The curtain may have fallen this season for some members of the MSU wrestling squad, but for six Spartan wrestlers, they’ll get to move on to college wrestling’s biggest stage this weekend.
Seniors Pat McNamara (133 pounds) and Mike Castillo (141 pounds), junior Chris Williams (125 pounds), and sophomores Karl Nadolsky (149 pounds), Gray Maynard (157 pounds) and Nik Fekete (197 pounds) will all be competing in the NCAA Wrestling Championships.
The tournament will be held Thursday through Saturday in Iowa City, Iowa.
“As always, it’s an extraordinary event - particularly in Iowa where the passion for wrestling is pretty extraordinary,” MSU head coach Tom Minkel said.
Minkel said he expects his wrestlers to perform well this weekend, particularly McNamara, who has earned All-American status for two consecutive years and will have his last chance at winning a national title this weekend.
McNamara said this is the best he’s ever felt entering the NCAA meet and is ready to go.
“I’ve always wanted to win a national title and this is my shot,” he said. “This is my last one and I’m going into it with that attitude. I’m really excited.”
McNamara will try and bounce back from what he called a disappointing showing at the Big Ten Championships earlier this month, in which he entered the tournament as the No. 2 seed at 133 pounds but went home with a third-place finish.
“It’s not going to affect me - I still know I’m one of the top guys and up at that tournament, anybody can win,” he said. “It’s a wide open tournament and whoever is hot - whoever is having a hot tournament - normally wins. That’s what I’m looking to do.”
Fekete will be making his first appearance at the NCAA meet and will also be trying to rebound from a disappointing performance at the Big Ten meet.
Fekete entered the tournament as the No. 3 seed at 197 pounds, but finished eighth and had to receive one of the Big Ten’s two at-large bids to qualify for the NCAA meet.
“When you have a bad tournament like that, you can’t rely on that but I got it,” he said. “At nationals, I just got to take all the work I’ve put in this season and just go in and take that in mind with me.”
Nadolsky, who is competing in his second NCAA Championship meet, said he hopes to finish in the top eight and earn All-American status among some stiff competition in his weight class.
“I know I can hang with them, I just got to pull together and do it,” he said.
Nadolsky said he hopes the Spartan wrestlers going to Iowa can wrestle more to their potential, something he said they didn’t do with a seventh-place finish at the Big Ten meet.
“The six of us that made it, we have the potential to definitely do some damage and score some points and help our team as a whole finish in the top 10 or something,” he said. “That’d be really nice.”
