After finishing in 11th place out of 18 teams at the NCAA Regionals competition, Oswego State’s wrestling team placed two of its premiere wrestlers in the NCAA Div. III Wrestling Championships in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

Junior Christian Gramuglia and freshman Charlie Grygas each finished in third place at the Mideast Regionals in Ithaca, giving them each a shot at wrestling for national recognition for the first time in their college careers. While these two really stood out, head coach Mike Howard was very pleased with the full team’s effort.

“Overall as a group we wrestled really hard, the effort was there,” Howard said. “It’s a quality event, competition is very stiff, so our guys performed well.”

The Lakers’ lineup consisted of five freshmen, including Grygas, so the 11th place finish was certainly an accomplishment for such a young team. 

Grygas’ path to nationals had only one road block: Rochester Institute of Technology’s Dempsey King, the fifth-ranked wrestler in the nation, according to the National Wrestling Coaches Association. On the second day of the regionals meet, King defeated Grygas 6-0 in the semifinals for the 165-lbs. weight class. On day one, Grygas won both his matches, an 8-3 victory against Matthew Kline of The College at Brockport, as well as a closer 8-7 win against John Garda from The College of New Jersey. For Grygas, reaching nationals as a freshman is incredibly unusual, and for someone who wrestled all throughout high school it is, “pretty exciting.”

His teammate, Gramuglia, faced a similar path to Cedar Rapids and the national championship. Gramuglia, who wrestles in the 157-lbs. weight class, swept the first day of the tournament by a pinfall and a 10-5 decision in the quarterfinals, defeating Ben Bivar of SUNY Cortland in the latter. The junior would go on to lose in the semifinals but won the consolation semifinals and finals, where he defeated Bivar once more, this time by a 7-5 score. After failing to place top-three last season in the regionals competition, Gramuglia finally reached nationals. 

“It’s pretty awesome,” Gramuglia said “I’ve worked my whole life to become a college wrestler. I’ve always wanted to go to the national tournament.”

For Gramuglia, this nationals berth may be extra special. Last season, he battled through ailments early in the season and missed a lot of workouts, according to Howard. Gramuglia was able to battle back from the early-season mishaps to reach regionals. While he would reach the second day of competition, Gramuglia would go on to fall in the second match of the day, earning a fifth-place finish. Despite the ailments, Gramuglia was fully healthy to start this season and that has been on full display.

“Last year he had a slow start to the year,” Howard said. “He had skin infections that held him out for a considerable amount of time, so he missed a lot of training. This year that hasn’t been the case, so I think he’s in a good spot. He’s beat some quality kids, so again he is very capable of competing against the best in the country.”

Health and rest are critical in wrestling. It is a contact sport, which may result in lingering injuries or pain for good chunks of the season. Heading into regionals, Oswego State had participated in only two meets since Feb. 5. The Baldwin Wallace Invitational was canceled on Feb. 8. This added rest was extremely helpful for the Lakers, who were then able to practice a bit more.

“We were pretty worn down, so in hindsight, it was probably a blessing,” Howard said. “I think it’s helped [Grygas and Gramuglia] as far as rest and being healthy because [the Baldin Wallace Invitational] is another quality event with some tough competition. To be able to take that weekend off, you focus a little on staying healty and getting a normal practice in, that was good for us.”

With the NCAA Div. III National Championships coming up on March 13 and 14, both Grygas and Gramuglia are solely focused on their next matches. Despite that, Gramuglia has high hopes for his final competition as a junior.

“Looking at it now, all I want to do is place and become the next All-American on the wall,” Gramuglia said.

Photo by Casey Stone | The Oswegonian