Mack ReiterRevWrestling.com recently caught up with Reiter and talked to him about how he ended up at Minnesota, the ups and downs of his career, how his ACL injury has affected him, what the team took away from the loss to Iowa State, what he expects to happen at 133 pounds next season for the Gophers, what he expects out of the team and himself this season, whether he plans to continue competing after the collegiate season, and much more.
I'm going to go back a few years to your senior season of high school in 2003. You grew up a Hawkeye fan and were quoted in a story during the recruiting process as saying, "I think it would be tough to turn down Iowa, but if that's what's best, I don't know … picturing myself in Minnesota's uniform is a little hard. I can see myself in a Hawkeye uniform. I always have." Yet you signed with Minnesota and became the first blue-chip recruit from the state of Iowa to sign with the Gophers. Why did you choose Minnesota over Iowa?
Reiter: To be honest, something just felt right about the whole situation at Minnesota. I loved the coaching staff. Minnesota had everything in place. I think more than anything else, I just needed a little bit of a change. I felt that if I went to Iowa that I would have just been hanging out with the same people I hung out with all my life. I thought up here at Minnesota that I would meet new people and have new coaches who could take me to the next level. I think that was my deciding factor.
Your freshman season in the lineup, you turned in one of the best freshman seasons in school history, finishing the year with a 40-7 record, fourth place at the NCAA Championships, Big Ten Freshman of the Year, and Most Outstanding Wrestler at the Big Ten Championships after pinning Mark Jayne. Did you surprise even yourself by how much success you had so soon? Or did you expect to challenge for a national title right away?
Reiter: In the back of my mind, I always wanted to win a national title right away. But I can't sit here and say there weren't doubts in my mind. I spent my life watching some of the guys that I would be wrestling, since they were a few years older than me. I was always in amazement at how good they are … guys like Travis Lee, who I watched in the Junior National finals. So, like I said, I can't sit here and say there weren't doubts in my mind. But as the season progressed, I was having success against some of them. My mindset started to change a little bit and I started to believe in myself a lot more.
It seemed like your freshman season you were kind of the freshman underdog and surprised a lot of people. Coming back your sophomore season as the returning Big Ten Freshman of the Year and an All-American, was there added pressure to accomplish more than you did as a freshman?
Reiter: I never really felt much pressure because I go out there to wrestle for me and my team. I don't wrestle for anybody else. The only pressure I felt was from my team. There was a little bit from my team because we were competing for a national title. We were close all year. We were ranked No. 1 after beating Oklahoma State, although we eventually fell short of winning a national title at the NCAAs. A little bit from that, but not much pressure from anywhere else, other than from myself and what I wanted to accomplish. My goal was to be a four-time Big Ten champ after my freshman year. Obviously, I fell short of that too.
Mack Reiter was disqualified against Purdue's Chris Fleeger for an illegal slam in the 2006 NCAA quarterfinals (Photo/The Guillotine)Reiter: Initially, I couldn't believe the slam was called. My intention was to do a leg slip … and try to slip him off because I knew there wasn't a lot of time left in the period. Now that I've gone back and watched the film, it does look a little more violent than what I intended it to be. I can understand now why the slam was called. I don't fault any referee decisions as far as the call goes. As far his choice to not continue the match, I can't say one way or another whether he was able to continue or not. He wrestled a great match five hours later against (Shawn) Bunch, so … I don't know. It was a tough thing to take and it has never gotten any easier.
Last season, you tore your ACL in an early-season practice. How exactly did it happen?
Reiter: I was just wrestling with Jayson Ness. It was right towards the end of practice when we were doing matches. We were in the 30-second overtime of the last match. I tried standing up and he went to bring me back down to the mat … and it was just an accident. My knee went one way and my body went the other way … and it tore it out.
How did your injury affect you when you returned to the mat in February?
Reiter: It was more of a mindset than anything. I think my knee was strong enough, but it was real hard to convince myself to trust it. I favored my other leg a lot. I wasn't aggressive as I should have been because in the back of my mind I was scared about what could happen with my knee and possibly re-injuring it. It was more of a mindset than anything.
At the NCAA Championships last season, you lost in the quarterfinals to Matt Valenti of Penn, 4-0, and then you eventually lost again in the Round of 12 to Tyler McCormick of Missouri, 4-3. On the one hand your team had won the NCAA title. But on the other hand you came up short of your personal goals. Describe your emotions after the NCAA Championships.
Reiter: My emotions were mixed. Not placing was really, really hard for me to take. I really struggled with it for quite a while. But I was so happy for my team. Being a part of a national championship team is something very few people ever get a chance to be a part of. It was a great feeling because we did something we set our minds to do … and we did it together, especially with the team race so close it was important that each and every one of us scored every point that we did. It was real hard for me as an individual to take. But as far as the team, I was extremely happy.
You dropped a couple early-season matches (to Lou Ruggirello of Hofstra and Nick Fanthorpe of Iowa State). Were those losses more the result of you needing to make adjustments in your wrestling, the result of your health, or were those losses more the result of something going on mentally?
