Your future, our focus
NWC Wrestling Hoping for Big Season Despite Low Numbers
If Northwest College wrestling coach Jim Zeigler leads his team to its 22nd consecutive top-10 finish in the nation this season, it’s likely he’ll remember another number: 17.
That’s because heading into his 23rd season as the Trappers’ coach, Zeigler is carrying his smallest squad into the winter campaign. The 17 wrestlers making up his team this year are a drastic drop from last season’s numbers, as 25 wrestlers helped NWC to a second-place finish in the nation in 2013-14.
“We’re a very young team, and we’re low on numbers, but the quality of our group is very good,” Zeigler said. “With that said, it would be very optimistic to think we’re going to have the run we had the previous year. But, anything’s possible.”
NWC finished as the fourth-ranked team in the nation before the national championships last year, and any reason for optimism this season should start with a solid core of returners from last season’s team.
Redshirt sophomore Jeff McCormick was last winter’s Cinderella story after nearly dying from a ruptured appendix in early January. McCormick underwent an emergency appendectomy, and by Feb. 28 the Kamas, Utah, product was on his way to a third-place finish at the NJCAA National Championships. With a rocky past behind him, McCormick said the focus is solely on NWC and its future.
“Our overall mindset right now is to just get better ... last year means nothing now,” McCormick said. “We need to work on moving forward and not focusing on past events. We need to focus on what we have and working with that.”
True sophomore Jon Wixom also brings a wealth of veteran leadership to the Trappers this season after claiming second at nationals at 197 pounds a year ago. Wixom said that NWC’s smaller team shouldn’t be overlooked this season, as he believes the talent level outweighs the numbers shortage.
“Quality over quantity,” Wixom said. “We have a smaller team this year, but I feel like we also have more skill. Plus, with a smaller team, coach has more time to focus on individual guys and spend more time helping each guy out.”
McCormick hopes that individualized time will do wonders for a freshman class he believes carries a ton of talent.
“All of these freshmen were great high school wrestlers, but now we’re training them to be even better college wrestlers,” McCormick said. “We’re moving past high school and to the college level, and getting these guys to that maturity level needed to succeed here.”
Another sophomore looking to set the example for those freshmen is Kaelen Loveless. At 149 pounds, Loveless went 2-2 in the national tournament in February, and is looking to build on that outing while also making an impression on the younger athletes.
“What’s really going to help the freshmen out is getting past [the NWC Open],” Loveless said. “Once you get over that, it’s a little easier, you get a little more used to the things that happen at the college level, you get a taste of it.”
Zeigler said he’s excited about the freshman class, including early standouts Eduardo Pehna (133 pounds) Jon- David Henderson (141) and heavyweight Jorge Rodriguez. Pehna will be of particular interest to watch this season, as the Las Vegas native brings just three years of wrestling experience to the Trappers. However, Pehna has gathered success through a wrestling style that incorporates a healthy amount of Brazilian jiu-jitsu.
At the NWC Open on Saturday, several freshmen showed promise early. Henderson made it to the championship match in his bracket before falling to Michael Ruiz of the University of Great Falls. Pehna won his first two matches before dropping to the consolation bracket, but came away with a third-place finish after a pin in his final match of the day. Rodriguez also made it to the semis in his field, earning two wins on the day, and freshman Sam Jones collected backto- back pins to start his day in the 125-pound bracket before settling for a 3-2 day.
“There’s really a great mix of styles and stories coming out of this freshman group this year,” Zeigler said. “It’s going to be extremely exciting to watch the younger guys develop and learn from the sophomores.
“And that’s the biggest thing ... the sophomores now have the responsibility of teaching the lessons they learned last season as freshmen to the freshmen this year.”
McCormick agreed.
“The lessons are to be responsible, and find your own motivation,” he said. “You have to find your own motivation within yourself to really get after it and work hard. You work 10 times harder in the college room than you ever did at the high school level.”
And with that hard work comes the expectations for the Trappers.
“Basically, our success is expected,” McCormick added. “We come in and we train hard, so when it comes to the end of the year and we're at the national tournament, we just go out and wrestle.
“We don't worry about what we need to do to get here or there, we just go out and do what we know how to do and let everything else fall into place.”