Glenville State’s 133-pound Gavin Quiocho, noticed right here earlier this year, won the school’s very first national wrestling championship on final Saturday in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. (Photo courtesy of Glenville State University Athletics)

PARKERSBURG — Final Saturday at the NCAA Division II wrestling championships in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Glenville State University sophomore Gavin Quiocho walked off the mat inside Alliant Power PowerHouse with a four-three national title victory at 133 pounds right after topping Chadron State’s Quentrevion Campbell.

The former Parkersburg South wrestler and Robert Dutton Award winner capped off his 39-five campaign by becoming the Pioneers’ very first national champion as nicely as the very first All-American.

“He did a actually excellent job of riding and becoming stingy,” stated GSU head coach Dylan Cottrell, who watched Quiocho earn his winning point by way of riding time. “If you would’ve told me or Gavin final year that he’d won a national title and it was going to be on riding time we would’ve laughed.

“We worked a lot finding much better at prime and becoming in a position to ride. That is what we worked on all season. Coach (Jonathan) Andreatta place a lot of time in and he place a lot of time in as nicely. Dropping down to 133 produced it a lot easier simply because he’s not wrestling six-foot tall guys who have leverage on him.”

Quiocho, who opened final year at 157 just before settling in at 149, was joined in the finals by heavyweight Jared Campbell, who had to settle for runner-up honors as he capped a 32-two campaign.

The Pioneers completed ninth as a group. Guy Deleonardis (165) and Cole Houser (184) lost in the blood round and had been every a victory away from becoming All-Americans. GSU 141-pounder Ethan Hardy went -two at nationals.

“I assume we had been basically far more confident with Jared generating the finals rather than Gavin,” admitted coach Cottrell of his pair of No. three seeds. “Jared had a fantastic run and had the returning national champ in the quarters and he beat him terrible.”

Right after returning to Glenville, Quiocho stated “I gave my physique a couple of days of rest, but I got back to it Thursday. Lifting and wrestling and beginning to get far more into strategy to strengthen subsequent season.”

Realizing he wanted to compete in a reduced weight class, Quiocho set his aim and stated he came back to campus final fall weighing about 150 pounds.

“What I did fundamentally was I took that extended preseason finding down to a manageable weight exactly where I could get inside striking distance,” added the Pioneer.

“To get down every week I’d have to run at least two instances a day on prime of practice and lifts, and at most if I necessary to 4 instances a day. It was a grind.”

The ex-Patriot admitted the most tricky aspect of it all was the mental side of points rather than the physical.

“A major factor this year was just trusting in God, believing in myself and the instruction I was performing,” Quiocho stated. “Mental-smart, I have by no means felt so excellent.

“I was by no means nervous for any of my matches this year. I was calm, had a clear thoughts and it actually helped my wrestling to figure out the mental aspect of points.”

With two years nevertheless remaining at Glenville State, Quiocho unquestionably has a vibrant future. His coach is hoping to challenge for a national group championship in the not as well distant future.

“The begin of the season our group aim was a prime ten finish at NCAAs,” Cottrell stated. “Did I assume that was going to come about? I believed we had been far more in the breaking into the prime 15 group this year, but we had a actually excellent tournament. You by no means know with these points simply because they are so close. I knew we could be prime ten if we wrestled actually nicely and we did. We had a fantastic weekend. That is what we want to do each and every year. I had a D1 guy come in right now (Friday) from WVU and I got some other actually excellent D2 guys coming in the subsequent two weeks.

“Hunter DeLong (174) and Cole Houser are graduating and we’re operating to fill these two holes very first. We got a lot coming back and we are actually excited about some of the guys who didn’t get to wrestle this year. Hardy, Quiocho, Campbell and Guy are back. Jordan Williams has been nationally-ranked the final two years and occurred to catch an injury this year. We anticipate to begin subsequent year as a prime 5 group in the nation.”

In spite of obtaining a higher degree of results at Parkersburg South, moving to the D2 ranks and adjusting to the expectations in the matroom took some time to get adjusted to.

“I would say the most significant factor is in college our coaches are fantastic, just like in higher college, but they have a small far more emphasis on what we have to have to do individually,” Quiocho stated. “That’s pretty much what it is all about. Right after wins and losses we are generally enhancing on every match primarily based off points that we necessary to do much better or transform up, and that is what we’d function on all week.

“Compared to higher college, we educated actually challenging and we had been at the prime simply because of how challenging we worked. In college, you have some older guys and you cannot actually do that intensity like we did in higher college for the entirety of the year. There’s a major distinction in peaking at the ideal time. In college, that is a major aspect. When you are in higher college you are a kid and you are young and you can train as challenging as you can and your physique nevertheless could possibly really feel excellent.”

Following his Saturday morning semifinal triumph, Quiocho had about a seven hour gap just before it was time to go for a national championship.

“Basically what I did in that time to prepare myself was to clear my thoughts, not even assume about wrestling. Just finding rested,” he stated. “I didn’t even watch like film on him. The only small bit of factor I knew about him was he likes to go major so just watch out for the throws.

“I just really feel actually grateful for the system that I’ve been led to and the coaches I’ve been led to. Specially our assistant coach (Andreatta). He was the 133-pound national champ (at Adams State) final year. He actually helped me out this year. It is just been a actually thankful knowledge.”

Make contact with Jay Bennett at jbennett@newsandsentinel.com

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