Before any of you smart alecks chime in, I’m pretty sure Chris Kanyon has no comment. From the Minneapolis Star-Tribune’s Roman Augostoviz and Tim Harlow.

High school wrestling has been suspended for eight days because of a skin-infection outbreak, the Minnesota State High School league said Tuesday.

At least 24 cases of Herpes Gladiatorum have been confirmed. Officials first became aware of the outbreak after a tournament in Rochester in December. Ten teams have reported wrestlers with skin lesions involving the face, head or neck since then.

œI think it™s reasonable to suspend and stop skin to skin transmission, said Leslie Baken, an infectious disease doctor at Park Nicollet Medical Center. œThis will give those with active lesions time to heal, breaking the cycle of transmission.

Baken said the skin infection — not to be confused with the more dangerous genital herpes — could be spread by skin contact. Oral secretions can penetrate the mucus membrane and get beneath the skin through cuts, scrapes and the seemingly benign sticking hands in one™s mouth.

Though it™s a common infection, stopping its spread is important because œonce you have it, you have it for life, she said.

The Guillotine, a wrestling newspaper, has a website with a chat site. At 10:30 a.m. the first post appeared with a rumor that a wrestling shutout was coming.

A half-hour later the MSHSL made an official announcement on its website and The Guillotine’s chat site went crazy: 180 posts, nearly 11,363 views by 2 p.m.

“There is a lot of interest in how this is gong to play out,” said Jeff Beshey, owner of The Guillotine. “A lot of people are wondering people if their events going to be rescheduled.”