Despite only being in season for three weeks, NCC men’s wrestling has had great success to begin its 2022-23 campaign.
It all began back on Nov. 1 in their first conference bout of the season against Aurora University. The men were able to take a 41-5 victory. They were also able to win eight out of ten matchups as a group.
From there, they took a trip up to UW-Stevens Point to participate in the Pointer Open on Nov. 5. While there were no team scores recorded at this competition, multiple Cards placed highly in their respective weight classes. This included two second-place finishes for Cole Cervantes, ’23 in the 165-pound weight class, and Bradley Rosen, ’24 in the 141-pound weight class. On top of those two finishes, Alex Villar, ’25 was able to first place in the 157-pound weight class.
Their most recent contest was at home against Wheaton College on Nov. 10. The 36-9 victory in favor of NCC once again included eight out of ten victories as a team. Julian Valtierrez, ’25, Robbie Precin, ’23, Javen Estrada, ’25, Villar, Cervantes, Joey Jens, 25, Payton Geigner, ’25 and Robby Bates, 24, all won their respective matchups in dominant fashion.
Scouting the Cards
The Cardinals enter this season, bringing back a good portion of last season’s squad that went 13-3 overall as a unit. They return their top three competitors in the win category in Precin (38-0), Villar (37-7) and Bates (32-12). Precin had the most victories by decision a year ago with 21, and Villar led the pack in the wins by technical fall category with seven total.
Despite returning a majority of the team, coach Zach Cook sees a slight difference in the way these guys operate compared to the squad from a season ago.
“I would say the energy in the room is another notch up from last year and a group of guys who are hungry to go out and test themselves on a regular basis against good competition,” said Cook.
The motivation for a strong start
When a team jumps out to a solid start like these guys have, there are many different factors that could go into it. That truly goes for any sport that requires an individual effort that in turn results in a group score.
Cervantes credits all of the work the group does on a daily basis as a key to how they go about their business
“Building our line up at each weight to put the best team out on the mat is a huge thing we stress. I feel we are an overall young and very hungry team with a chip on shoulder. Our guys go out to win instead of wrestling not to lose,” said Cervantes.
Bates reflects on their work as a unit before they ever arrived on campus this school year and credited a good portion of their success to that.
“I think our success is coming from all the work everyone put in this last summer, having guys constantly wrestling even when we weren’t competing,” said Bates.
Looking down the road
There is still so much competition to be had for the men’s wrestling program in the new season. However, their promising start shows that they are looking to build off last season even more than some originally thought.
Cook said he made sure this team is best equipped for the CCIW Tournament and beyond based on how he mapped out their schedule for the season.
“We’ve designed our schedule so that we’ll see most of the top 15 teams before Christmas in either a dual or tournament setting and that will give us a great idea of what we need to improve upon as we head into the second semester,” Cook said. “Our big theme is the next competition is the most important one so we’re not going to look ahead too far. We have to get the most out of today and then we’ll worry about tomorrow.”
The men’s wrestling program is back in action on Nov. 19, at the CUW open in Mequon, Wisconsin. They find themselves back in CCIW competition on Nov. 23 at home against the Carthage College.
