 "Photo: Photo by Josh O'Bright")
Even though the season is just getting underway, many things are already working in the Titans wrestling team’s favor.
First, there are the rankings.
The Brute-Adidas National Wrestling Coaches Association Division III poll has UW-Oshkosh ranked 23rd, the highest ranking the Titans have ever had.
Second, the Titans have a head coach who is dedicated to helping his grapplers to reach their full potential.
“We expect to improve upon our results from last season,” head coach Mike DeRoehn said. “We are a year older, more physically developed with another year in our technical system. With positive athletic development comes positive results.”
The positive result that DeRoehn strives for is to be a top-two team in the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference and to be nationally ranked inside the top 20.
Those are the two goals that the team has set for this season.
Third, the Titans are returning nine of 10 starters from last season.
It also helps that Oshkosh now has Sam Laes, a transfer from Lawrence University who qualified for the
National Collegiate Athletic Association championship at his previous school.
One of the many returnees for Oshkosh is junior James Dederich, who will wrestle in the 165-pound weight class.
His 2008 record was 27-12 and he finished fifth in the WIAC tournament.
Dederich’s other notable finishes include victories in the Dan Gable Open and the Coe College Invitational, second place in the Milwaukee School of Engineering Invitational and third place in the Knox Invite.
Sophomore Sam Engelland will be wrestling in the 174-pound class after a 26-14 record during the 2008 season. He was an NCAA qualifier and fell one win shy of earning NCAA All-American honors.
Engelland was also the runner-up in the WIAC tournament and took first place in the MSOE Invitational.
“Being runner-up and one match away from an All-American was a pretty big downer for me last year,” he said. “I knew that I could have won those matches that would have given me a conference championship and All-American status. But now I really understand what I have to do to be able to be at the top, where I just missed a year ago.”
Engelland hopes that having one season under his belt will give him a better understanding of how to manage himself throughout the year.
Laes, who went 25-9 last year while at Lawrence University, will represent the Titans in the 184-pound weight class.
Similar to Engelland, Laes also was a NCAA qualifier and missed out on All-American honors.
He was the champion of the MSOE Invitational and placed second in the Sunshine Classic and the North Central Invitational.
Laes said he is glad to be wrestling at Oshkosh and is looking forward to the season.
“I love the new team,” he said. “It’s nice to just jump on board to a team that is currently ranked 23rd in the nation. It’s real great to have a team of guys that are so tight and I’m excited about the upcoming season’s potential.”
In the heavyweight class, sophomore Jason Laplante will be returning after going 18-10 and placing fourth in the WIAC tournament last season.
Laplante’s other tournament finishes included being the runner-up in the Knox and Cornell Invites and taking third in the Coe Invite and the Dan Gable Open.
There is a position battle in the heavyweight class between Laplante and Justin Schmalfeldt, who won 30 matches as a freshman in 2007.
Coach DeRoehn thinks highly of both wrestlers and is glad to see depth in the class.
“Whenever you have some quality depth in the room, it helps to ease a coach’s mind because he knows that in case of injury, illness, etc., he can still put out a wrestler with a chance to win, regardless if they are your current starter or not,” he said. “Both (Schmalfeldt) and Jason Laplante are quality wrestlers and they are going to have to try and outwork each other, which is a positive.”
The team will begin their season at home against Harper College on Nov. 13.
DeRoehn said that every opponent they face will be just as important as the next.
“You can’t look at any one team and say they are the toughest you will face,” he said. “They’re all high quality and you have to take it one match at a time.”
The Titans hope this philosophy carries them all the way to Cedar Rapids, Iowa, the site of the NCAA Division III Championship.
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