College Wrestling: Stacked McKendree Aiming for Big Year
Coach Sam Schmitz led his McKendree Bearcats squad to their first-ever NWCA National Duals title last season. Photo courtesy of Sam Schmitz & McKendree University.
McKendree head coach Sam Schmitz never thought he’d be coaching women. But since he started in 2013, McKendree Women’s Wrestling has been on the rise with steadily improving results, until last year finally breaking through with an NWCA National Duals title and two national champions in Destane Garrick (191) and Alexandria Glaude (155). Glaude also won a U23 bronze medal, along with teammate Kori Bullock, not only a first for McKendree, but a first for Team USA. The Bearcats finished 3rd at WCWA Nationals, behind Simon Fraser (#2) and Menlo (#1). Currently, McKendree has eleven wrestlers ranked in the top 10 of AWW’s WCWA Rankings and fifteen in the top 10 of the AWW NCAA National Rankings.
Schmitz takes all the success in stride, aims higher, and focuses on developing his athletes. “Coaching young women can be challenging,” says Schmitz. “What I try to do most is teach them how to be collegiate athletes. It’s not always about the wrestling moves. A lot of it is just being focused and getting rid of all the distractions in your life so you can be successful at this level. “
While the women keep learning, Schmitz keeps learning as a coach. “I feel like every year I have it figured out and then I don’t, and I don’t think I ever will. Coaching young women is something I never thought I’d be doing, but I love it every day because it does challenge me, and I wouldn’t want it any other way.”
Schmitz likes to run a tight ship, though never neglecting the reality that his athletes are processing more than wrestling. “Every kid has their own bag of things they bring with them to school—not just the clothes and the things they need for school, but they have their own past, things that they’re dealing with and battling with that, as you run that tight ship, I feel like you’re trying to work with kids through what they’re going through.”
In the end, Schmitz’s philosophy is to recruit dedicated athletes who are striving to be the best. “We want the ones who want the most out of what they’re trying to do,” says Schmitz. And that’s what he has. “I appreciate my team’s work ethic and they’re willingness to buy in. I’m the first one to admit I’m difficult to be coached by, but the fact that they come every day with their ‘work hats’ on, I appreciate more than anything. I understand how tough they’ve got it, not only in the wrestling room, but in their classes.”
They have plenty of fun too. The common scene is country music or rap tracks blaring over the wrestling room speakers while Schmitz dances and does his best karaoke. That’s when the jesting and jabbing begins, the “love language” of many of the McKendree wrestlers. “We have fun,” admits Schmitz.
One common conditioning drill is when Schmitz puts on The Police song “Roxanne” and has the women sprawl and circle back to their feet every time the name “Roxanne” is mentioned. “I should probably do them the favor of finding a new song,” confesses the coach.
“I wouldn’t want to be coached by anyone other than Coach Sam,” says All-American 155, Joye Levendusky, “because as we put our effort into practice and school, so he puts his into shaping us and helping us reach our goals on and off the mat. The entire McKendree program is all about us becoming our best in wrestling, school, and life, and it’s an atmosphere that pushes you to reach that as well.”
Two things that have balanced Schmitz’s coaching are becoming a father and his Christian faith. He and his wife, 4x All-American and 3x national champion Michaela Hutchison, welcomed their daughter Maverly last spring, and that has had an impact on his perspective. “Now that I’m a father, I think I love these girls more now than I ever did,” he says. “I see them from a different angle. These girls are someone else’s kids and they’re special in their own way. Not that I didn’t feel that way before, but it’s stronger now.” As far as his faith, he says, “Walking in our faith and walking with the Lord is a never-ending process. I struggle with it just like everybody does, but just being blessed and seeing God’s love through the child we have, it’s definitely changed and shaped my life for the better.”
Every morning, his pastor sends him a “devotional” thought for the day. “It helps me get my head straight,” adds the busy coach. “I feel like the better job I do of that, of getting myself spiritually ready for the day, everything goes better, and these kids get the most out of me. I don’t try to throw [my faith] on the kids at all, but I try to be an example for what God can do in our lives because wrestling changed my life, and the Lord changed my life.”
Preseason was intense, as the women were challenged mentally and physically, with frequent stops in the ice baths and frequent stretching through the pain of sore muscles. “Our girls are resilient,” says the coach. “They go through all that and show up the next day like nothing happened the day before. It’s incredible to me. We could have run ten miles the day before, but when they show up the next day, you’d have no idea we did that. I love that about them.”
