For the first time in program history, the women’s wrestling team is sending three wrestlers to the National Collegiate Women’s Wrestling Championships (NCWWC). This is extremely exciting given that the program was only established three years ago in the fall of 2021.
Juniors Sawyer Graham and Sandie Pfeil and sophomore Hannah Suboni-Kaufman have all earned their ticket to nationals. Graham will be competing in the 170-pound weight class with Suboni-Kaufman and Pfeil competing in the 123-pound weight class.
With this being the team’s first time competing at nationals, there are a lot of unexpected pressures.
“There is this overwhelming stress of wanting to succeed for yourself, but also your teammates and this program, like this is a new program,” Graham said. “This is the first time we’ve ever had people on the women’s team going to Nationals, so it’s definitely kind of overwhelming to think like that.”
Wrestling is a mental sport as well as a physical one.
In wrestling, not only do the athletes need to visualize what will happen, they also need to think about how to combat what their opponent might do. If a wrestler gets in their head too much, it could cause them to lose the match entirely.
“I’m trying to go in and be confident and believe in myself,” Suboni-Kaufman said. “I feel like sometimes I can get in my head and I just don’t want to wrestle bad and get in my head and not do well, but I also don’t want to come in overly confident like I’m gonna win because that never goes well either.”
To boost confidence and combat negative energy, the Vikings remember the success that they’ve had throughout their season. They say they try to remember what it was like to get to this point in the season and take practices more seriously.
With time, hard work and dedication, these three were able to get to this point in the season.
In terms of preparing for this season-ending event, the qualifiers are preparing in different ways. Pfeil said she is focusing on fixing the small mistakes and what she can do to improve her matches.
“I’m just honing in on my small mistakes that my coaches have seen in my matches and my films that I just want to clean up some of my shots and things like that,” Pfeil said. “It’s helped me better find those things so that when I’m in those high stakes pressure matches, I can come out successful.”
With nationals around the corner, emotions like anixety and excitement build. Graham uses these nerves to remind herself how she has gotten here and what she has been working toward all season.
“To work on my nerves, I tell myself to set goals that are more reachable and more realistic,” Graham said. “When you’re nervous for your match, it means that you want to be able to put out what you’ve been working on.”