Jake Morrissey accomplished a lot during his high school wrestling career. However, he’s got one more thing to cross off his list.
After falling just one round short of placing in freestyle and Greco at the USA Wrestling freestyle and Greco national championships last year, Morrissey — a 2013 Oconto Falls High School graduate — will have a shot at redemption when he competes in the national tournament in Fargo, N.D., later this month.
“You’re going to be wrestling against the best kids in the nation,” Morrissey said. “It’s the toughest tournament you can go to as far as being a high school tournament.”
Morrissey, who will wrestle at Purdue University in the fall, will compete in both freestyle and Greco. The Greco wrestling will be two days, followed by one-day break and then freestyle starts.
What does Morrissey prefer to wrestle, freestyle or Greco?
“It depends on the day, usually,” he said. “I don’t really have a favorite. I like freestyle because it’s more like high school wrestling, I guess. But I also like Greco because it’s all upper body throws.”
Morrissey has lofty goals at nationals in his final matches as still technically a high school wrestler.
“I’m hoping to win. That’s what I’m planning on doing,” Morrissey said. “I wrestled at folkstyle nationals a couple months ago and went out and won that, so I want to go out with another title when it comes to freestyle and Greco.”
The wrestlers will be broken up into age groups and Morrissey will be one of the older competitors in the junior category. According to Morrissey, there are generally 80-100 wrestlers in each group, so advancing to the place rounds means an individual will have to win five to six matches in the double-elimination format tournament.
After wrestling in last year’s tourney and falling in a match he believes he could have won, Morrissey knows he has to be prepared for every competitor.
“I just need to go out there with the right attitude,” Morrissey said, “keep my eye on the goal and just wrestle the way I’ve been training, and wrestle the way I’ve been wrestling this whole summer and I feel like I’ll do well.”
Morrissey thrives when he wrestles against competitors who have proven track records on the mat.
“I always like wrestling tougher guys — you get to see how you do against the best guys in the nation,” Morrissey said. “A lot of these guys I’ll be seeing a year or two from now wrestling in college. It’s nice to see where everyone ends up.”
Before heading to nationals, Morrissey will compete in a wrestling camp in River Falls in mid-July. The weeklong camp will consist of Wisconsin athletes who will all train for Fargo.
Since winning the USA Wrestling/Cliff Keen folkstyle nationals in April, Morrissey has been hitting the weight room four times per week and also wrestling with former University of Wisconsin-Parkside All-American Matt Gille and former national champion at Lawrence University, Andy Kazik.
With college classes at Purdue starting on Aug. 19, Morrissey wants to cap his high school career and leave Wisconsin with another title in hand.
“It would be awesome,” Morrissey said. “Winning Fargo, like I said, it’s the toughest tournament there is high school and when you win that, you’re just hands down the best, there’s no question about it. It would be a great feeling to accomplish something that great.”
Categories
