By: Greg Arnold
Staff Writer
The Old Dominion wrestling team is heading to Rider University in Lawrenceville, N.J. to take place in the Colonial Athletic Association’s Championship Tournament. The tournament will take place Friday at 1:00 p.m. and Saturday at 10:00 a.m. and will be pitting the toughest wrestlers in the CAA against each other.
This will be the biggest test for many of the members of the Monarch team this season, head coach Steve Martin has been getting his team ready for this the entire season. He has purposely made the schedule for his team harder than need be so his wrestlers will be ready for the challenges they will face in the tournament. Senior Kyle Hutter said, “Coach has always done a great job in that. We train to peak here at the end. We do short intense workouts so we’re not too sore through the tournament, but we’re ready to go at our highest level.”
The last five seasons ODU has placed second in the overall team competition, and is hoping to go home with the honors this season. Leading the team will be senior James Nicholson, who will be defending his title at the 125-pound weight class. Nicholson has won in his weight class all three years he has participated, and is far and away the favorite to win again this season. He has a 29-0 record this season and ranked fourth in the nation at his weight class.
Hutter has also made a name for himself in his college career. He is ranked 12th in the nation at his 133-pound weight class, with a 29-7 record. Modestly Hutter said of his season, “Not the season I really hoped to happen. A lot of ups and downs in the season. It will end up helping me (in the tournament), in dealing with a lot of adversity in the season.”
Hutter has been runner-up in his weight the three times he has participated in the tournament and is looking to break through in his senior year. Last season, however, he was redshirted to ready himself for his senior year. For him it was, “another year of training. I was able to focus on myself a little bit more. I could come in on my own a little bit more.”
Late this season Hutter had to deal with adversity in his wrestling in ODU’s match against in-state rivals The University of Virginia. In his match against freshman Joe Spisak he found himself in trouble, “I was controlling right away and I got caught up in a move. I shouldn’t have been there, but I knew I could come back from it. It’s good going into conference tournaments, dealing through adversity, I know if I get down again, when it counts, I could come back.” He did come back in that match to win 10-8.
The next step for Hutter and others in the ODU wrestling team, after the CAA Tournament, will be the NCAA Championship held in Philadelphia, Pa. This tournament will be held between the 17th and the 19th and will include the best of the best of the entire nation. Hutter said when asked if he was excited for the upcoming challenge, “Absolutely, I’m all about it. It’s what I’ve been working for.”
