrestling season, just as it is for other members of the Penn wrestling and sprint football teams.

Athletes in those respective sports must trim down in order to meet specific weight requirements set by the ruling body of collegiate athletics.

The NCAA weigh-in certification process for wrestlers -- which places athletes into weight classes and assures that they stay hydrated -- is done in two stages.

The first step is completed before the start of official practices on Oct. 15. At this time, each athlete's body fat percentage is measured and a hydration test is performed. All athletes must be well hydrated and no wrestler is allowed to dip below the five percent mark for body fat.

"Our team probably averages between eight and nine percent body fat," Penn wrestling coach Roger Reina said.

Following this pre-certification is an eight-week period during which no wrestler is permitted to lose more than 1.5 percent of his body weight per week.

The final certification can happen any time before Dec. 15, at which point all athletes have to make their competition weight and again pass a hydration test. At this time, players will place into one of 10 weight classes, ranging from 125 to 285 pounds. No one over 285 is permitted to wrestle.

Once players have been certified, they are not allowed to move down to a lower weight class at any time in the season. They may, however, move up to a higher one.

In addition to the final certification, wrestlers must be weighed in the day of each match.

The process differs significantly when it comes to sprint football. Contrary to the extensive certification process that all wrestlers must endure, members of the sprint football team have but one constraint -- all athletes on the team must weigh 165 pounds or less.

According to Penn sprint football coach Bill Wagner, this requirement isn't tough to fulfill, as there are only a handful of players that need to lose more than just a few pounds through the course of the season.

Sprint football players are weighed in two days prior to each game, unlike members of the wrestling team. Six games per season equates to a mere six weigh-ins for each player, a much smaller figure than the one wrestlers are familiar with.

For members of both teams, the most effective strategy for trimming down is a healthy combination of diet and exercise.

"What we're looking to do is to get athletes into great condition... to try to reduce excess body fat," Reina said.

Most athletes on both teams chip away at the excess weight a little bit at a time, and they begin to do so several months before the start of the season by sticking to diets compiled by trainers and picking up the conditioning and cardiovascular workouts.

"The most important thing is that it has to start during the summer," senior sprint football captain Brian Dubin said. "It's really important that over the summer you come down from 175-180 to a reasonable range under 175."

Senior sprint football captain David Berkley adds that a large portion of the weight is dropped during those last weeks of summer when practice begins.

"A lot of it is that first three weeks of practice," he said. "With the pads and August and September heat, you're going to lose weight."

As the start of the season approaches, players become more serious about their diets and weight loss.

"Now I'm really starting to focus on my diet and trying to cut out all the bad things," senior wrestling captain Yoshi Nakamura said. His first meet takes place in less than two weeks.

Coaches and players stress that it's important to stay healthy and not take drastic measures to lose excess weight too quickly. And the NCAA rules are strict, having banned the use of rubber suits, saunas and diet pills to promote weight loss in recent years.

"We're given instructions on how to lose weight," Dubin said. "There's a way you do it, and you stick to it. It's nothing like a rubber suit. It's nothing like a sauna."

Henson added: "Sometimes in wrestling, people do more drastic things where they're losing a lot of weight close to the match. Those people tend to not be able to wrestle at a high level."

Nakamura offered that the key to success in trimming down and staying fit for the season is simply "a good diet and hard work."

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