Preparation is a theme for the Oregon wrestling team. The team’s season-long goal of earning spots at the NCAA Championship meet is helped by gaining experience through the regular season as well as a ramped-up training regimen during the fall.
Head coach Chuck Kearney thinks his team has a shot to reach that goal and send more wrestlers to the NCAA meet than the two who went last year: the graduated Justin Pearch and current sophomore Ron Lee.
And preparation is what the Ducks (9-5 overall, 0-3 Pacific-10 Conference) consider tonight’s dual meet at 7 p.m. at McArthur Court against Northern Colorado (2-4, 1-0 Western Wrestling Conference) – and every other meet, really.
“We don’t really differentiate,” Kearney said. “To us it’s all the season.”
Despite a slow start to the conference season in the win-loss column, the Ducks have shown improvement over last season. However, that was a natural occurrence, Kearney said, considering the youth of last year’s squad.
“You are, for the most part, always better as a senior than as a freshman,” Kearney said. “It’s a one-on-one sport and a physical sport. Maturity levels really relate right to your strength and power.”
Despite the match losses – including the first three Pac-10 meets – Oregon has been much closer to wins this season than last. Kearney said that in the Pac-10 dual meet loss to Cal State Fullerton on Jan. 2, Oregon won five of the eight matches and were within striking distance in the other three.
That shows in three of the top-performing wrestlers Oregon had this season – all of whom are redshirt sophomores or younger. Sophomores Ron Lee, Zack Frazier and freshman Charlie Alexander have led the way for the Ducks at the 165-pound, 174-pound and 285-pound weight classes, respectively, and Lee and Alexander are tied for the team lead in match wins at 16. All three of them attribute team improvements this year to conditioning.
“We run a lot more this year. Our coach is on us every night,” Alexander said.
“We ran like two or three stadium (stair sets) last year, we ran like seven this year,” Frazier said, adding that they ran stairs every Friday after lifting sessions during the fall camp.
Alexander has been a pleasant surprise for the Ducks, coming in at the heavyweight class after redshirting last season. Kearney pointed to his match with Northern Colorado’s Reece Hopkins, who is currently ranked 20th nationally by Intermat, as a “good, exciting match” to look forward to on Friday.
Besides that, though, Oregon’s coaches and wrestlers aren’t overly worried about who they face up against in this meet. Though they admit they don’t know the Bears incredibly well, that doesn’t change the Ducks’ game plan: Go on the attack.
“We don’t really see Northern Colorado that much, so our main focus is to just be aggressive,” Lee said.
“This match prepares us for four Pac-10 meets in a row after this, so it just gets us ready for that,” Alexander added.
Those four Pac-10 meets will go a long way toward determining who will have a shot to make their way to the NCAA Championship in St. Louis in March. Lee was selected as an alternate after finishing fifth in his weight class last year at the Pac-10s, and considers it a life-changing experience.
“It’s like a totally different level,” Lee said. “Every match back at nationals was like a Pac-10 final match. The level of wrestling back there … to see that just opened my eyes.”