Hosted by St. Louis Sports Commission and the University of Missouri
Student-Athlete Pre-Championship Press Conference
Brent Metcalf, Iowa
On the team race for a national championship:
"In a competition the team race is the overall picture but you need to
have individual success to have team success. Me as an individual the
most I can do is win that national title. So I have to go out there and
worry about myself and the rest of my teammates to do the exact same
thing and it should work out the way we want it to."
On how it feels to be ranked No. 1 all year:
"It feels good. Confident just one more competition going out there and performing and put it to the rest of the country."
On how eager and excited he is to be at nationals:
"Obviously I'm extremely excited. Sitting out two years and having to
watch it all go on and not being able to perform wasn’t any fun but the
times here now and it’s my opportunity to go prove myself, prove why I
did what I did. I'm excited to be here and I'm ready to go."
On being nervous in such a large tournament:
"Absolutely not. Every time you step out on a mat you compete. Is it
going to be a different experience yes but at the same time it is you
verse another man. It’s the same thing either way you look at it,
that’s how I approach it. It just happens to be the national tournament
if anything it helps more."
On being the team to beat:
"Yeah obviously being ranked number one you are the team to beat but
really nothing has been proven yet. We know that and the rest of these
guys at this table know that too. We’ve got to go out and perform; it
doesn’t matter what that number in front of your teams name is before
the tournament. It is where you finish. So are we the team to beat?
Probably, but at the same time we’re aware that we need to perform and
continue to do what we’ve been doing all year and just another notch on
top of that."
On coming back from a loss:
"Really, third place would be a disappointment for a lot of guys on my
team probably. Your expectations going into a tournament is to win and
in the big ten for instance a lot of those losses in the semi’s a lot
of them were upsets. The way I look at it huge upsets and to have
anything less you have expectations to win the tournament and having
anything less than that is really a disappointment to yourself. So
really coming back and placing third is on you. It’s on you as a
competitor to go out and perform. You’re just doing your job then."
Jayson Ness, Minnesota
On coming in as defending national champions:
"We need to come out and wrestle the way we can wrestle. Come out and
do everything they can to go out and win every single match if we can
and get as many points. It’s going to take a full team effort. Everyone
wrestling their best."
On coming back from a loss:
"It's just that never-die attitude. Any time you lose you have to come
back strong. We won the national title one year without having a
champion that’s because of the way they wrestled in the wrestle backs.
They came back strong. They came back hungry and ready to win. So here
every single match is going to count. Every single point is going to
count. We know that and it may come down to winning by a half a point.
Anything you can do to score bonus points or get another point for
winning a match is going to be important. So any time you lose you got
to know that third place is still there and you can still get big
points for your team."
On the team performing:
"I think they will do their best and still be able to compete to the best of their abilities."
On performing as a team:
"It’s been a real up and down year. A lot of good moments, some bad
moments we just kept fighting the whole time and we are just going to
keep plugging away. I think we showed them what we were capable of at
the big tens and I think coming into this we can show them we can move
up another level. So it’s a little different attitude because now
instead of being the top dog we’re the underdogs. I think we’re going
to have to have a lot more fight if we’re going to have a chance to
win."
Keith Gavin, Pittsburgh
On added pressure of being ranked No. 1 all year:
"No I don’t think there is any more pressure. I try not to think about those things. I just try to go out and have some fun."
On how much fun the season has been:
"Well it's a lot more fun to win than to lose. I’m having a lot of fun."
On a Pittsburgh wrestler winning a national title:
"That would be huge for my school the last one to do it was Pat Santoro
in 1989. That would be big. We don’t get a lot of attention because we
aren’t in the big conferences. It would be nice for Pittsburgh and the
EWL."
Nick Marable, Missouri
On considering nationals being a home meet:
"Yes, we’re definitely going to have a lot of fans here. I think it’s
going to help in our matches. Like a lot of big matches it comes down
to a point or two and then at the end of the period your just dead from
wrestling a match you get your fans just going. It just gets you going
so I think definitely it’s going to help a lot of our guys wrestle in
the tournament."
On how last year's experience filling in prepared him for this season:
"I wrestled a lot of tough kids last year both weight classes. I would
say I performed at 165 that is probably why I'm wrestling right now. I
think one of the biggest things that prepared me was just wrestling
with Matt (Pell) and Ben (Askren) last year in practice all the time.
That was probably the toughest thing I ever had to do was wrestle them."
Head Coaches Pre-Championship Press Conference
Tom Borrelli, Central Michigan
Opening Statement
“I’m real happy to be here. I’ve been coaching Central Michigan for 17
years and this is the first time I’ve been in this press conference, so
I’m pretty excited.”
Tom Brands, Iowa
Opening Statement
“To give you a sense of where we’re at, we like our team as a program.
We have guys that believe in themselves and certainly the coaching
staff believes in our guys. That has been our philosophy all year and
has carried over.”
Cael Sanderson, Iowa State
Opening Statement
“This is the best week of the year for us. We’re just eager and excited and ready to get this tournament started tomorrow.”
Brian Smith, Missouri
Opening Statement
“We look forward to wrestling in the state of Missouri all the time for
the NCAA’s. I just want to give a thanks out to the sports commission,
I think they do a great job. I get to work with them a few times a
year, and I know how hard they work and all the volunteers that help to
make this tournament run right. We’re bringing seven quality young men
out here and they’re excited. This has been their goal the whole
season, to get out here to St. Louis and perform at the highest level
here. They’re very focused and we have a lot of confidence in them.”
Tom Brands on Iowa’s current number one ranking:
“I don’t think rankings mean anything right now, especially tomorrow
morning. They may mean something now when you look at the season and
total up the points they finish with and that’s all fine for the
thousand fans coming in and making predictions. But we have to take
care of each individual match as it comes up, starting tomorrow morning
with 125 pounds. If we get ahead of ourselves, not a lot of good can
come from that. I can make no predictions but I think it’s pretty safe
to say we have nine guys here who believe in themselves.”
Brian Smith on Missouri’s chance to compete so close to home:
“I guess our trip was quicker than everybody else, that’s about it. No
matter where you’re at the first two rounds you’re going to have to go
out there and wrestle hard. I just think being at home the guys feel
more comfortable. We actually had a chance to practice at home
yesterday. But you still have to show up at the mat and wrestle hard.
We’ll have fans, I know we’ve sold about 1,200 seats, so we will have a
big fan base, so we’ll have to go out and wrestle.”
Cael Sanderson on the differences of participating as a wrestler and coaching:
“Well, it’s definitely different, but there are also a lot of
similarities though, you’re still competing, it’s just not as hands-on.
You’re not stepping out there yourself. But it’s been an easy
transition for me because of the great staff we have and the quality of
our student athletes and our program. It’s competition at it’s finest
now, and we’re trying to get the best effort out of our entire team. If
we can do that we can be in front.”
J Robinson on Minnesota’s season:
“It’s been a frustrating season, there’s no doubt about that. We’ve had
a lot of injures the entire way and we never really got our team
together until the Big Ten tournament. Then we had some other problems,
but I don’t think you have to think in terms of defending a title, you
have to be here to win a title. The other part, for us, we don’t have
to worry about two more months of competition, after these three more
days we’re done. We don’t have to worry about trying to get someone
back in two weeks, it’s our finale right now.”