Blue White Illustrated

kids. We're still watching heavyweight. Recruiting is a never-ending process. What do you find to be the best way to evaluate the prospects? You've gotta work. You've gotta study and pay attention and watch them work out. Listen to the right people. You kinda of figure out who has the right eye. When you find that guy, you listen. There are a lot of good clubs in the state. ... It just comes down to due diligence. You've gotta put the time in. Just because we're winning now and had a good team this year, it doesn't mean we're going to have a good team in three years. You've gotta replace everybody. You've gotta keep the talent coming. Just because you're having success doesn't mean you don't have to work as hard recruiting. The best kids want to be recruited, they want the offers and they want the attention. You've always gotta be thinking three, four years ahead. How difficult is it to balance the 9.9 allotted scholarships across your roster? Other programs can sometimes offer full rides when maybe you decide to hold it to a quarter-scholarship due to the amount of talent already on your team. It's definitely a challenge. Kids wrestle their whole lives and they feel that they've earned a scholarship. But it's difficult to win a national championship if you're putting them all on full rides. We just try to make sure the overall value of their experience here will be the best. With what we're doing with our freestyle club, our coaching staff, the training partners, and Penn State University – the degree and the connections – it's a pretty good package deal. Getting a scholarship – that's just a bonus. You have Jimmy Gulibon trying to break into the lineup this year at 133. Judging by performances from last year, he might have the edge on returning starter Jordan Conaway. Where does that put Conaway if Gulibon is able to take over at 33 next season? It means they're going to wrestle and see who makes the team. Jordan has the ability to go 125, too, and Nico Megaludis has a redshirt year [available], but I'm not sure if that's something we'll pursue. What would the benefit be if Nico were to take a redshirt in the middle of his career? I don't know. It depends on just what's in his head. Maybe he needs some time off. I don't know. He's not a kid where I think a redshirt year is what he wants. He wants to compete. He wants to go, especially now with the Olympics. [The 2016 Games] could very possibly be our last Olympics. With that in mind, it's like, "Man, get that two years of folkstyle in and then make that transition to freestyle." We really like Jordan, obviously. He has the ability to go 125 or 33, and we think Gulibon could possibly be 41 soon. Probably not this season, but he had a great spring. He's a tough kid and he'll be fun to watch wrestle because he has unusual speed. Looking back on the choice at heavyweight between Jimmy Lawson and Jon Gingrich, were you completely satisfied with the decision that was made there? It's tough to say. It was a staff decision. We all thought it was the right thing to do. With the information that we had at the time, I think it was the right decision. But we need more attitude out of both guys. Even Nick Ruggear has the ability to go with anybody, but he was injured. I think there is a lot of potential in both kids, but potential doesn't develop itself. They've gotta get in there. The athleticism is there, the ability is there; they just need the fighting spirit. Is the starting spot open going into the summer? Absolutely. It's absolutely open. We want both of those guys to hopefully move each other along. We definitely need points at heavyweight. We got a half point [from Lawson in 2013], but at nationals that doesn't help a lot. A lot of the talk last year was about Andrew and Dylan Alton after the one-month suspension. And to their standards they probably didn't finish where they wanted to be. How do they refocus this offseason? They just have got to do what they're doing now. They're really trying to make some changes. They both had the best academic semesters of their careers by a long ways. I think Andrew got a 3.3 and Dylan was over a 3.0 They're doing the right things right now. It's just a matter of having a detailed plan of knowing what to do and what not to do, making sure they're making the right decisions. If they do that, they'll greatly increase their ability to win wrestling matches. It looked like they were pretty upset after the NCAA tournament in Des Moines. Andrew had a tough year. He got hurt in the wrestle-offs. He twisted his ankle pretty bad. He was still limping on that for most of the year. That was kind of frustrating, and then they both were off the team for a little while as far as competition goes. Dylan, I think he's fine. He's a tough kid. He's a fighter. And with Andrew, it's just a matter of doing things correctly. Just so he can stay healthy, because confidence comes from how you feel a lot of times. So we have to make sure he's feeling good, and a lot of that has to do with what's going on outside the room. Was it difficult for Andrew to make weight at 149? That's just part of him doing a good job and being able to wrestle well, managing his weight properly. If he's not managing his weight properly, you're going to see it out there. That's what leads to injuries, and I think

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