Cal Poly Wrestling had a historic run at the 59th Ken Kraft Midlands Championships. After placing 13th out of the 42 teams present, they're looking to keep the morale going with upcoming duals against American University and Northern Colorado at home.
Mustang wrestlers Zeth Romney, Trevor Tinker, and Adam Kemp all placed at the Midlands Championships, a program record of three placers. Romney led the way after placing third at 133 pounds, the second-highest individual finish by a Mustang ever at Midlands. The Simi Valley native improved to 12-5 on the season after winning three matches against opponents ranked higher than him in national ranks.
“Personally, I think I could beat anyone in the country," Romney said. "No matter what they're ranked I know I have the skill set to do it. It's more just really honing it in and focusing before the match and really knowing what I'm going to go in there and do.”
Romney won Pac-12 Wrestler of the Week after his showing, the third mustang to ever accomplish the feat. Once ranked nationally at No. 31 in his weight class, Romney now ranks no. 10 in the nation according to Intermat.
“I like to understand what they're going to do and what they're good at, but not to the point where I'm overthinking it and not wrestling like myself," the redshirt freshmand said. "Just kind of being aware of how they wrestle and what to look out for.”
Redshirt sophomore Trevor Tinker placed sixth at 285 pounds. The Covina native suffered an injury in his consolation semifinal and was forced to medically forfeit the fifth-place match. Tinker is rehabing this week to prepare for duals this upcoming weekend with a headstrong mentaltity.
“Coach Reid called us a blue-collar team," Tinker joked. "You we don't have like the resources or the facilities that a lot of other big teams have or we don't have the funding that they have, but we get it done.”
Having coaches such as Evan Wick who is fresh off the collegiate mat and is preparing for the Olympic trials in April helps set the tone for what’s expected as a group.
“We have a lot of guys like that are just going out and just like cutting loose on the mat and regardless of the outcome we’re just coming back and getting better," Tinker said. "We're having like this really rapid rate of growth because guys are just going out there no matter the result.”
Just like Tinker, graduate student Adam Kemp was also forced to medically forfeit. Kemp forfeited the seventh-place match to grab eighth place at 174 pounds. But Kemp is used to adversity, which is why he’s ranked 14th in the nation in his weight class.
“Last year I blew out my shoulder, I tore my rotator cuff, I tore my labrum and my fractured my humeral head off my shoulder bone," Kemp said. "I tore my bicep tendon on one arm and it happened before the season even started and I wrestled four duals…But after my surgery, I took six months off, you know, to heal. So I just had a lot of time to reflect on the sport and like a new perspective for it and just develop new unfounded gratitude for the sport.”
Cal Poly is set to host American University and Northern Colorado in a pair of duals on Friday at 5:30 p.m. and 7 p.m. at the Mott Athletics Center, then take on Air Force on Sunday at 1 p.m.
