Already starting the season with impressive dual-meet wins over Northern Iowa and Northern Illinois, and placing eighth overall 2002 Cliff Keen Las Vegas Invitational last weekend, this year’s wrestling team is starting to showcase some maturity from its young wrestlers as well as leadership from its seniors. Ranked as high as 15th nationally by the Wrestling Mall, this year’s team is in great shape to improve upon last year’s final team ranking of ninth in the Big Ten.
As for how the team looks in terms of winning the overall Big Ten title, coaches feel like the team will be competitive and that the program has a bright future.
“I wouldn’t say this year,” said head coach Barry Davis of winning the league title. “But with the last two recruiting classes that we’ve had, as well as with the young man we signed during the early signing period and hopefully with the wrestlers we sign in the late period, this will take place in the near future.”
This year’s team’s poster theme is “Badgers in Black.” The poster features this year’s top returning wrestlers who were NCAA-qualifiers last season. Kevin Black, Ralph DeNisco, Brady Reinke and Justin Staebler seem to be all business, a characteristic they hope to instill in the minds of the many new recruits.
The future is now for the team, after bringing in a massive recruiting class of seven freshmen two seasons ago. Coming off from redshirt seasons, the group will all be vying for early starting positions. Since the NCAA only allows wrestling teams to distribute 9.9 scholarships at any one time, each member of the team counts right away, not in a few years.
In the past, recruitment has been rough for Wisconsin because of the high level of competition in the Big Ten and the incredible tradition of wrestling in Iowa that makes that state to wrestling, what Florida is to football. However, Davis appears to be on the right track recently, as this year’s recruiting class has been one of the best in school history.
“It could be a young team if you have all those freshmen starting,” Davis said. “But I think they’re freshmen that did a great job last year and are starting to understand what it takes to wrestle in the Big Ten conference as well as at the national level.”
Leading the way for the group of freshmen is Tom Clum, who built a 14-3 record last season wrestling unattached at both 133 and 125 pounds and will compete with teammate Tony Black in the 125-pound weight class this year. While fellow freshmen twin brothers Kelly and Ryan Flaherty, as well as Ed Gutnik, Lee Kramer, Dennis McSweeney and Tony Turner all lack a lot of the experience that their older teammates have, coach Davis has made it clear that he expects no less from them.
“Even though they’re young, I expect them to step up like the seniors,” Davis said. “Because really it’s their second year in school, not their first year. They understand what it takes to compete at this level.”
With senior co-captains Kevin Black and Ralph DeNisco both finishing in second place to lead UW in last weekend’s 2002 Cliff Keen Las Vegas Invitational, it appears that the Badgers will be led by example. The remaining question is how fast can this team’s young nucleus improve and come together to make Wisconsin a contender in the Big Ten?
