College Wrestling: All-American Levendusky Aims Higher
by AWW Staff
NY alum, McKendree WCWA All-American Joye Levendusky is coming off an outstanding 2018-2019 freshman season, placing in five tournaments, including twice as a finalist, and gaining All-American status at the WCWA Nationals in Atlanta last February. Including exhibitions, her overall record was 24-7 with 11 pins and 10 tech falls. She followed up her college season with a 3rd place finish at UWW Women’s Nationals, making the USA Junior National Team and placing 4th in the UWW U23 qualifier. One of her victories in U23 was over the currently ranked #5 wrestler at the senior level, Anna Naylor.
Her journey to college success went through a valley of adversity during the tail end of her high school career. After grabbing accolades as a sophomore at USAW national events in 2016, the college recruiting machine ramped up and she went to Fargo in 2017 to make some noise and turn heads. Every college coach she’d hoped to impress would be there with a front row seat.
But Fargo 2017 did not go as planned.
Coming off her junior year of high school where she competed for her high school varsity boys’ squad in Avon, NY she was ready to compete for top podium spots on the campus of North Dakota State University at the annual wrestler’s Mecca. She’d made All-American (Top 8) six times at USA Wrestling events the previous 15 months, including double All-American at Fargo in 2016, placing in both Cadet & Junior divisions. It felt like her time to crack the top 4. But things would not go that way. After winning her opening round match, she dropped the next two, ultimately upset in the consis by unseeded wrestler Olivia Demars who eventually took the bronze spot. (Demars now competes for Southwestern Oregon where she won an NCWA college national title last year.)
“I tried to hit a slide-by and somehow tangled my feet up and tripped,” Levendusky explained. “There was a little thing with the ref but at the end of the day, she laced me up and teched me.”
“That was a tough one,” said father-coach Derek Levendusky. “As hard as she worked, it was a painful loss, and not without controversy. I remember blowing off steam in a back hallway of the Fargo Dome, and I heard the soft echoes of someone gently crying nearby. I followed the sound and found Joye in a dark, empty corner. Without knowing it, we’d both gone to the same place in the arena.”
When she walked back out onto the floor, her future McKendree University coach Sam Schmitz was there, calm and smiling. “Don’t worry about high school results,” he said. “Everything changes in college. It’s all ahead of you.”
Then NY head coach Jacque Davis told her, “You won’t even remember this when you’re competing for college national titles and world team spots.”
Levendusky went into a free fall in the national rankings from #6 to #15, and never made it higher than #12 the rest of her high school career. After an elbow UCL tear sustained in her final high school match took her off the mats for six months in 2018, she rehabbed just in time to step on the mats for Fargo 2018, where she would take 4th a little over a year ago, her highest-ever finish at that event.
Looking back on the 2017 Fargo loss, she says, “That match was actually pretty important [in my career] because at the time I really valued winning a lot and my nerves would get really high before my matches. I’d always think about how much hard work I put in, which is fine, but it would get me overthinking before my matches. I wasn’t having as much fun in tournaments and I wasn’t wrestling at all like I was in practice because I would get too nervous. After that match in 2017 it made me realize that even at Fargo—the biggest high school tournament I would do all year—going 1-2 was not a big deal. It would only affect me how much I *let it* affect me. Going into Fargo 2018 a year later, after my experience in 2017, and coming off a bad injury, I had such a better mentality. I was just there to have fun and wrestle and that was the highest I ever placed at that event.”
FRESHMAN SEASON BEGINS AT MCKENDREE
After Fargo 2018, she turned her attention to college.
“We didn’t want her to go somewhere where she would be the rock star in the room,” said her father. “We knew that for her to get better, she needed to be challenged.”
The McKendree University room in Lebanon, IL is filled with stars, including U23 bronze medalist and now WCWA national champion, Alexandria Glaude—at her weight. She also had senior and 3x WCWA All-American Jasmine Bailey—at her weight. Levendusky was #3 on the depth chart. The weights above and below her were also loaded with Junior World Team members, world medalists and All-Americans.
“This might sound biased,” Joye mused, “but I don’t think there’s a better room to be training in in college right now. Our coach [Sam Schmitz] is just all about us—all about our goals, all about us improving and what’s best for us. He pushes us and it’s just perfect. All of my teammates, we just have the same mentality, the same goals and so it’s just a great room to be in cuz everybody is pushing each other and building each other up and they’re just great partners as well. I’m not going into the room being able to beat everybody up. It’s generally me getting beat up which is exactly what you want. I wanted to go somewhere where my teammates would expose my weaknesses and where I’d be pushed to get better instead of vice versa.“
Preseason was a brutal conditioning regimen, including having the Marines come in and lead a practice.
