I've read some criticism of the head official's action in overruling a stalling call during the Kids State Tournament. I thought I might explain what I understand was the reason that the mat official's call was overturned.
The match had gone into the tiebreaker (double-overtime) when the official called the offensive wrestler for stalling. The rulebook states the following:
... as long as the offensive wrestler is in a controlled wrestling situation, he should not be called for stalling. However, if the offensive wrestler immediately grasps an ankle and is simply hanging on this is not controlled wrestling. In this situation the official should call a stalemate, stop the match and return to the center of the mat. If the offensive wrestler continued this maneuver he should be called for stalling.
Because the official had not made the initial call of stalemate, it was determined that he had not properly applied the rule for assessing a stalling penalty. Prior to the tiebreaker, the call would have been strictly a judgment call by the official, but the criteria changes during the tiebreaker.
