Posted 3/16/06
UW-Platteville's Ryan Rozek qualified for the NCAA Division III wrestling national championships March 3-4 at 285 pounds. He went 2-2 in his first trip to nationals. He also earned a Scholar All-American honor for his 3.8 cumulative grade-point average. A junior from Plymouth, Rozek is a mechanical engineering major.
What were the national championships like?
"They were pretty exciting. It was the first real big tournament like that I've been in. I was a little overwhelmed at first, but I knew most of the competition there so it wasn't overly intimidating. It was interesting because in some tournaments there are easy first rounds, but there every person was working their hardest because they knew it was their one shot, too. The level of competition was so much higher than I'm used to seeing."
You earned your way to nationals by vote of the conference coaches. Did that mean a lot to you that the coaches thought that highly of you that they selected three heavyweights for nationals out of the 18 spots allotted our conference?
"It did mean a lot. Heavyweight was one of the toughest brackets, with the returning number one and number four in the nation. Some of the coaches have come up and talked to me, and they seemed to respect me, which was really exciting for me. I never thought I'd be recognized, let alone respected."
285 is a tough weight class because you face opponents all across the board, with different styles and body types. What kind of wrestling do you like and who gives you trouble?
"I prefer the round heavyweights, but when you get up to nationals, there aren't any. A lot of heavyweights are the converted 189-pounders from high school, and they are fairly quick, fairly athletic who put size on afterwards. I don't like wrestling people with a lot of length; that just seems to be my trouble. I myself have a couple of different styles I use, depending on whom I'm wrestling."
You were a big part of probably the most exciting wrestling match we've had in Williams Fieldhouse in a long time when you pinned UW-Eau Claire's Ryan Eckdahl in the last match of a 24-22 win. You had everything riding on the line on your match, and not only did you have to win, but you had to win by five or more points. Was that fun for you to be in that situation?
"It was a little nerve-wracking. Fromthe beginning, I was planning on going out there and going for that pin. I knew I had a shot at it, but once I knew the team needed it, too, it was a little more pressure. It was like back in high school, when the heavyweights went last, and a lot of times it was riding on the last three or four weight classes. I had been in that position before, but it had been a while. The guy was very tricky to pin. I was in control of the match, but he was hard to turn over. I don't think it could have turned out much more exciting than the last 30 seconds. I loved the pictures on the web site of everyone jumping around."
You were just named a Scholar All-American, with a 3.8 grade-point average in mechanical engineering. How do you manage to do that over three years?
"Time management. You don't have the ability to not manage your time well. At the beginning of the year that I want to get off to a really good start, because I know come the end of the semester, I just don't have as much time as I'd like to spend on these classes. But I make do."
You have another year, but what does your future hold?
"I'll be looking at a design engineering job, probably in research and development. I've done both research and development projects, and I definitely prefer those. I'd like to be in southeast Wisconsin, over by Plymouth."
Interview by SID Paul Erickson