Photo by: Alex King
Five Mountaineer Grapplers Ready to Eat at NCAA Championships
March 20, 2019 02:39 PM | Wrestling
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – For Tim Flynn, success at the NCAA Wrestling Championships boils down to one basic human function – eating.
Those who eat, win; those who don't, lose. It's that simple.
"You have to get after it," he explained Tuesday afternoon. "You have to go score points. That's really important."
No champion ever reached the top of the podium by playing it safe and not taking some risks. To beat the best, you have to get after it and believe in yourself.
Flynn has always been a practitioner of that type of positive thinking. He doesn't study the various brackets to figure out where his guys are going to run into problems.
He knows there are hazards every step of the way, so why worry about it?
"I'm excited to see who we wrestle," he said. "It doesn't matter because every time you think you're going to wrestle someone that guy gets hurt, gets sick or gets beat so I don't put too much thought into it. We'll wrestle the first guy and worry about the second guy later."
Flynn has five wrestlers going to this year's NCAA Championships, set to begin Thursday morning at PPG Paints Arena in Pittsburgh.
It's the first time the Steel City is hosting the NCAA Wrestling Championships since 1957 when Dwight Eisenhower was president.
That's a long, long time for an area steeped in wrestling tradition.
"We've gotten so many ticket requests it's crazy," Flynn admitted. "I heard all of the schools requested like 25,000 tickets, so there is just not enough tickets. I expect it to be pretty hectic and crazy."
None of the five wrestlers WVU is sending up Interstate 79 is from Western Pa., which is odd considering West Virginia's proximity to Pittsburgh.
Noah Adams, a 197-pounder from Coal City, West Virginia, and Nick Kiussis, a 165-pounder from Brunswick, Ohio, about 20 miles southwest of Cleveland, are the two closest performers.
The other three qualifiers are Christian Monserrat, a 149-pounder from Methuen, Massachusetts, Matt Schmitt, a 133-pounder from Platte City, Missouri, and Brandon Ngati, a heavyweight from Gaithersburg, Maryland.
Perhaps that in itself might explain why the WVU wrestling program has struggled the last few years, requiring the hiring of Flynn last spring to help resuscitate it.
"Pennsylvania is a big wrestling state, and that pocket of wrestling in Pittsburgh is one of the best pockets of wrestling in America," Flynn explained.
Of the five, Schmitt (seeded 16th) and Monserrat (seeded 17th) are West Virginia's two highest seeds, but both will feed into the top-ranked wrestlers in their respective weight classes if they are fortunate enough to win their opening matches.
For Schmitt, who returned to the mat in January after missing six weeks following elbow surgery, he must beat No. 17 Sean Nickell to face top-seeded Daton Fix of Oklahoma State.
Monserrat's path to undefeated Anthony Ashnault must first go through Oklahoma's 16th-seeded Davion Jeffries.
"They're wrestling the same kids," Flynn explained. "We're in a really, really good conference. Matt Schmitt just wrestled Daton Fix last weekend. We're not going to see someone where we're like 'wow, look at him!' We've already seen all of these guys, and I think that helps."
Schmitt is the only Mountaineer with NCAA Tournament experience, going 2-2 in last year's championships.
Ngati has probably come the farthest. The junior won just five career matches before Flynn got his hands on him. This year, he's 14-14 and will wrestle a pigtail match against Franklin & Marshall's Antonio Pelusi to earn the right to face No. 1 Derek White of Oklahoma State.
"(Ngati) has done a really good job," Flynn said. "His training has been consistent; his attitude is great, and he's really bought in. He just fights for every point. He doesn't let the guys up."
All five wrestlers have shown tremendous growth under Flynn, including Monserrat, the only senior of the group. Monserrat has a team-best 23 wins and earned a second-period fall over Jeffries earlier this year.
"I'm a little disappointed Christian is going to graduate because you just start to really get to know these guys after just a couple of months working with him. But I feel good about how they're wrestling," Flynn said. "I think they are all improving from the top down. Ngati and Noah are going in the right direction. It's a question of can we get them where they need to be on Thursday?"
Flynn said he will take a simplistic approach with his five guys on Thursday by getting them focused on the immediate task at hand.
"We just try and keep the attitude light and keep them focused on scoring points and on their wrestling," he explained. "If you worry too much about winning and losing you can get overwhelmed. Their whole lives, all these kids want to do is be NCAA champions and All-Americans, so there is a lot of built-in pressure already.
"I try not to get into the way too much."
Just as he once did at Edinboro when Connellsville's Jarrod King won the 165-pound NCAA title in 2009.
"Jarrod King was seeded 12thand was a national champion," Flynn said. "You can do it. The world is not going to end if Matt Schmitt wins nationals. It can happen. If he believes that, then it can.
"People do what you expect from them, in general," Flynn continued. "If you expect a lot, you get a lot, and we have expected a lot. They're responding. Some didn't and some aren't with us and that's okay. This is not for everybody, but the ones that are staying are doing a good job."
Regardless of what happens this weekend, Flynn has built a solid foundation this season with four of his five national qualifiers returning for next year.
"We're pretty happy from where we were at the beginning of the year as a team," Flynn mentioned. "It was a weird year as far as we've got some guys going to the national tournament, and we had some weights that were struggling so that's a strange mix.
"We need those four and we're going to need some incoming recruits. I don't like … what do the (Philadelphia) 76ers say, the process? I understand it's a process, but you just want to win right away. We want to circumvent the process and get to the end goals, and those kids will help us," Flynn said.
Last year, 125-pounder Zeke Moisey placed eighth at nationals to help West Virginia to a 30th-place finish.
