Just as any work of literature has story themes, so does a college wrestling season. Before cracking open the book on the 2005-2006 season, let's look at some of the anticipated major story themes we may still be discussing after wrestlers hang up their headgear next March. The story themes are listed in no particular order.
Steve Mocco will be looking to join a very elite club of college big men who have won three NCAA titles.If the Oklahoma State Cowboy heavyweight takes the championship next March in Oklahoma City, he will join a very elite club of college big men who have won the NCAA crown three times: Earl McCready, Dick Hutton, Jimmy Jackson and Carlton Haselrig. Among recent heavyweight champs, not even Kurt Angle, Kerry McCoy, Stephen Neal or Tommy Rowlands were able to claim a third title.
The wrestling world first became aware of Steve Mocco as a prep star at Blair Academy in New Jersey. After a year or more of intense speculation and anticipation among colleges and fans, Mocco chose the University of Iowa for his collegiate wrestling career. In his two years as the Hawkeye heavyweight, Mocco lost only three matches -- all as a freshman -- and was a two-time NCAA finalist, winning the title as a sophomore. After taking a redshirt year to try for the Olympics in the 2003-2004 season, Mocco transferred from Iowa to Oklahoma State, winning a second NCAA title in 2005 … the only heavyweight champ to have won a title for two different schools.
Will Mocco be able to pin down that third title this year? Entering his senior season, Mocco has amassed a 108-3 collegiate record, with 41 of those matches ending in a fall. The general consensus is that the current heavyweights aren't giant killers. However, the one man most likely to stand in Mocco's way is Cole Konrad. The Minnesota heavyweight has given Mocco a real challenge, taking the Cowboy into overtime in three matches, including the 2005 NCAA finals … yet the Oklahoma State big man has always come out on top. Will the same be true in 2006?
Can Marcus LeVesseur complete his college career undefeated?
About to start his senior year at Augsburg, the 157-pound LeVesseur has a 124-match win streak that is second only to Cael Sanderson's. Can LeVesseur become Division III's first four-time champion, and leave the mat at the end of the year with a perfect record?
As a junior, LeVesseur racked up the same exact stats that Sanderson compiled in his senior year: a 40-0 record with 24 pins. In fact, a majority of Augsburg superstar's opponents did not make it to the second period.
A handful of collegiate wrestlers have ended their careers with perfect records, including Earl McCready of Oklahoma State in the 1920s, Bill Koll of Northern Iowa in the 1940s, and Dan Hodge in the 1950s. But the mats are also lined with greats whose otherwise perfect college careers have the blemish of a single loss: Ed Peery, Hugh Peery, Stanley Henson, Dick Hutton, Jim Nance, and, perhaps most famously, Dan Gable. The question is: is there a Larry Owings in Marcus LeVesseur's future?
Sam Hazewinkel has finished third in the country at 125 pounds the last two seasons for the Sooners.Fans, wrestlers and coaches all feed off rivalries. One of the most enduring is the "Bedlam Series" between the Oklahoma Sooners and the Oklahoma State Cowboys. In the past, the word "bedlam" was an appropriate description of the atmosphere in the facility hosting this cross-state match-up. Back in the days of Cowboys coach Ed Gallagher, fans would literally hang from the rafters of the old gym at the Stillwater campus to take in the action.
In recent years, the rivalry may have lost some of its intensity as Oklahoma State became the dominant power in college wrestling while Oklahoma had some challenging years. Now, the team out of Norman is re-emerging as a major player, ranked second to the Cowboys in just about every pre-season forecast, thanks to top-rate talent such as Sam Hazewinkel at 125 lbs, Teyon Ware at 141, 149-pounder Matt Storniolo, and Joel Flaggert at 197. Of course the Cowboys are also talent-rich, with nine of last year's starters returning to the mats … four of those being defending NCAA champs: Zack Esposito at 149 lbs, 165-pounder Johny Hendricks, Jake Rosholt at 197, and heavyweight Steve Mocco. If you want to catch these two teams in action, be in Stillwater on December 9 … and get your ticket early, unless you want to be up in the rafters of Gallagher-Iba Arena!
