The NCAA Division I Wrestling Committee - which head coach Tom Minkel is a part of - released the tournament’s brackets and the rest of the athletes competing, but none were Spartans.

“There’s no substitute for experience,” Minkel said. “It’s very hard not to get overwhelmed, but once you’ve been there, you have to make it small.”

Making it small, Minkel explained, is thinking of it as just “me and the other guy fighting” and not wrestling the opponent’s ranking, name, or reputation.

“Most of the hard work is done - if not all. Now they have to go in rested and anxious to wrestle,” he said.

There is not much training to be done at this point, and McClure’s workout changes its rhythm before a big competition.

“Right now, it’s a week out, so I’ll pick up the pace with shorter and more intense workouts, and as it gets closer, they’ll be softened,” he said.

A perk of being seeded in the NCAA Championships is that he does not have to quickly wrestle another athlete to place.

Being in the Big Ten, he has fought most of his competitors - seven out of the first ten seeds at nationals are in the conference.

“Every week, I see the toughest heavyweights, so I get the experience out of the belt and have a high chance of getting a national title,” McClure said.

McClure automatically knew he qualified after session two of the Big Ten tournament and will wrestle Pittsburgh’s Patrick Tasser in his first NCAA match.

For Rizqallah, it came down to his last match, and going in, he will face the winner between Lock Haven’s Fred Garcia and Indiana’s Like Sheridan.

“The Big Ten is like a small nationals - it’s a stepping stone in nationals,” Rizqallah said. “I’ll treat every match the same because anything can happen.”

His mentality, though, is what changed from his first to second year at the nationals, as he knows what it’s like now.

“Last year, I went in hoping I would do well, this year I’m focusing on wrestling well while I’m on the mat - basically focus, keep good position and not worry about the outcome of the match - but I’m not less nervous,” Rizqallah said.

For Minkel, who coached his 23rd Big Ten Championships earlier this month, said the talent in the conference is condensed because most of the guys are highly ranked, and that’s an advantage.

“This Big Ten tournament was without doubt the toughest I’ve been,” Minkel said. “It prepares very well for nationals. You get through the Big Ten (Championship), you know what it’s like at nationals.”

Although McClure knows it will be one of his toughest competitions, he will go into it confident in coming out on top.

“If I didn’t place high at nationals, that’d be a huge disappointment, but I highly doubt that’s going to happen,” McClure said.

In preparing the two athletes for the biggest competition of the year, Minkel wants them to wrestle every match fast.

“There isn’t one guy that can’t be beat, they just have to take it one match at the time and see how far we can make it,” Minkel said.

Both wrestlers leave on Tuesday to go to the NCAA Championships. They begin next Thursday, March 20 and go until March 22 in Oklahoma City, Okla.