No. 1 Gomez cool, calm, expecting to be NCAA champion

While the thought of wrestling for a national championship in front of 22,000 people may put added pressure on some individuals, it hasn’t affected sophomore wrestler Franklin Gomez.

“Just chillin’,” Gomez said of his mindset heading into this weekend’s NCAA Championship meet in St. Louis, Mo. “I’ve been going to church, getting my school work done — honestly, I don’t even think about (the meet) until I get into the wrestling room.”

Gomez’s calmness probably comes from his success on the mat this season. He enters the NCAA Championships with a 28-1 overall record and a first-place finish at the Big Ten Championships, which has earned him the No. 1 seed in the tournament’s 133-pound bracket.

Throughout the season, Gomez has faced numerous ranked wrestlers, and after righting his only wrong — a 10-8 decision over Iowa’s Joey Slaton in the Big Ten semi finals, who defeated Gomez 6-2 at the Midlands Championships in December — he has put himself in position to make a serious run at the national title.

“He’s positioned well … but as in any sport where there’s a tournament format you can’t look ahead,” head coach Tom Minkel said. “You have to be focused for every game or every match and if you take care of business then you can win it all.”

While Gomez has gone up against 10 wrestlers who are in the tournament, the first wrestler he will face in his quest for a national championship will be a fresh face.

His first-round matchup is against Northern Iowa’s Josh Baldridge, a two-time junior college All-American, who went 8-5 in his first season with the Panthers.

In a tournament where the committee only ranks the top 12 wrestlers, Baldridge comes in as an unranked wrestler to face the top-seeded Gomez.

Despite what would seem to be a distinct advantage, Minkel said while Gomez has the No. 1 seed now, there are a lot of matches in the coming days that will help decide who’s number one in the end.

“He’s clearly the No. 1 guy in the country at his weight but that’s on paper today,” Minkel said.

“On Thursday, Friday, Saturday he just simply has to execute well and wrestle to his potential.”

When asked if he thought he’d win, Gomez responded with a quick, “Yeah.” Although he knows he’ll be going up against some stiff competition, he said he fully expects to end the weekend as the national champion, saying that’s the only logical way to approach it.

“I mean I don’t go there thinking I’m not going to win,” Gomez said. “If there’s some thought of me going down there thinking I’m not going to win, then I shouldn’t go there — even if I’m (ranked) No. 1.”

The first round of the 2008 NCAA Wrestling Championship begins at noon Thursday at the Scottrade Center in St. Louis. Gomez’s match is the 30th on the schedule and is expected to begin around 12:30 p.m.

If Gomez wins, he advances to Thursday night’s second round, which begins at 6:30 p.m.