What impact will Kerry McCoy and his coaches have on Stanford?
The Palo Alto-based school is celebrated for its sterling academic reputation (considered to be a west-coast Ivy League school) and famous graduates, including Condoleeza Rice and Chelsea Clinton. Now Stanford has the opportunity to be thought of as a wrestling power in the west, thanks to a new slate of coaches for the 2005-2006 season.
Leading the Cardinals is Kerry McCoy, hired in early June as head coach. McCoy is a two-time Olympian, four-time World Cup champion, and two-time NCAA heavyweight titlist. He also brings coaching experience, having served as assistant at Lehigh for five years … and, before that, three years at his alma mater, Penn State. This summer, McCoy retained three-year Cardinal assistant coach Kevin Klemm, and brought on board John Clark, a two-time All-American at Ohio State, and Matt Gentry, Stanford's first NCAA champion (2004), who will be a volunteer assistant coach.
While Stanford may not be listed among the top twenty five on any of the major pre-season polls, the impact of this new coaching staff may be further down the road, as blue-chip scholar-athletes from high schools in California and beyond see the value in wrestling for the Cardinals.
Will Virginia Tech's recruiting create a national powerhouse?
Amazing how the fortunes of a wrestling program can improve so quickly. Not that long ago, college wrestling fans would have been hard-pressed to tell you anything about Virginia Tech, let alone find it on a map. Now it seems that a number of top high school mat men know the way to Blacksburg, Virginia … thanks to a program that is emerging from the shadows as a potential mat power.
Brent MetcalfIt isn't just the scenery that brings top-shelf talent to Blacksburg. Head coach Tom Brands has brought his brand of intensity to the mountains of southwest Virginia… along with assistants Wes Hand and Doug Schwab, all trained the Iowa Hawkeye way by none other than Dan Gable. The long-range future looks bright for the Hokies, as does the upcoming season, with returning starters like David Hoffman at 133, 149-pounder Tyde Prater, Steve Borja at 184, and heavyweight Mike Faust.
Is there any doubt that Oklahoma State will win a fourth straight NCAA team title?
Don't bet the farm on it, but, barring any shocking surprises, the Cowboys will probably win the NCAA Division I team title at Oklahoma City next March. Head coach John Smith downplays it all, saying, "We have to earn it. We have to remind ourselves every day that championships are not given away -- they are earned each year."
Last year, the team pretty much ran away with the title, with half of the ten individual titles being won by a grappler wearing the orange and black. Nine of last year's starters are returning; six of them are All-Americans, four of them defending champs. No wonder that, this year, Oklahoma State is ranked at the top of all the major wrestling team rankings. The same preseason polls also list a Cowboy among the top five in just about every weight class. That's got to have all the other wrestlers quaking in their boots.
Is there a realignment in the Big Ten?
A few years ago, the Big Ten seemed to be all about perennial national champion Iowa, with the other programs lumped together as also-rans in the minds of many wrestling fans. Iowa hasn't won the team title since 2000; Minnesota took the team championship twice in the new century, and Michigan and Illinois have emerged as top five programs. All four of these Big Ten programs find themselves in the top ten in preseason polls again this year.
Perhaps the most interesting development in the Big Ten is the emergence of Northwestern and Indiana. In past years, the Wildcats and Hoosiers found themselves towards the bottom of the conference standings. However, according to the advance rankings in the wrestling media, these two programs are now listed among the top dozen or so teams.
Northwestern is coming off a great year, with a Beast of the East team title and a win over Iowa, a fourteenth place finish at the NCAAs, and 174-pound freshman sensation Jake Herbert generating excitement in Evanston and beyond. Heavyweight Dustin Fox, John Valez at 125, Mat Delguyd (last year's 197-pound Big Ten champ), and Ryan Lang at 141 are also ranked in the top ten in preseason prognostications. To the south, fans in Bloomington are salivating at the prospects for their Hoosiers this season; in 2005, Indiana's Joe Dubuque claimed an NCAA individual title. The 125-pounder is back, as is All-American Brandon Becker at 157, to lead the Hoosiers for the 2005-06 season.
