Taking Momentum into Home Duals Against Old Dominion and Ohio State (Jim Andrassy)

Looking back at Buffalo I thought we did a good job of wrestling through situations. We got into scrambles and continued working through them. And in the past we’ve had some problems doing that.  Tyler Small and Mike DePalma’s falls were both from scrambles and they just continued to correct their position over and over until they got the fall. 

 

We also got another fall from Ian Miller who’s going to pin a lot of guys just with how strong he is.  He’s our new Dustin Kilgore for the next few years.  Caleb Marsh is another one that’s so strong he’s able to work through moves on top and that’s how he got his front head slide-by to work so well against Buffalo.  I feel like all 10 starters in the lineup really controlled the pace of the whole match, even at 125.

Part of Alfredo Gray’s issue has been finishing matches which we have to continue working on.  Fredo and Del Vinas are going to wrestle off this week and we’re going to go with whoever wins the wrestle-off at 125.  

We have a young team and I think the first three weeks were really good for us.  I don’t know that we were as successful as we wanted to be, but we learned a lot from those three weeks. Going into Old Dominion and Ohio State I think we’re looking to surprise more people.  I think we can beat a lot of good teams.  We just need to be consistent and make sure we’re doing the right things.

This will be the first time we face Old Dominion in a conference match.  It should be a real exciting one.  They’re ranked ahead of us in some weight classes, but personally I think we match up well with them.  It’s probably going to be close and could come down to who scores more bonus points.  I think we’ve got five or six really good guys and we’re going to have to get other guys step up which I think they’ll continue to do.

Cole Baxter’s one of those guys that I think can be really good for us.  He’s beaten four ranked guys so far.  He’s got some bad losses, but he’s got some good wins.  Now he’s got to keep improving on that so at the end of the year his record is good enough to go along with those good wins to get to the national tournament.

We’ve also got a lot of smart kids on our team.  And it makes our jobs a lot easier when you’ve got smart kids.  With lifestyle, schoolwork and wrestling…if one’s going well, the other two are usually going well too.

Having Old Dominion in the MAC expands our conference to the South.  They’ve got a really strong lineup that’s built a lot like us.  Top to bottom they have no weak spots.

And right now the MAC might be the second best conference in the country behind the Big Ten.  As recruits start to realize how good our conference is they may start to see that they get 50% scholarship at a Big Ten school and get 65% in the MAC and end up doing that.  Hopefully we’ll start to see more of that with this new look to the conference.

We’re expecting a great crowd for Ohio State.  I’m glad they’re committing themselves to coming here so we can go back-and-forth every year.  Because of all the wrestling fans in Northeast Ohio, we get a better crowd here than when we go there.  We’re hoping to beat Old Dominion and have a five-match winning streak going into it.

We’re 100% healthy now and this is usually the time of year we start to wrestle our best.  Because of the type of kids we have, we have some struggles at the beginning of the year.  The type of guys we bring in sometimes just need more development.  It’s our last match before we send them home for Christmas so hopefully our guys will up for it ready to go.

We’re also excited to bring in two local high schools Monday with Stow vs. Cuyahoga Falls.  And Thursday an Aurora junior high club team will wrestle a Columbus junior high club team.

The Transition from High School to College Wrestling (Tommy Zeigler)

Everyone talks about the huge jump from high school to college wrestling. Over the past couple months I’ve learned the reason for that.  I’ve had to improve my personal organization, and develop a strong mental attitude.  I constantly find myself telling people who ask me about my transition two things… One being, “I never knew how much I was capable of.” The second being, “I used to think I worked really hard. Now I know what that means.”  Something that has helped me a lot has been a desire to be seen as a mentally strong individual.  However, you don’t become mentally strong when everything is going great. You become mentally strong when times are hard which is why I am able to pride myself on the fact that the whole experience is making me mentally stronger than I ever could have been without it. 

Hard Work is the Most Important Component of Success (T.J. Keklak)

           

“The harder you work, the harder it is to surrender.” This famous quote from Vince Lombardi has become the motto for my fifth and final season here at Kent State. I have learned over my first four years at Kent State that hard work is the most important component of success.

Our coaching staff does an incredible job at making each and every one of us believe and buy into that mindset, that the harder you work the harder it is to lose. Day in and day out they encourage us and motivate us to push our bodies and mentally challenge ourselves to prepare for the long season ahead. A combination of concentrated technique and intense live wrestling help us stay sharp in our wrestling skills, while allowing us to try different moves against our teammates in a match situation. We work extremely hard each and every day, which will pay dividends as we prepare for MAC duals, the MAC tournament and ultimately the NCAA Championships.

            Over the summer I rededicated myself to the sport that I love and made a promise to myself that I would do whatever it takes to make my last wrestling season the best one yet. That started with the commitment to drop a weight class from last year and compete at the 149 pound weight class. I have made great changes in my lifestyle and diet that have already made a drastic difference in how I feel in my conditioning and my training. I realized that in order to reach my goals as an individual I needed to make sacrifices and become more disciplined not only as a wrestler but as a person. In order to be successful I have been training harder than ever before, because like Vince Lombardi said many years ago, “The harder you work, the harder it is to surrender.”

Practicing Outside (Tyler Buckwalter)

This was the first time I had ever had the experience of wrestling outside on mats. It was a nice change from the hot, muggy wrestling room where we usually practice. The sun was shining and was a little draining, but at the same time, there was a nice breeze blowing, which made it comfortable. One other thing I really liked about wrestling outside was how soft the mats were. The sun made the mats really soft, and it was nice wrestling on them. Overall, I would say I enjoyed wrestling outdoors.

The environment of wrestling in the center of campus with people stopping to watch was pretty exciting. Wrestling, as a sport, has trouble getting a lot of publicity because a lot of people do not understand it. I feel that events like this are a great for our team and sport in general. I was surprised at how many people stopped to watch us, and the support we had from other administrators and coaches on campus. I saw a few basketball coaches, our athletic director, and even the president of the University made an appearance. It was a great overall event for our team. We just finished a great preseason of training, and I believe we will have an outstanding year as a team. Hopefully, more people, having seen a little of what Kent State wrestling is all about, will come support us throughout the season.