“It’s tough, but it gets us in really good shape,” Joye said. “I love the training there. Obviously it’s a grind, but it makes it so that, going out against other competition, I know I’m never gonna be gassed out by the other person. It’s gonna be the other way around so I at least have confidence in that.”
Coach Schmitz started the women’s program in 2013, last year winning a national championship at NWCA Nationals, and then securing their first two national champions in Alex Glaude (155) and New York alum Destane Garrick (191). McKendree had a whopping 10 All-Americans at WCWA Nationals, where they took 3rd as a team.
“Another thing I’ve come to appreciate about Coach Sam,” added Levendusky, “is his faith in Christ and how he represents that so well. That was one of the encouraging aspects of coming to McKendree is that I knew there would be a community of people there that share my beliefs and would help point me the right direction when it comes to my faith and why I’m out there on the mat. Coach’s character is so strong and he’s so others-oriented that he’s not self-centered at all. He’ll just come and work with us even when he has a newborn baby! He’s all about serving us and I really appreciate it.”
Coach Schmitz is married to one-time senior level star wrestler Michaela Hutchison.
COLLEGE COMPETITION
When her freshman season finally began, she was already at a new level. Her first tournament, she defeated a WCWA All-American to make the finals of the Lady Warrior Open in Nebraska.
As the season progressed, so did her game. Meanwhile, her faith was finding roots in her heart and on the mat. “My faith is not just a big part where I think about it after a match or tournament and give dedication to God. It is the biggest part of not just tournaments but even my training. It’s actually the reason I still love this sport. I feel like, with how much training we do and how tough it is, there’s no other way other than God that I would still be absolutely in love with it and loving it more every day. My relationship with God gives me purpose and gives me a new motivation. The reason I wrestle is to glorify Him. He’s given me all my talents and even my identity so I don’t have to find it through this sport, whether winning or losing. It makes it so I don’t have to get as nervous. I know why I’m out there and it’s not for myself. My faith liberates me to compete.”
She brought this mentality into WCWA Nationals in Atlanta last February, the highest level of women’s college wrestling, and took 7th place, gaining All-American status as a freshman.It’s worth noting that she was part of a rare feat, as all three McKendree Bearcat entries at that weight made the podium (Glaude took 1st, Bailey 6th). She was #3 on the depth chart at McKendree, but #7 in the United States.
Looking ahead to her sophomore season, the young Bearcat is focused.
“Now I’ve realized that I really shot a little too low going into college because I wasn’t sure how I was going to do at a higher level. I All-American’ed in high school but I wasn’t sure how I was going to do when it comes to college level competition. I was just wanting to place at tournaments and wanted to All-American, but even those things I wasn’t sure about. This year, I’m really excited.”
MAKING THE US NATIONAL TEAM
In May, Levendusky qualified for the US national team by taking 3rd at nationals in the Junior division. She attended her first Team USA camp at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado earlier this month and will attend her second in October. In 2020, she’ll represent Team USA overseas at an international tournament.
“Team USA Camp was a great experience,” Levendusky reflected. “I got to see a lot of big names in wrestling but when you’re there, it just feels like a normal wrestling room.” Levendusky got to work directly with Olympic gold medalist Helen Maroulis in several sessions when Maroulis was teaching technique. One-time Team NY coach Jacque Davis (now in Boston) was also on staff at the camp as she was one of the Junior Worlds coaches getting the national team ready to go to Estonia, so the experience was not without familiar faces. “I got to work with a lot of great partners every practice and got to work on a lot of small details and technique that I needed to work on going into the next season,” added Levendusky. The facilities were amazing, partners were great and coaches were incredible. It was an amazing experience.” She was one of five Bearcats at the camp.
Her McKendree team schedule is loaded with great events, including the Dave Schultz, the US Open & should she qualify, the Olympic Team Trials next April. She also gets to compete in the inaugural NCAA Invitational as it was recently recognized as an emerging sport.
Levendusky also got to serve as a Team NY Fargo coach last month. “I want to say thank you to everybody back home,” she said with a smile. “I know I moved 15 hours away or so but I never feel separated from the New York family. I always feel so much support over social media. I know people are watching me on FloWrestling and that’s so encouraging. Being able to come back and coach at Fargo, it felt like I never left. It was great seeing those girls and watching them tear it up and I can’t wait to see some of those girls come into the college scene as well. A big thank you to New York for always having my back.”
Preseason for McKendree begins September 12th.
