The newspaper revealed that all 39 Minnesota wrestlers were drug tested on Sunday, March 22 -- the day after the conclusion of the 2016 NCAA Division I Wrestling Championships -- by Drug Free Sport of Kansas City, Mo., at a cost of $1,930.
The decision to test the entire team was made on March 20, after a review board determined the list of wrestlers suspected of drug use was too long to fit in the category "reasonable suspicion." According to University of Minnesota police documents, an athletics trainer told police that the wrestlers were tested using a panel that included marijuana, opiates and amphetamines but not Xanax, a prescription anti-anxiety drug that some Gopher wrestlers were accused of using or selling.
This information was revealed in emails released by the University of Minnesota to the Pioneer-Press at the request of the newspaper. However, the St. Paul paper states that these emails between Robinson and his direct supervisor, associate athletic director Marc Ryan, do not shed any light as to whether the coach informed supervisors that he suspected wrestlers were selling drugs.
On March 10, Ryan sent an Alcohol and Drug Testing Reasonable Suspicion form to Robinson, but the coach returned it without names of players he suspected were taking drugs. In a later email to his supervisor -- interim athletic director Beth Geotz -- Ryan said that Robinson "turned it back to me with a long list of his student-athletes that he wanted tested."
The University of Minnesota police investigation began after a complaint related to the wrestling program was filed on the school's confidential reporting service, EthicsPoint, on April 8. The anonymous EthicsPoint complaint stated that Robinson told wrestlers to turn in "any illegal drugs that they have in their possession." The complainant admitted not having seen any such transaction.
Results of that university police investigation were shared with city and county prosecutors in late June, who declined to press charges against coach Robinson or any wrestlers.
University of Minnesota spokesman Evan Lapiska told the Pioneer-Press Thursday that the school can offer "no updates on the investigation other than it remains active and ongoing."
On June 1, newly hired athletics director Mark Coyle put Robinson on an indefinite paid administrative leave. The coach is also banned from campus, and prohibited from discussing the allegations with anyone from the wrestling program. J Robinson Wrestling Camps originally scheduled to take place on the Minnesota campus this summer had to be relocated to the University of Wisconsin-River Falls, about 40 miles east of the Twin Cities.
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