The last time the Mountaineers cracked the top 20 was in 2015 - when Moisey placed second as a true freshman.
The top eight finishers earn All-America honors at the double-elimination tournament.
Those who eat, win; those who don't, lose. It's that simple.
"You have to get after it," he explained Tuesday afternoon. "You have to go score points. That's really important."
No champion ever reached the top of the podium by playing it safe and not taking some risks. To beat the best, you have to get after it and believe in yourself.
Flynn has always been a practitioner of that type of positive thinking. He doesn't study the various brackets to figure out where his guys are going to run into problems.
He knows there are hazards every step of the way, so why worry about it?
"I'm excited to see who we wrestle," he said. "It doesn't matter because every time you think you're going to wrestle someone that guy gets hurt, gets sick or gets beat so I don't put too much thought into it. We'll wrestle the first guy and worry about the second guy later."
Flynn has five wrestlers going to this year's NCAA Championships, set to begin Thursday morning at PPG Paints Arena in Pittsburgh.
It's the first time the Steel City is hosting the NCAA Wrestling Championships since 1957 when Dwight Eisenhower was president.
That's a long, long time for an area steeped in wrestling tradition.
"We've gotten so many ticket requests it's crazy," Flynn admitted. "I heard all of the schools requested like 25,000 tickets, so there is just not enough tickets. I expect it to be pretty hectic and crazy."
None of the five wrestlers WVU is sending up Interstate 79 is from Western Pa., which is odd considering West Virginia's proximity to Pittsburgh.
Noah Adams, a 197-pounder from Coal City, West Virginia, and Nick Kiussis, a 165-pounder from Brunswick, Ohio, about 20 miles southwest of Cleveland, are the two closest performers.
The other three qualifiers are Christian Monserrat, a 149-pounder from Methuen, Massachusetts, Matt Schmitt, a 133-pounder from Platte City, Missouri, and Brandon Ngati, a heavyweight from Gaithersburg, Maryland.
Perhaps that in itself might explain why the WVU wrestling program has struggled the last few years, requiring the hiring of Flynn last spring to help resuscitate it.
"Pennsylvania is a big wrestling state, and that pocket of wrestling in Pittsburgh is one of the best pockets of wrestling in America," Flynn explained.
Of the five, Schmitt (seeded 16th) and Monserrat (seeded 17th) are West Virginia's two highest seeds, but both will feed into the top-ranked wrestlers in their respective weight classes if they are fortunate enough to win their opening matches.For Schmitt, who returned to the mat in January after missing six weeks following elbow surgery, he must beat No. 17 Sean Nickell to face top-seeded Daton Fix of Oklahoma State.
Monserrat's path to undefeated Anthony Ashnault must first go through Oklahoma's 16th-seeded Davion Jeffries.
"They're wrestling the same kids," Flynn explained. "We're in a really, really good conference. Matt Schmitt just wrestled Daton Fix last weekend. We're not going to see someone where we're like 'wow, look at him!' We've already seen all of these guys, and I think that helps."
Schmitt is the only Mountaineer with NCAA Tournament experience, going 2-2 in last year's championships.
Ngati has probably come the farthest. The junior won just five career matches before Flynn got his hands on him. This year, he's 14-14 and will wrestle a pigtail match against Franklin & Marshall's Antonio Pelusi to earn the right to face No. 1 Derek White of Oklahoma State.
"(Ngati) has done a really good job," Flynn said. "His training has been consistent; his attitude is great, and he's really bought in. He just fights for every point. He doesn't let the guys up."
All five wrestlers have shown tremendous growth under Flynn, including Monserrat, the only senior of the group. Monserrat has a team-best 23 wins and earned a second-period fall over Jeffries earlier this year.
"I'm a little disappointed Christian is going to graduate because you just start to really get to know these guys after just a couple of months working with him. But I feel good about how they're wrestling," Flynn said. "I think they are all improving from the top down. Ngati and Noah are going in the right direction. It's a question of can we get them where they need to be on Thursday?"
Flynn said he will take a simplistic approach with his five guys on Thursday by getting them focused on the immediate task at hand.
"We just try and keep the attitude light and keep them focused on scoring points and on their wrestling," he explained. "If you worry too much about winning and losing you can get overwhelmed. Their whole lives, all these kids want to do is be NCAA champions and All-Americans, so there is a lot of built-in pressure already.
"I try not to get into the way too much."
Just as he once did at Edinboro when Connellsville's Jarrod King won the 165-pound NCAA title in 2009.
"Jarrod King was seeded 12thand was a national champion," Flynn said. "You can do it. The world is not going to end if Matt Schmitt wins nationals. It can happen. If he believes that, then it can.
"People do what you expect from them, in general," Flynn continued. "If you expect a lot, you get a lot, and we have expected a lot. They're responding. Some didn't and some aren't with us and that's okay. This is not for everybody, but the ones that are staying are doing a good job."
Regardless of what happens this weekend, Flynn has built a solid foundation this season with four of his five national qualifiers returning for next year.
"We're pretty happy from where we were at the beginning of the year as a team," Flynn mentioned. "It was a weird year as far as we've got some guys going to the national tournament, and we had some weights that were struggling so that's a strange mix.
"We need those four and we're going to need some incoming recruits. I don't like … what do the (Philadelphia) 76ers say, the process? I understand it's a process, but you just want to win right away. We want to circumvent the process and get to the end goals, and those kids will help us," Flynn said.
Last year, 125-pounder Zeke Moisey placed eighth at nationals to help West Virginia to a 30th-place finish.
The last time the Mountaineers cracked the top 20 was in 2015 - when Moisey placed second as a true freshman.
The top eight finishers earn All-America honors at the double-elimination tournament.
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