To win a Big Ten championship in wrestling is no easy feat.
Just to make it to the championship match is no cup of tea. And to do it as a
No. 5 seed and a red-shirt freshman, as Kyle Ruschell did last year, is simply
unheard of.

At last year?s conference championships, Ruschell, wrestling
at 141 pounds, defeated No. 4 seed Cassio Pero of Illinois 6-5 in the
quarterfinals. He then went on to upset top-seeded Manual Rivera of Minnesota
in the semifinals 7-4 before losing in the title match to Northwestern?s Ryan
Lang 5-1.

?I had nothing to lose,? Ruschell said of his performance
last season. ?I didn?t really have too high of expectations because I had to
wrestle two guys I had lost to (in the regular season). So I went out there, I
wanted to win ? not just not to lose.?

Heading into this year?s championships this weekend in
Minneapolis, Ruschell has garnered the No. 2 pre-seed, right behind Michigan?s
Kellen Russell. Ruschell is taking somewhat of the same attitude as last
season, but with a bit of a twist.

?I want to be on the top of the stand,? Ruschell said. ?I?m
going in with the same game plan ? to get to the title match. But this time win
and not be so nervous in the finals, or be so tight, and just happy to be
there.?

Ruschell?s performance last season, as well as his work
ethic both on and off the wrestling mat, led the coaching staff to name
Ruschell one of this year?s tri-captains. Head coach Barry Davis knows Ruschell
is the type of guy he wants his team to look up to.

?He takes time to think of the sport out of the room,? Davis
said. ?And in order to be a captain, you have to take the time outside of the
room, you have to take wrestling with you and think about things. All those
things come together.?

One of only a handful of Division I wrestlers who call
Kentucky ?home,? Ruschell knew early on that he had to make a name of himself
at a national tournament, rather than his state tournament, to get to where he
is now.

?In high school, I was a little guy,? Ruschell said. ?I was
a [103]-pounder up through junior year and then senior year I wrestled 119 in
Kentucky. But out of state at senior nationals I wrestled 112. I did that to
help get coaches look at me because they usually don?t come to our state tournament.?

Davis, along with assistant coach Barry Chelesvig,
approached Ruschell at the senior national tournament in March of 2005 and
offered him a chance to be a Badger. It was a move that pleased Ruschell?s
parents.

?My parents just fell in love with Barry,? Ruschell said.
?They felt that he cared about us, that it wasn?t just about us coming here but
to help me grow as a person and make me a better person. It?s not just for
Barry ? it?s for the university and for me.?

Family and friends in Kentucky were all smiles, but there
were some in Madison who didn?t know what to think of the news.

?I know the coaches kind of got a little heckling because
they got a kid from Kentucky,? junior Dallas Herbst said. ?Not a lot of guys
knew him or knew what he could do.?

Ruschell arrived on campus not quite sure what to expect,
but soon learned his place the first day of practice.

?I was pretty raw my freshman year,? Ruschell said. ?I
remember my first practice. I was wrestling (Zach) Tanelli. He got my leg and
just lifted it up and smacked me down to the mat. Right then I knew I wasn?t
the best in the room anymore. I needed to work everyday.?

As Ruschell enters this weekend’s tournament, he has
somewhat of the same situation as last season. Despite being seeded higher, he
enters again having two losses in the Big Ten ? to Russell, and to Illinois?
Ryan Prater ? in back-to-back matches. Ruschell bounced right back to defeat
then-3rd ranked Rivera as the Badgers upset the Gophers Feb. 17.

Davis thinks it’s situations like these where Ruschell?s
mentality rises above all.

?I think experience played a part there,? Davis said. ?He
thought, ?You know, I?m good enough, I?ll bounce back and put that behind me
and move forward.? It just says a lot about him as an individual and his
maturity to let things go and move on.?

Entering the weekend, Ruschell has a legitimate chance to
walk away on top. With the NCAA Championships just two weeks away after this
weekend, Ruschell feels he?s got a legitimate chance there, too. Either way, he
has made his name known not only in Kentucky, but now in Wisconsin and the rest
of the nation.

?I want to win it, of course,? Ruschell said. ?Anything else
is a little bit of a disappointment. First off, I want to get on the stand, but,
second, I want to be at the top of it.?