While Northwestern wrestling’s heralded freshman recruiting class prepares for the NU Duals this weekend, coach Tim Cysewski announced Thursday the signing of two high school seniors to National Letters of Intent.
Greg Hagel, of Linwood, N.J., is part of a high school team that has won the national championship. He is currently ranked sixth in the nation at 152 pounds by Wrestling USA. Dustin Fox, of Galion, Ohio, posted a perfect 46-0 record last season and won the Ohio Division II state title at heavyweight. He is ranked third in the country.
Cysewski said the next recruiting period begins in April and lasts through Aug. 1. He said NU tends to recruit wrestlers from the strong wrestling programs of the Midwest and East Coast because it reduces the “culture shock” of coming to NU.
Though this year’s recruiting class was ranked seventh-best in the nation, freshman Nick Hayes (165 pounds) is the only freshman starting this weekend. Cysewski said he ideally likes giving freshmen time to get acclimated before they begin starting for the team.
“In the past, we had to start freshmen right away, but now we have enough depth in our weight classes,” Cysewski said. “It’s a double-edged sword — the freshman can get a sense of adjustment from high school, but they won’t compete on regular basis. Hopefully the upperclassmen will carry their weight and do a good job.”
The Wildcats may not be competing against Big Ten powerhouses this weekend, but they still can’t write off Saturday’s matches against Division I Gardner-Webb and Division III Wisconsin-LaCrosse and Augustana.
Cysewski said these early season matches can be “dangerous.”
“I get nervous,” Cysewski said about competitions against smaller schools. “We should not lose a match no matter who we wrestle. These guys work hard — we need to justify all the hard work. We practice 17 hours a week for seven minutes.”
Senior Josh Ballard (149 pounds) is one of five seniors slated to start this weekend. He said that while his performance will peak later in the season, he plans on approaching this match as if it were a Big Ten competition.
“You have to go into it as if you were wrestling Iowa or Minnesota,” Ballard said.
“They know us, but we don’t know them,” Cysewski said. “They know we’re Northwestern, and we’re in the Big Ten — they have nothing to lose coming here. It’s way too early in the season to think it’s an automatic.”
