Jake Herbert didn’t care about the seeding.
To him it was made by “some person that has no clue who you are and no clue how hard you work.”
Herbert already had proven “some person” wrong twice by beating higher seeds in his two previous matches, and anyone who knew Herbert knew who the better wrestler was going into the final match.
So when the redshirt freshman defeated No. 5 seed Mitch Hancock of Central Michigan in the 174-pound division title match at the Midlands Championship his teammates weren’t surprised.
Herbert was the first Northwestern wrestler since Andre Allen in 1974 to win an individual championship at Midlands.
“No one really knew it had been that long,” Herbert said. “Everyone goes in every year and tries to win, and you assume someone finally won it along the line. So I was shocked when I heard that (it had been 30 years).”
Herbert came out strong in the final match by getting Hancock on his back to start the match, giving Herbert a quick four-point advantage. Herbert said he just had to wrestle smart for the rest of the match and take advantage of Hancock, who made mistakes while trying to recover from the deficit.
“He had the confidence knowing that if he wrestled the way he can then he can win the thing, and he had a pretty formidable weight class,” NU head coach Tim Cysewski said. “He just took it one match at a time and that’s the important thing to do.”
Herbert’s individual title and NU’s seventh-place finish in the tournament — the Wildcats’ best in 12 years — are testaments to the rapid development of NU wrestling. And the progress has shown up in the national rankings, where the Cats have jumped to No. 21.
The Cats are aware of their national ranking, and Herbert and sophomore John Velez both said they believe the team should finish in the top five by the end of the year. Cysewski said he isn’t as worried about the rankings.
“It doesn’t matter if you’re not ranked in the top five,” Cysewski said. “That’s somebody’s opinion. We still have to go out there and compete every weekend.”
Herbert is ranked eighth and his ranking is expected to rise after Midlands.
“He’s inspiring to all of us,” said Velez, who is ranked sixth in the nation at 125 pounds. “He shows you can have a lot of heart, you can have fun doing it and you can win. All you have to do is work your butt off and that’s what he does.”
Herbert’s performance aside, the Cats had a successful winter stretch. They won the Beast of the East Invitational with 162.5 points, 61.5 more than their closest competitor.
Eight of 10 divisions had an NU wrestler in the finals and six wrestlers captured championships in their weight classes.
In addition, NU won duals against Augustana College and Wisconsin-La Crosse.
“They did some good things,” Cysewski said, “winning the Beast of the East and winning some duals and coming back and getting ready for Midlands. Midlands is tough because when they go home for 10 days I never know what I get coming back, and they came back not too bad at all. I feel pretty confident that the rest of the year will be a good one.”
Reach Paul Tenorio at [email protected]
