The men’s wrestling team earned fourth in the CCIW championship on Feb. 15. Although expectations were not met, it was an improvement from last year, and there is still room to grow. One of the most successful wrestlers is senior Trevor Boryla, who recently earned CCIW all-conference alongside junior Jacob Badger.
“I’m proud to have represented Augustana and earned all-conference,” Boryla said. “However I took second, and second is never the goal, so now I am focusing on improving on those mistakes heading into the postseason.”
Coming up to the regional matchups and championships, Boryla said he wants to take each match one at a time.
“The goal every year is to become the national champion, and that will happen if I just focus on winning one match at a time,” Boryla said. “The goal for each match is to let loose, wrestle to the best of my ability and have fun.”
As a top scorer in the conference, Badger is still focused on improving his game little by little before the tournament and just having fun.
“Since the postseason is just a week away, there isn’t much left to do. Practices will be focused on little technical things trying to make our wrestling as perfect as possible before regionals,” Badger said. “The season is always long and hard on the body and mind, but this year I have had a lot of fun because of our team dynamic. Everyone is always pushing each other to get better.”
Looking ahead to next year, Badger said he hopes to add on to the wins and techniques he earned this year.
“Next year I want to set a goal to get 15 duel wins in a season,” Badger said. “This year we had 14 wins, and if we had gotten one more, it would be the most dual wins the Augustana wrestling program has gotten since 2003… Our Head Coach Tony Willaert is already planning offseason training plans and lifting programs so that we can come back stronger and better next year.”
Willaert said he will continue to develop the program into a winning team.
“I thought we could do even better,” Willaert said. “I was really happy with the handful of guys that placed at the tournament, but we need to have every wrestler scoring points at the tournament to place higher.”
Despite changes that need to be made going into the next season, the main focus of the team is to improve their skills to compete in more competitive tournaments.
“We are just trying to continue to improve and grow our team to make it deeper and more competitive,” Willaert said. “That is what will help make us take the next step as a program and we’re determined to do it!”
The men’s wrestling regionals will take place on Friday, Mar. 1 in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.