Youth fuel Augustana wrestling's deep roster

For the 12 freshmen on Augustana’s wrestling team, October 25 was their first taste of collegiate-level competition.

The squad kicked off its season with the annual intersquad meet, where one of the largest wrestling rosters in Augustana's history competed against each other to begin preparations for the season. 

“I think some people think it's [the intersquad meet] more of a wrestle-off to determine who starts, but I really think it's more of just practice,” junior middleweight Charles Petit said. “It's about getting down to weight for the first time, first competition, getting your warm-up routine down.”

The first true test for the team comes next week at the Dakota Wesleyan University Open. Because the tournament is an open event, all available athletes on the roster will take part in the competition. 

Head coach Jason Reitmeier said he usually aims for around 38 students on a roster, but large recruiting classes over the past two years have led to a larger roster of 47 students.

“If a kid wants to compete and he wants to compete for Augustana, I'm not going to tell him no,” Reitmeier said. “They've got to have some credentials to be able to walk in our room and compete at this level. But I want kids that want to be here.”

The new NCAA eligibility rules mean that coaches don’t have to worry about redshirting and athlete eligibility when thinking about who gets to compete.

“Everybody's going to get an opportunity. We don't have to deal with the guessing game of ‘are you ready to compete at this level?’ It's like, hey, go give it a try, and then we can go from there,” Reitmeier said.

Petit said that it's usually a shock for wrestlers going from the high school level to the collegiate level.

According to freshman Hudson Cisar, one of the biggest differences in adjusting to the collegiate level has been getting used to the conditioning routine that wrestlers have to follow at every practice.

Another major difference at the collegiate level is having to make weight for the specific division a wrestler is expected to compete in while maintaining their strength and muscle mass.

“They do a water cut, which is you drink a whole bunch of water a couple days before the meet, like before you weigh in,” Cisar said. “I've never done that before, so it's different for me, but it really helps.” 

Reitmeier said the wrestlers follow weight plans developed by a nutritionist who prepares individualized plans for the athletes to follow so they can reach their competition weight with ease. 

“So as long as you go in and scan every week, you'll be able to edit how much carbs, protein, fats you're eating. It makes it really easy when you follow that to a T. It just naturally drops the weight for you,” Petit said.

Having large recruiting classes the past few years means that a majority of the roster are freshmen and sophomores. Of the 47 wrestlers on the roster, 34 are underclassmen.

“I think the older guys did a really good job just taking me under their wing and being there for me whenever I had questions and pushing me in the wrestling room," Petit said. “Hopefully I'll be able to do that for these freshmen coming in now.”

The team will travel to the University of Central Oklahoma on November 15 to compete against one of the top wrestling programs in Division II. They will begin their NSIC run at home December 3 against Northern State University.