Preseason is over, and the 2019-2020 season is starting soon. Coach Schmitz has some goals. “I want to have ten kids at Olympic Trials at Penn State,” he says without blinking. “It was an amazing experience last time when we were in Iowa City.” Schmitz’s now-wife, Michaela Hutchison, was wrestling at the Olympic Trials last time he was there. McKendree had six wrestlers competing there in 2016. “That would be an experience they’d never forget.”
Adding to this goal, Coach Schmitz wants to continue the streak of putting McKendree reps on the junior world team, which they’ve done now for seven years in a row, including this year’s reps, Alara Boyd (62 kg) and Kori Bullock (76 kg). 53 kg Felicity Taylor is McKendree’s sole U23 rep.
The Bearcats are also going to make another run at a national NWCA Duals title, winning their first-ever last year. “It was almost more of a relief than it was an excitement,” confesses Schmitz. “We struck out [in the finals] two years in a row. Both losses were close, I think between 4-5 points.”
Against Campbellsville in 2018, McKendree won the first 5 matches, only to drop the last 5 in a row and see the title slip through their hands. As if a poetic tragedy, in the last match, 191-pound Destane Garrick lost 13-13 by criteria to Campbellsville’s Kaitlyn Hill. “It was crushing,” says Schmitz. “This year, we went into it pretty confident. Over the years we’d put that team together to be in that situation. So it was like, ‘Finally! We didn’t get our hearts broken again.’”
McKendree will also compete next March at the inaugural NCAA Invitational.
Returning AA’s & AA hopefuls
McKendree had ten All-Americans at WCWA Nationals last year, and six of them are returning. Graduating after last season were 4x All-American Alexis Porter (136), 3x All-American Jasmine Bailey (155), national champion Destane Garrick (191)—who is now on the coaching staff—and Vanessa Ramirez (109) is taking a break from school. McKendree also said good-bye to 191 hammer Brandy Lowe, who under-performed at WCWA last season, but took 3rd in 2018. Here’s McKendree’s returning All-Americans:
116 Felicity Taylor, sophomore / AWW Ranking: #1 NCAA, #2 WCWA
Anyone around women’s wrestling for the last five years knows Felicity Taylor. With her signature frosted hair, she was highly recruited out of high school and the freshman powerhouse didn’t let down, making it all the way to the WCWA finals last February before falling to Menlo star Grace Figueroa 7-0. “Felicity is sneaky,” says Coach Schmitz. “She’s a quiet kid who works really hard and is very talented and technical. She’s not a flashy winner, but continues to win and we expect her to do well.” Taylor will wrestle at U23 Worlds next week.
116 Theresa Rankin, red shirt junior / AWW Ranking: #3 NCAA, #5 WCWA
After taking 5th at WCWA Nationals last year, Rankin is poised to make run at the podium again. She lost to teammate Felicity Taylor in the WCWA semis last year 8-3. Schmitz comments, “Theresa Rankin has been a consistent kid for us for three years. This will be her fourth year and she’ll be tough for us.”
130 Brenda Reyna, junior / AWW Ranking: #1 NCAA, #2 WCWA
Reyna made the junior world team in 2018, following it up with a runner-up finish at the 2019 WCWA Nationals. Brenda is recovering from a knee injury sustained last April at the U.S. Open. Her recovery timeline remains to be seen. Otherwise, she’d certainly have an NCAA Invitational title in view, as well as making a run at making an Olympic team.
155 Alexandria Glaude, senior / AWW Ranking: #1 NCAA, #1 WCWA
What does she have as an encore? Glaude won a U23 bronze last year, following up with a WCWA national title, McKendree’s first-ever (until Garrick did it again a few minutes later). In the offseason, she reached Final X, the Super Bowl of senior level wrestling, where she lost to eventual world champion Tamrya Mensah-Stock.
155 Joye Levendusky, sophomore / AWW Ranking: #3 NCAA, #4 WCWA
Levendusky was the only other McKendree freshman to All-American last year, coming in 7th at the WCWA Nationals. She had a stellar off-season, making a junior national team by placing 3rd at Women’s Nationals. Since making the U.S. squad last May, she’s attended two USAW camps at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, and has been fine-tuning her technique. “Joye looks unbelievable right now,” notes Schmitz. “She’s in Colorado Springs [as I speak] with Alara Boyd. I love that those kids go there, because they just need a different voice and some different perspectives and come back with some new stuff.”
