With one leg, Arizona State wrestler has a shot at being king of the hill

On a typically scalding Arizona morning last August, when Arizona State's wrestlers made their annual two-mile run up craggy Squaw Peak, a mountain that rises like a giant anthill on Phoenix's northern horizon, coach Shawn Charles told Anthony Robles he could sit it out.

Charles didn't make the offer out of deference to a talent that would soon make Robles the nation's top-rated 125-pounder. He wasn't tossing a bone to his senior star. He wasn't worried about the temperature, even if it is a dry heat.

He did so because Robles does not have a right leg.

"Anthony said, 'Coach, I'm going to do it.' And he did it. On crutches," Charles recalled.

Seven months later, his spectacular college career nearly concluded, Robles has one more mountain to climb, this one in Philadelphia.

When the 2011 NCAA wrestling championships begin Thursday at the Wells Fargo Center, the Sun Devils senior who was born without one leg from the pelvis down will be the No. 1 seed at 125 pounds

He has dreamed of a national championship since he first put on Arizona State's maroon-and-gold singlet. In 2009, seeded 12th, Robles finished fourth at the NCAAs. Last year, as a No. 4 seed, he wound up seventh and was devastated.

He went 31-0 this season to make himself the favorite.

"This is my last shot to be on top of that podium," Robles said. "Having that No. 1 spot is great, but I still have to go out there and compete. I know there's going to be a bigger target on my back now at nationals. So I can't let up anytime soon. That's when the dream-crushers try to get you."

Those dream-crushers have never had much luck getting Robles in their grips.

Born with a wrestler's determination, the 22-year-old has made few concessions to his disability. He threw away a prosthetic leg at 3 because he didn't like how it felt. He rode a bike at 5, played basketball and football as a teenager, set his middle-school record for push-ups. And then, by accident, he discovered wrestling.

"Once he latches onto something," said his mother, Judy Robles, "he's not letting go."

A ninth grader living then in Tucson, Anthony Robles was visiting a cousin in Phoenix when he accompanied the older boy to his high school wrestling practice. The coach, needing someone to work out with his 103-pounder, asked Robles, then about 90 pounds, if he wanted to give it a try.

"I jumped in and I've been doing it ever since," he said. "I liked the one-on-one aspect of it. I was too small for football, too short for basketball."

He would win all 96 matches and a pair of Arizona state titles as a junior and senior at Mesa High.

"Wrestling," he said, "really kind of allowed me to work with my strengths and not worry so much about what I didn't have."

What he didn't have, of course, was a right leg. But he threw himself at the sport with such intensity that his disability soon became an afterthought - for him at least.

As he has ascended to the top of the college wrestling circles, Robles has drawn a few critics. The 5-foot-9 wrestler has an advantage, they contend, because opponents have only one leg to grasp at, or because his center of gravity is too low, or because, with just one leg, his 123 pounds are distributed primarily in his massive upper body.

"I don't understand how anyone can say a kid with one leg has an advantage wrestling against people with two legs," said Sun Devils teammate Levi Cooper.

It's hard to tell whether the insinuations affect Robles, who, according to Charles, is "always upbeat. Always positive. Always smiling."

"It doesn't really [bother me]," Robles said. "Some wrestlers are more stocky, some are taller. It's just really about them being able to put their game plans together and wrestle to the best of their abilities. I think I've put the time and work into trying to be a national champion. Wrestling's not a sport where you walk in and you're automatically good at it. You've got to put in the time."

He will graduate on time in May with a degree in business communications. He hopes to become a motivational speaker.

"I want to let people know that they can overcome obstacles and achieve anything they set out to do," he said.

The message I want to share with people is that they can overcome obstacles," he said, "and achieve anything they want."

With just one leg for support, Robles wrestles from a lower starting point than his opponents. He supports himself with his left knee and launches himself off his left foot. Quicker and more agile than most opponents, he frequently gets beneath his foe before using his upper-body strength to flip or spin him.

"Staying low is more my style," Robles said. "And I try to tie up people so I can use my upper body more. With the help of my coaches, we've developed a really good wrestling game plan, a style of wrestling that's really effective."

It will have to be in Philadelphia, where the 125-pound weight class figures to be extremely competitive.

The No. 2 seed, Iowa's Matt McDonough (23-1), spent much of the 2010-11 season ranked No. 1. And the only loss third-seeded Brandon Precin of Northwestern suffered in 31 matches was to McDonough.

Robles has never wrestled McDonough and split his two bouts - the second a consolation match - with Precin at the 2010 tournament.

"I've seen [McDonough] wrestle," said Robles. "He's seen me wrestle. I've talked to him once or twice at other national tournaments. I've got a lot of respect for him and for Precin. We're all going after the same thing. The national title. I'm just looking forward to going out there and giving 100 percent and hopefully it falls my way."

That quest can't be too much tougher than his grueling trek on crutches to the top of Squaw Peak.

"They gave me the option to get out of it, but I consider myself just like everyone else on the team," Robles said of the climb. "I wasn't looking to take any easy road out. So to gain the respect of my teammates and coaches and to show them that I deserve to be there, I did it."

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