If you ventured over to Arlington on Tuesday night to take in the Montgomery-Lonsdale/Le Center vs. Sibley East wrestling meet to decide the Minnesota River Conference championship, you probably found yourself staring at an empty gym.

That meet, along with every other wrestling meet in the state of Minnesota, was canceled due to a shutdown mandated by the Minnesota State High School League. The wrestling stoppage will last eight days — from Jan. 30 through Feb. 6 — and was prompted by an outbreak of the contagious skin infection known as herpes gladiatorum.

The infection, common among wrestlers, is spread predominantly by skin-to-skin contact; the symptoms include lesions on the face, head and neck of competitors. Herpes gladiatorum is caused by the herpes simplex type-1 virus.

This unprecedented MSHSL shutdown will force the cancellation of more than 50 meets involving area wrestling teams during the eight-day stretch.

The Minnesota Department of Health has clinically confirmed 24 cases on 10 teams involving the 189-, 215- and 285-pound weight classes.

It was first noted following a large dual-meet tournament in Rochester on Dec. 29-30. Since that time the department of health and Dr. B.J. Anderson, MSHSL Sports Medicine Advisory Committee member and national and international skin condition expert, have been tracking the progress of the virus.

Dr. Anderson believes the statewide wrestling stoppage, the first in the state’s history, is warranted and maintains that all the officials who have seen the documentation are in agreement.

“In 1999 we had a situation where there were 60 kids on 19 teams who had developed the infection and we tracked them over a 42-day period,” he said. “Based on those findings, we concluded that the symptoms begin to come to fruition and development about eight days after exposure.

“You can ask how much of a ban is too much, but shouldn’t we err on the side of caution? We don’t want a situation where we’re pulling kids out of section and state tournaments and ending their seasons that way. It’s better to try and take care of it now.”

The virus that leads to herpes gladiatorum is the same one that causes cold sores. Mankato East coach Bruce Urbatch says the MSHSL is probably doing the right thing.

“Those 24 cases are only the ones they know about, what about the ones they don’t know about?” he said. “This is pretty contagious stuff. It’s better to try to clear it up now when you can control it than to have an outbreak two or three days before the state tournament.”

No area teams contacted by The Free Press have reported any serious outbreaks of skin problems. Maple River coach Jeff Soma says 2006-2007 has probably been his team’s cleanest year in terms of skin problems.

“I think (the breakout is) isolated in a small area to the east of us and maybe to the north,” he said. “But we understand why (the shutdown) is taking place. The high school league wants to make sure all the kids are as clean as possible before the state tournament.”

Soma’s Maple River team was scheduled to meet Lake Crystal Wellcome Memorial for the Valley Conference championship on Thursday but now that meet will have to be rescheduled. He suspects most of the meets lost to the stoppage will not be made up.

“There’s not a lot of time from Feb. 6 to the start of sections Feb. 17,” he said. “A lot of coaches will be more concerned about getting their wrestlers ready for the postseason than they will be about making up meets.”