Oliver and Husker wrestling team find confidence, success together
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By KARL VOGEL / Lincoln Journal Star
Looking back to last year is something the Nebraska wrestling team doesn’t do much any more.
Thanks to a recent surge in the national polls, the Huskers are ranked No. 2. To a man, the Huskers say they knew all along that this rise to prominence was possible and few even want to talk about 2007’s 10-7-1 record and the 16th-place finish at the NCAA Championships.
But that journey on a bumpy road is one that junior Chris Oliver can appreciate.
“I had a rough year last year, with injuries and such, and the team was just coming together,” said Oliver, NU’s starting 157-pounder. “It almost seems like it was a whole different group of people, but it’s not.”
That group of Husker starters in the second half of the 2006-07 season was a young, talented and inexperienced group that was overmatched against elite programs and lost at home to unranked Oregon State.
With two likely starters sitting out the season because of eligibility issues and his only heavyweight sidelined by a knee injury in December, there was little doubt that coach Mark Manning had some tough decisions to make about the remainder of the season.
The result was a lineup that had only seven regular starters at the 10 collegiate weight classes, three of them freshmen and one of them a senior who moved up a weight class to allow a freshman to compete.
Each of the starters had their own personal demons to battle, but Oliver’s struggle was against many different foes — some physical, some not.
“I believe the three biggest enemies a person has to battle are worry, doubt and fear,” Manning said. “Wrestlers worry too much, you fear people (opponents) and doubt yourself when things aren’t going the way you want them to. It’s overcoming those obstacles that makes you achieve at a higher level.
“Chris analyzes a lot, which is good in some ways, but he had to be more at ease and more consistent to reach is goals of being an All-American and a national champion.”
He was a four-time state champion at Creighton Prep with a 130-0 career record.
Throughout his sophomore season at NU, Oliver sometimes struggled to find the confidence he had in high school.
After an emotionally charged overtime loss to Oklahoma State’s Newly McSpadden, a match in which Oliver nearly scored the pin NU needed for a victory, things started looking up.
Oliver posted a six-match winning streak that landed him in the NCAA Championships for the first time. He was one of six Huskers competing at nationals before heading into a summer with a little uncertainty and plenty of hope.
With five 2007 NCAA qualifiers — Oliver, Paul Donahoe (the 125-pound national champion), Jordan Burroughs, Stephen Dwyer and Craig Brester — returning, along with 2006 qualifiers Jon May and Vince Jones, and the additions of Brandon Browne and national junior college champion Kenny Jordan, the Huskers began the season ranked 14th in the coaches’ poll.
“It was basically the same guys, but we’re not the same, you know,” Oliver said. “This year, I see confidence up and down our lineup, from 125 to heavyweight. And we all have the same mentality and the same goals.”
As the Huskers steadily climbed in the polls, so did Oliver’s confidence. He started the year with an 11-1 record that included a title at the Cowboy Open in Wyoming and a third-place at the Kaufman-Brand Open in Omaha.
Then came another setback.
After a first-round win at the Las Vegas Invitational on Nov. 30, Oliver wrenched a knee while warming up with a teammate and was sidelined for close to a month.
Upon returning, Oliver won two matches before the National Duals two weeks ago. There, the Husker team knocked off three teams ranked in the top 10 and shot from ninth to third in the polls. Oliver went 1-3.
Last season, a similar outcome might have weighed heavily on Oliver’s mind. This year, however, it’s a different Oliver.
“He’s really doing a better job of staying at peace in his mind, not making things bigger than they are,” Manning said. “It’s just one wrestling match, and he knows that his goals aren’t winning that one match. He wants to be an All-American, but he wants to be part of a team that wins a national championship even more.”
One big step toward those goals was Oliver’s 3-2 win against McSpadden last weekend. It was a victory that turned the momentum the Huskers’ way in a 22-13 victory against Oklahoma State, only the third win for NU in 52 duals against the Cowboys.
“That was the key match,” Manning said. “For Chris to have a big win in a pressure situation is huge for his confidence and is something he can really build off.”
Oliver said he was relieved to finally have won such an important match, not so much for himself but for what it meant to the entire team.
“It was definitely a good feeling to know that I could help the team win that dual,” Oliver said.
And now that the Huskers are ranked among the nation’s elite, the roles reverse a little bit with duals against Missouri (on Saturday), Oklahoma, Hofstra and Iowa State looming before the Big 12 meet on March 1.
“We believed we could have a team like this. We know what we did in the fall and the summer will pay off, and we know the work ethic we have. Now, it’s all coming together.
“Our challenge is to reach our national championship goal, and I’m up to that challenge.”
Reach Karl Vogel at 473-7432 or kvogel@journalstar.com.
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