Adding to the excitement, Penn State, Wisconsin and Michigan State also find themselves among the top twenty in most early team rankings, making it a barnburner of a season for wrestling fans in the Midwest.
What will Troy Nickerson and Adam Frey do for the fortunes of Cornell -- and the Ivy League?
2005 was a year to remember for Cornell University. The Ivy League school in upstate New York surprised a number of wrestling fans with a fourth-place team finish at the NCAAs -- its best performance in more than a half century. And they signed a recruiting class that ranks among the top five in the country, featuring two high school lightweights with heavyweight credentials: Troy Nickerson and Adam Frey.
Adam Frey, who will wrestle at 141 pounds for Cornell, won two national prep titles for Blair Academy.For those who value academic achievement along with mat prowess, it's heartening to see two of the best high school wrestlers in the U.S. now putting their brains and brawn to the test in the Ivy League. Following in the footsteps of 2000 Olympic gold medalist Brandon Slay (University of Pennsylvania) and 2004 NCAA champ and 2005 World University Games gold medalist Jesse Jantzen (Harvard), Nickerson and Frey might encourage more high school scholar-athletes to take the Ivy route.
Can someone other than Augsburg or Wartburg win the NCAA Division III team title?
When wrestling magazines and Web sites cover the Division III mat scene, they often focus on what they refer to "the 'burgs" -- Augsburg in Minneapolis, and Wartburg in Waverly, Iowa. This year, though, the wrestling world may have to cast its gaze a bit further.
In his preseason analysis of the division for RevWrestling.com, staff writer Jeff Vanderwerf opened with this sentence: "For over a decade, this article might have been titled 'Augsburg or Wartburg? Division III Teams to Watch.' Not this season." Perhaps even more surprising, Vanderwerf predicted that neither 'burg would win it all, putting University of Wisconsin at La Crosse at the top of his predictions for the new season, with Augsburg placing second, and Wartburg third.
UW-La Crosse placed fourth at the 2005 NCAAs, and has never won the national title. So why might they be viewed as potentially winning it all this year? The Eagles boast one of the most talented heavyweights in college wrestling today, Ryan Allen, who has given Division I big men Steve Mocco and Cole Konrad close matches. In addition, six other All-Americans will return for LaCrosse. For all these reasons, RevWrestling.com has placed LaCrosse in its top-25 team rankings of all college programs.
The defending team champs, the Augsburg Auggies, lost five All-Americans to graduation … but they still have five left, including LeVesseur at 157, who will be looking to complete this season -- and his career -- with a perfect record and another title. The Wartburg Knights, second at last year's NCAAs, expect to come charging back this season, led by two-time NCAA champs Dustin Hinschberger at 141 and 197-pounder Akeem Carter. So the Division III championships promise to be especially exciting in 2006 … and open to the possibility of a team champ outside the ‘burgs.
Will Tennessee-Chattanooga lose forward momentum with its coaching changes?
In the past couple years, the Mocs generated a lot of talk -- and excitement -- beyond its southern fan base, thanks in part to head coach Terry Brands, and the team's boldness in scheduling tough opponents. This summer, Brands accepted a coaching position at the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, and UT-Chattanooga fans immediately feared their program would head south in terms of its standing in the wrestling world. After all, the Mocs had placed 21st at the 2005 NCAAs after winning the Southern Conference Championship.
Joe Seay led Cal State-Bakersfield to seven NCAA Division II titles and Oklahoma State to two Division I titles.The Mocs also welcome back wrestlers who are ranked among the top 20 in preseason polls, including All-American Michael Keefe (who placed fifth at the NCAAs at 141 pounds), his twin brother Josh at 133, and 184-pounder John Davis. Transferring from the Nebraska Cornhuskers is mat veteran Matt Keller. So, despite losing its head coach, UTC may not lose any forward momentum as it builds itself into a force to be reckoned with throughout the U.S.
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