170 Kori Bullock, junior / AWW Ranking: #1 NCAA, #5 WCWA
2x All-American Bullock also walked off the mats in Bucharest, Romania last season with a U23 bronze. Then she finished 6th at WCWA Nationals. Her tough, hold-your-position style should make her a national contender this year.
Other returning contenders are junior 101/109 Natalie Reyna (ranked #4 NCAA, #8 WCWA); 109-pound Allissa Maldanado (ranked #3 NCAA) and sophomore 109 Carly Valleroy (ranked #4 NCAA), who was 8th at U23’s last May; senior 116 Katherine Sumner (ranked #8 NCAA); red shirt senior 123 Alexia Ward (ranked #3 NCAA, #7 WCWA), 4th at University Nationals in 2017; junior 136 Michelle Camacho (ranked #4 NCAA, #8 WCWA), who lost in the All-American Round of 12 at WCWA Nationals.
“Michelle was really good for us last year,” says Coach Schmitz, “especially as a red shirt freshman, so she’s still got a few years left.”
The beaming coach can’t say enough about senior Katherine Sumner. “If we had a McKendree book, and it said ‘McKendree Women’s Wrestling,’ she would be the picture of what we represent, and that’s not an exaggeration. She is what our team and our program is about. She comes every day, she ties her shoes tight, and she battles. She’s the sweetest girl in the world and world give the shirt off her back to anybody. She’s an incredible incredible person. Katherine would probably be a starter on somebody else’s team. She wins a lot of matches and chose to be here and I love that.”
Other returning contenders include sophomore 143 Grace Kristoff (ranked #7 NCAA), who took 6th at junior nationals last May; sophomore 170/191 Sydnee Kimber (#5 NCAA, #10 WCWA), who took 8th at junior nationals last May; and senior Andrea Sennett (ranked #6 NCAA, #7 WCWA), a 2018 national team member, who placed 3rd at University Nationals in 2017 and is coming off a redshirt season.
Schmitz also had some thoughts about Kristoff. “One of the girls who’s going to move up in the lineup is Grace Kristoff,” says the coach. “She had a really good junior tournament and U23 tournament last spring—she placed in both of them and beat some good kids and is really making some big strides in the wrestling room. I think she’ll jump in pretty well into our lineup this year.”
170/191 Sydnee Kimber didn’t make the podium in Atlanta last year, but wrestled in All-American form all season. “She lost her third or fourth match [of the season] at the national tournament,” says the coach. “She’ll bounce back this year and be good for us.”
Recruiting Class
To add to the already-loaded program, McKendree had one of the top recruiting classes in the country, bringing in star recruits 101-pound Valerie Carreon from Texas, a Fargo All-American and Texas state champ; 101 Jolie Lucas, an Alaskan state champ; 109 Pauline Granados, an All-American from California; 123 Payton Stroud from Washington, 3rd place at Fargo last July.
“Payton Stroud is already challenging our older girls in the room,” noted Schmitz. “It’s kind of fun to watch.”
The star recruiting class also includes 130-pound Shaina Murray, an All-American from NJ who finished her high school career at Wyoming Sem, where she already gained some international experience; 136 Alara Boyd from Indiana, a 2x Cadet world medalist; 136/143 Emma Bruntil from Washington, a 2017 Junior Pan Am Champ who had been at the OTC for the last year; and 143 McKenzie Cook from Alaska, a Fargo national champion last July.
Expect this recruiting class to contribute right away, though Coach Schmitz points out, “They’re definitely tough, though I’m not going to take credit away from the girls that are already here. They’re already tough as well, but it’s nice to add some more firepower to what [our upperclassmen] already bring to the table for us.”
The McKendree women’s program works very closely with the men’s program. “We’re one team,” explains Schmitz. “I just had a recruit from Washington sitting in my office yesterday and I was telling her that one of the greatest things about being a part of this wrestling program is the support [from the men’s program]. It’s pretty special.”
He reflected that last year at NCWA National Duals, as soon as the men were done, they rushed over to support the women’s team as they wrestled in the finals. Perhaps they’ll have to rush over again this year, as the 2019-2020 McKendree squad looks to be in the mix for the top of the podium again at every event they attend. Stay tuned! The heart of the wrestling season is coming soon.