Reiter: I think it's just early season. I'm not taking anything from those guys. They wrestled great matches. But I feel like when I possibly meet Ruggirello at the Southern Scuffle, and hopefully face Fanthorpe at the National Duals, I'll be a different wrestler. I think there were some things that were slowing me down a little bit earlier in the season. I had to keep my weight under control, but I have it under control completely right now. I feel great. I know now that I can wrestle seven minutes and not stop moving the entire time. That has always been my biggest asset … my conditioning and being able to outwork guys.
Mack Reiter scored a comeback victory over Nebraska's Kenny Jordan on December 6 (Photo/The Guillotine)Reiter: No, I don't believe that I would be better suited at 141. It's just a long process of getting it under control. Now that I have it under control, I can maintain my weight right around 140 and not have any problems. So I don't think I would be any better off at 141. Those guys are pretty big. I don't think I'm that big yet.
What did the team take away from the loss at home to Iowa State on December 2?
Reiter: Some of the guys on our team were just assuming that it was going to be given to us. There were situations where we definitely needed to work harder, myself included. We were not ready to wrestle in that dual. It was obvious. They were well prepared. They came out and wrestled us their style. We let them control the edge and slow the pace down. I don't think in a rematch that we are going to allow them to do that. We are prepared now to face a lot of the other teams that will probably wrestle that same style of wrestling.
You showed a lot heart in your last-second victory over Cliff Keen Las Vegas Invitational champion Kenny Jordan of Nebraska on December 6. You seemed pretty fired up after the victory. How big was that win for you?
Reiter: It just kind of showed me that I'm getting back to where I want to be. I'm still not there yet. I have a long ways to go. Those types of wins are my favorite, where you can catch a guy at the end and he's just so exhausted that he can hardly stand up. Those wins were a big part of my success my freshman season. I think that I need to get back to that. For me, it was almost like my freshman season was my best season for competing because I wore guys down. I may not have had the most ability, but I was able to win matches that way.
Mack Reiter lost to Hofstra's Lou Ruggirello at the NWCA All-Star Classic on November 19 (Photo/Tony Rotundo)Reiter: I think so. I love it. You get the chance to go out there and compete. The whole country is watching us, especially as defending national champs. We are in the spotlight a lot of the time. It's exciting to have everybody gunning for us. Iowa State comes up here and knocks us off. Now we have something to go prove. So it's really exciting from that standpoint. And I still haven't gotten my individual national title, so I have something to look forward to. I still have a chance to win my first individual national title. Hopefully in March I can accomplish that.
Would anything less than an NCAA individual title and a team title be considered a disappointing season? Or do you not look at it like that?
Reiter: I couldn't say a disappointing season. Yeah, obviously I want to win a title and I want my team to win a title, but I don't know if I would say a disappointing season, but it's clearly not what I would want. It's tough to say disappointing season because if I'm the runner-up in the country, it's a pretty special thing. But obviously I'm hoping to win a national title.
You will finish your collegiate wrestling career in March. You have been successful in age-group events in the international styles of freestyle and Greco-Roman. Do you plan to continue to wrestle freesytle or Greco after your collegiate career is over? Or do you have aspirations of getting into coaching?
Reiter: My plan right now is to wrestle Greco. Watching some of those guys in freestyle, I don't know that I have enough time between March and May to change my style to compete with some of the top guys in freestyle, so I think I'm going to try Greco. I wrestle a lot of upperbody when I wrestle collegiately. It's a real physical and demanding style. It's a tough style and I think I can excel in it. After that, I plan on coaching. I would like to coach here at Minnesota. Hopefully that works out.
So do you plan to compete internationally at 132 pounds or 145.5 pounds? And do you plan on competing at the 2008 U.S. Nationals in Las Vegas?
Reiter: I will compete at 132 pounds. Those 145.5 pounders would be really big. They would be throwing me around. Yeah, I plan to compete at the U.S. Nationals.
Obviously, Minnesota loses a lot of firepower after this season. Who do you expect to take over at 133 next season? Do you see Jayson Ness moving up to 133? Or do you expect Mike Thorn or possibly Zach Sanders to be the starter at 133?
Reiter: I think it's going to be a decision made by the coaches. But I don't see Ness having any problem moving up and succeeding … and then Sanders jumping in at 125. If Ness does stay at 125, I think Thorn is more than ready to compete. I wrestle him at least once a week. He wrestles hard. I think he will definitely be ready to step in next season. I see 133 as a strong weight class next season for us either way.
Zach Sanders, who is redshirting, came to Minnesota with great high school credentials. How is he looking in the wrestling room? Do you wrestle with him much?
Reiter: Yeah, I wrestle with him. He's tough and fights hard. That's all you can ask for out of a redshirt. He constantly wrestles hard and keeps improving. I'm excited to see him step out on the mat and actually compete next season.
Please Note:This story also appears in the December 28 issue of The Guillotine. The Guillotine has been covering amateur wrestling in Minnesota since 1971. Its mission is to report and promote amateur wrestling at all levels -- from youth and high school wrestling to college and international level wrestling. For information on The Guillotine, Click HERE.
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