2020 NWCA All-American Real Woods (Photo/Tony Rotundo; WrestlersAreWarriors.com)Stanford Cardinal
"We're not focusing on being the best dual-meet team in the country -- we obviously want guys to have their best performances at nationals." --Head Coach Rob Koll
A new coaching staff has arrived to welcome the Stanford Cardinal wrestling team, justly, back into their wrestling room after a tumultuous 2021 season. Grappling with novel viruses and bureaucracy in addition to Division 1 competition was no easy task, and the Cardinal did so in a display of fortitude that captured the admiration of not only the wrestling community, but the broader general sport-public. For the newly formed Cardinal wrestling staff, the excitement among the wrestlers has been contagious. "Honestly, I think all of us were pleasantly surprised when we very first got here, given the condition of the team getting cut and then what they had to go through last year. They never got to practice inside the wrestling room, all season long. They didn't really get to have workouts together," explained Assistant Coach Grant Leeth in a recent interview with InterMat. "I don't think they got to showcase the talent that's on this team. Since we've been here, they've surprised us in a good way. … You can tell these kids love wrestling. They love being on this team and actually having a chance to workout in the wrestling room with this new staff -- they've just brought excitement into the room everyday."
Despite the strong energy from his athletes, veteran coach and Head Coach Rob Koll is keeping his expectations tempered, awaiting the results of a challenging schedule ahead to measure his line-up. "You've got to be really careful of thinking, 'boy, these guys look really good!' when, the problem is they look 'really good' because the room's not very good. So, that's always a fear. We'll find that out sooner rather than later -- our first two matches are Oklahoma State and Cornell." (Oklahoma State and Cornell enter the year as the #4/#3 and #7/#11 tournament/dual teams in the country, respectively.)
The concern for Koll and company is not the talented personnel they return, in the form of three All-Americans and six NCAA qualifiers overall, but rather the lack of a freshman class coming into the room. "Not having that [freshman] class not just hurts the talent on the mat in competition, but it hurts the room in practice everyday. You only have twenty-three, twenty-four guys on the roster of which, on any given day, two or three are hurt or sick or whatever, now you're in the teens. That's a scary proposition going into a tough dual-meet schedule like we've got."
Nonetheless, Koll and staff are looking forward to seeing their relatively light roster compete on a relatively heavy schedule. "You can't pull back. We're fortunate -- we're actually lucky -- we have a nice [spread]. We don't have a bell curve of weights; we actually have a couple guys at every single weight." And pull back, they did not. The Cardinal are expected to compete at the Cliff Keen Las Vegas Invite, the Reno Tournament of Champions, as well as the Southern Scuffle. For Assistant Coach Vincenzo Joseph, there are a few key events on their schedule. "I'm looking forward to Scuffle, Oklahoma State, [#3/#8] Arizona State. Just a few dates I have marked down. And [UR/#28] Oregon State as well, really curious to see how we match-up with them."
With many opportunities to face the upper-echelon, the Stanford squad will be more than seasoned by the time they take the mat at the conference tournament. It is the kind of season apt for a talented team that fought for and earned its survival last year against the odds, with a national title to show for it. It is also the kind of season that a talented staff organizes to refine their team in the fire of competition. In the words of Coach Leeth, "It's gonna be a fun year; we're putting them through the wringer [and we] wouldn't have it any other way."
TOP RETURNERS
Returning, defending National Champion Shane Griffith returns for Stanford as the No. 1 wrestler at a loaded 165lbs class. Returning 7th-place All-American Jaden Abas (149) will look to improve on his 2021 performance, as will the never-to-be-overlooked #7 Real Woods (141), who was a Round of 12 finisher in 2021. This triumvirate of All-Americans is the core of the Stanford line-up.
KEY DEPARTURES
4x NCAA Qualifier Nathan Traxler (197/285) and Pac-12 Champion, 2x NCAA Qualifier Requir van der Merwe (149/157) have since graduated from The Farm, and each leave big shoes to fill in the Cardinal lineup. The heir apparents are freshmen Charlie Darracott (157) and Peter Ming (285), but ultimately performance will determine who will be Traxler's and van der Merwe's successors.
"It's really just a work-in-progress right now, we're working on it. We might do intrasquad coming up here, but we get some open tournaments throughout the season too that we'll be able to look at, then we'll determine what our line-up is gonna look like for the postseason. … Like [Leeth] said we have some pretty dang good athletes at '33, '57, '84, and heavyweight," Coach Joseph divulged.
TOP NEWCOMERS
Senior Judah Duhm doesn't necessarily meet the criteria for a "newcomer," but Duhm nonetheless returns to the Cardinal lineup after two seasons away. Duhm was a Pac-12 Runner-up in 2019, and a member of Stanford's only conference championship team to date, before taking a redshirt during the 2020 season and not competing during the 2021 season. With All-American Bernie Truax (Cal Poly) and multiple-time NCAA Qualifier Tanner Harvey (Oregon State) expected at the weight, Duhm will have a quality conference schedule ahead to earn a trip to the national tournament.
WRESTLER TO WATCH
Two Cardinal wrestlers have the potential to continue their upward career trajectories this season: Jackson DiSario (125) and Tyler Eischens (174). Lightweight DiSario has proven himself to be a legitimate contender, having made the conference finals and qualified for the NCAA tournament in both attempts thus far. The obvious goals for the Cardinal spark-plug are a Pac-12 title and an All-American plaque at the conclusion of the 2022 season.
Eischens is expected in the Cardinal lineup after taking the mat at both 165lbs and 174lbs last season (although he did not compete at the conference tournament). An NCAA Qualifier in 2020, Eischens has the potential to make an immediate impact for the Cardinal, feeding off national champion teammate Shane Griffith at the weight-class below him. At present, Eischens is the only Pac-12 wrestler ranked (#31) at 174lbs.
POTENTIAL LINEUP
125: #30 Jackson DiSario (So), Pac-12 Runner-up (2020, 2021), NCAA Qualifier (2020, 2021)
133: Jason Miranda (Fr)
141: #7 Real Woods (So), Pac-12 Champion (2020), NCAA Round-of-12 (2021), NCAA All-American (2020)
149: #7 Jaden Abas (Fr), Pac-12 Champion (2021), NCAA All-American (2021)
157: Charlie Darracott (Fr)
165: #1 Shane Griffith (So), Pac-12 Runner-up (2021), Pac-12 Champion (2020), NCAA All-American (2020, 2021), NCAA Champion (2021)
174: #31 Tyler Eischens (So), Pac-12 Runner-up (2020), NCAA Qualifier (2020)
184: Judah Duhm (RS-Sr), Pac-12 Runner-up (2019)
197: #28 Nick Stemmet (Fr), NCAA Qualifier (2021)
285: Peter Ming (Fr)
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