SPORTS
Herbst learns from best, takes down competition
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Also by Cassie Paulsen:
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by Cassie Paulsen
Thursday, December 6, 2007
Pinning an opponent — the ultimate way to end a wrestling match — earns six points for the winner’s team. As the Wisconsin wrestling team has opened up its season with a 4-0 record in duals, one wrestler has scored six points in each of the squad’s four matches.
His name is Dallas Herbst. Herbst, a redshirt junior from Winneconne, Wis., has already scored 24 team points in the early stages of this season. In fact, of Herbst's 13 victories thus far this season between duals and invitationals, 10 have come via pin.
"Pinning has always been something I've liked to do," Herbst said. "You know, get on with it and get it done with as fast as you can."
That way of thinking is why Herbst is a mere eight pins away from taking over top billing on the all-time pins list at UW. The man he is chasing is no chump, though. He is Lee Kemp, a three-time NCAA champion here and three-time world champion.
"It's cool to see him be able to come in and do the stuff he's been doing and already be close to beating that pin record," teammate and fellow classmate Kyle Massey said. "Coming in, we had a big recruiting class and his name wasn't one of the big names that came up. To have him be one of the stand-outs on our team is pretty cool."
Kemp wrestled at UW from 1974-78 and was an overtime away from being a four-time NCAA champ. He finished his career boasting an all-time record of 143-6-1 and is UW's all-time pins leader with 47. Now with Herbst in the picture, however, that record is in great danger of falling.
Herbst credits his summer training for his improved wrestling. He spent two weeks with Gene Mills — another wrestling legend, who won two NCAA championships with Syracuse during the late 1970s — to work on his techniques and approach to the mat. It’s fitting since Mills also happens to hold the NCAA career mark of 107 pins.
"It definitely has me thinking a lot during my matches," Herbst says of what he's learned this summer. "A lot of times I'll be doing something I'm used to and I'll be thinking of what I learned this summer of what I should be doing differently. Whether it just means putting pressure somewhere else that I'm not used to that would help. I think it was definitely a good experience."
While Herbst has been able to find success on the mat, Mills helped him become more conscious of how he acts as an enforcer and reacts on the mat. And he hopes it will get him over the hump after making an early exist at the NCAA Tournament the past two years.
"I mean Gene Mills was a stud at pinning in college so using a lot of the same stuff I use. So it's definitely in the back of my head now that I should be doing this instead of that, and I think for the most part it's helped."
Herbst is no stranger to the success. While in high school, he was a two-time WIAA state champion, going a perfect 44-0 his senior year in 2004. Herbst then came into UW with one of the top recruiting classes in the nation. Herbst, along with Massey, Zach Tanelli and Craig Henning to name a few, entered Wisconsin in the fall of 2004 with high hopes. Thus far, Henning thinks that Herbst has come a long way since day one.
"He's just been great, coming in, just getting the coaching that was here," Henning said. "The coaching here is so much better than anything you'll see in high school. He's really listened to everybody and he's bought into everything. He's also a guy who will pick stuff up wherever he can.
"He's not just going to pick and choose certain people he's going to learn from," continued Henning. "He listens to everybody. He picks up stuff on his own just watching matches and you can see it when he wrestles, he's getting better in all positions and just by picking stuff up and being around the sport."
While Herbst has won over his teammates and coaches, he still has work to do. Despite falling one round short of All-American the past two seasons, Herbst knows he can reach his goals — he just has to keep at it.
"I came here with really not a whole lot of expectations," Herbst said. "I wanted to do well, but at the same time, you know, you're a freshman so you've got all of those 'what ifs.' The last four years have been huge for me with my style — I mean I didn't come in as an offensive wrestler, and I think I've changed that.
"I'm taking more shots and just scoring from all aspects and not making it just one part of my wrestling that's going to beat other guys," Herbst said. "I've learned a lot so far in my time here."
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