Flames on top
Men’s wrestling wins NCWA National Duals Championship
The Liberty men’s wrestling team recently won its second NCWA National Duals Championship in the last four years Jan. 23-24. However, the journey is not yet over for the Flames.
Champions — The 2014-15 men’s wrestling team was victorious in this season’s NCWA Duals Championship. Photo provided
The Liberty Flames went to Dalton, Georgia, and left as champions. In all of their duals, only Central Florida came close to beating them, and they would have if Liberty senior Josh Pelletier had not managed to get back up after his knee buckled in the final match of the dual.
“I have a lot of confidence in my heavyweight, Josh,” Liberty Head Coach Jesse Castro said. “I was a little nervous because he had an injury. He went out there initially and was going to take the guy down and then his knee buckled. I didn’t know if he would get back up and finish the match. To see him beat the kid was amazing.”
Liberty ended up winning that match on a decision and won the dual by eight points. That win put the Flames in the final against The Apprentice School, where they only lost two of the 11 matches in the dual and won by 28 points.
“Wrestling is all about matchups and we have more of a dominant team than (our opponents) do,” Castro said. “We got in their head when we beat them two weeks before (in the Virginia Duals).”
When it was all said and done, Liberty outscored its competition 484-68 during the two-day National Duals.
“Who doesn’t like winning? It was an exciting weekend for us,” Castro said. “We were the No. 1 seed going in, but with different situations there was always that question whether we could put it together when we weren’t really loaded yet.”
Ryan Diehl, the reigning NCWA wrestler of the year, is the de facto leader of the team, according to Castro. But he does not take any of the credit for the team’s success.
“I couldn’t be there without my teammates,” Diehl said. “They are the ones that are pushing me. It’s not me doing everything by myself. Our team is really crazy if we have everyone healthy.
It’s dangerous.”
Castro said the team will be working hard to prepare for the Grand National Championship in March by doing tough but short workouts in order to keep the team fit. Castro and his coaching staff plan to ready the team the best way they possibly can by operating on the fine line of getting ready not just physically, but mentally as well.
“It’s too late to feel bad,” Castro said. “Obviously we want to nurture them (to be) healthy, but when push comes to shove, there is no choice. You’re going to compete with one arm if you have to.”
Castro said he is proud of the guys on his team for investing in each other, especially the young guys.
“It’s one thing to have a successful team because teams come and go, but a program has longevity to it,” Castro said. “You can have the best athletes in the world, but in order to sustain that after those athletes are gone, you have to develop a tradition and a mindset that carries over year to year.”
Castro and Diehl spoke for the entire team when they said what a privilege it was for them to be honored in front of the university at Convocation this past week. Diehl said it felt “like (we) did something really special,” and that they are ready to bring the “big old trophy” home from Texas.
“We are one of the schools best-kept secrets,” Castro said. “It has been neat that the school has recognized us the way they have. We want to make (the students) aware that they do have a wrestling team that’s competing for them. There are a lot of people that don’t even know about us, … but we want to make them aware.”
SCHMIEG is a sports reporter.