One day after practice in the wrestling room, over a month ago, assistant coach Kyle Hansen looked at me and said, "You wanna talk to the toughest wrestler on the team?"
He was talking about redshirt freshman Jeremy Johnson, who, in his first year of official college wrestling, climbed in and out of Intermat's ranking of the top-20 heavyweights in the nation.
The Bobcats fly to Illinois Friday morning for the MAC Championships at Northern Illinois' campus. But this won't be Johnson's first big tournament. In high school, he won a state championship and also took the title at the biggest high school wrestling tourney in the nation, in Fargo, North Dakota. And this past summer, Johnson competed for Team USA on their squad of wrestlers 21-and-under in Budapest, Hungary. So yeah. He's been in some pressure situations.
With four automatic bids allotted to the 285-pound division at the MAC tourney, it's a good bet we'll be seeing Johnson in Philadelphia for the NCAA Championships. If he finishes fourth or better, he's in. I caught up with Johnson Tuesday after practice to talk about the upcoming conference tournament.
So we're coming up on your first MAC Championships. How are you feeling about that?
I'm really excited. I cannot wait. I wish it was like tomrorow. I have a pretty tough road ahead of me, and there's some tough guys. I know what I gotta do. I think I could win it on a good day.
So you're feeling pretty confident?
Yeah. I'm feeling pretty good. My body's pretty healed up. All the work's done now. It's time to have fun.
There are some pretty tough guys at your weight, like Jarod Trice (of Central Michigan) and Brandon Barlow (of Kent State). Does already having faced them once during the season help you in the tournament?
Oh yeah, definitely. Wrestling them during the year... I know what I did wrong, I know what I did right. So I just gotta wrestle my match like I wrestled those guys and every other guy.
There are four bids allotted to heavyweight, and if I was in your shoes I'd be expecting to be at least third. So are you kind of expecting to be in Nationals?
Oh, I expect to be in Nationals. I don't wanna put too much pressure on myself, but when it comes down to it, that's what you train for. You train to go to Nationals.
The MACs have gotta be a pretty big event in your career. I know you've also wrestled in other big tournaments, so how does this compare?
It's definitely pretty big. I mean my first year, starting varsity, going to the MAC tournament. It's no joke. The MAC's definitely showing its strength in all the weight classes. I think I'm ready to go.
I know you guys train to peak around this time of year. Do you feel like you've been able to do that?
Oh yeah, I definitely feel like I've gotten a lot better. I'm feeling great this week in practice. I trust my coaches' training, and I trust my hard work.
