After a 19-18 senior night win over SUNY Oneonta on Wednesday, the Oswego State wrestling team now has a 5-9 record, but head coach Mike Howard is pleased with how his team has performed so far this season. The Lakers started out the season a little slow, but are gaining confidence on the mat at the right time.
The Lakers have six starters throughout all weight classes who are freshmen, so they are a relatively young and inexperienced team compared to other schools, but Howard said he is very pleased with how his freshmen have developed in their first season.
“We got a young group of kids in the starting lineup, just off the top of my head six out of the 10 weights are freshmen,” Howard said. “We’re making progress and things are falling into place.”
The big meets for Oswego State have yet to come. The two meets that all wrestlers build toward are the regional meet and the NCAA championship to finish the season.
The Lakers expect to compete at a high level in these two events.
“We think we can do some damage here at the end,” Howard said. “In wrestling that’s what we try and do. We’re trying to get our guys to peak at the conference and regional meets and it looks like that’s what we’re doing.”
A big reason why Howard is so confident the Lakers can make some noise at those meets is No. 4-ranked freshman, Jordan Bushey. He wrestles in the 184-pound weight class and currently has a season record of 29-0. Bushey picked up first place in the team’s third place finish at the Baldwin Wallace Invitational over the weekend.
“He’s quite an athlete and he does some things out there that amazes us every time he is on the mat,” Howard said. “We knew coming in that we had a special kid there and he’s doing an awesome job for us and we’re really excited for what he can do for us at the end of the year.”
Bushey attributes his success this season to starting off each match at a high level and preparing just as hard off the mat.
“Just kind of dominating the first period and going out and getting the first takedown,” Bushey said. “I want to improve on my stamina and strength and I think I can get even better.”
Another wrestler Howard thinks can make some noise at the end of the season is sophomore Troy Seymour, who is wrestling in the 157-pound weight class.
“[Seymour] had a great freshman year and he’s duplicating that this year,” Howard said. “He is right there so we want to make sure we keep pushing him so that he’s ready to go at the regional meet.”
Seymour is confident that since the beginning of the season he has improved his overall game and it will help him come playoff time.
“I think I’ll be able to take a big step come regional and national time,” Seymour said.
The Lakers will be traveling to Cortland this weekend to face SUNY Cortland and Hunter College, which will be the team’s last meet to prepare before the regional tournament.
