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Different attitudes, same result: UW-L freshmen Matt Mauseth and Brandon Music both claimed WIAC titles last month and are headed to the NCAA Division III Championships Friday and Saturday in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
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UW-La Crosse 149-pounder Matt Mauseth, left, and 125-pounder Brandon Music are heading to the NCAA national meet. Erik Daily photo |
Freshmen often are used as practice-room pinning dummies in a strong program like UW-L’s, but Mauseth and Music found ways to rise above the grind of their first year of college athletics and schoolwork.
“It’s going to be a great learning experience for both of them,” Eagles coach Dave Malecek said. “We told them that they’re not going to nationals just to be participants. They’re going to be All-Americans.”
Mauseth, a 149-pounder from Rochester, Minn., takes a 19-6 record to the national meet and Tomah, Wis., native Music is 23-12 at 125 pounds.
Third-ranked UW-La Crosse qualified a total of eight individual wrestlers for the national meet. The Eagles finished third last season and have 13 top 10 finishes since 1992.
Mauseth came to UW-L after a dominating prep career at Rochester (Minn.) Mayo High School. He was a varsity wrestler for six years (seventh and eighth graders are allowed to participate in Minnesota) and set a school record with 189 wins.
As a senior, Mauseth went 41-2 and won a Class AAA 152-pound title. He finished second as a freshman and junior and fourth as a sophomore.
Mauseth said one reason he chose UW-L is that he knew the 149 and 157 weight classes were open this year.
“My goal was to get a starting spot,” Mauseth said. “I’m optimistic that way. Coach Malecek knew I was on varsity in seventh grade and he said, ‘You’ve never wrestled JV in your life. Why start now?’”
Mauseth earned the starting job at 149 pounds and won his first 10 matches. Then, he lost his first collegiate match and fell into a slump, going 7-6.
“I took sixth in a tournament during that time and I’ve never finished sixth in my life,” Mauseth said. “I had to re-focus and gear up for conference. I feel like I’m getting my flow back now and wrestling well.”
Malecek said when Mauseth started losing a few matches, it was from running smack into the freshman learning curve. While Mauseth was winning early, Malecek saw that he was still into his high school habits.
“The biggest thing for both of those freshmen is when they finally believed in our system,” Malecek said. “That’s when they both started making strides. It’s getting out of high school habits and getting into college habits. Both guys had some freshman blues but they’re rolling now.”
Music didn’t come to UW-L with the same high confidence as Mauseth. He was an outstanding wrestler at Tomah and finished 43-5 as a senior but never placed at state.
When Music showed up for the first day of practice with the Eagles, he looked at the other 125-pound candidates and saw two wrestlers from Wisconsin who had both beaten him in high school and a state champion from Nebraska.
Five months later, those wrestlers aren’t around anymore but Music is.
“When I came in, there were a lot of tough recruits,” Music said. “I wasn’t sure about it. I just tried to work hard in the room. The biggest thing was being mentally tough. That’s what college wrestling is. I stuck it out and there are only two of us 125-pounders left.”
Junior Pat Parrillo earned the varsity 125-pound spot to start the season. Music kept grinding away and earned the No. 1 spot at midseason.
When Music pinned then No. 1-ranked Seth Flodeen, a junior from Augsburg (Minn.) at the NWCA/Cliff Keen National Duals in Cedar Falls, Iowa in mid-January, he started to believe in himself.
“I thought, ‘Maybe I can hang in and be one of the top wrestlers,’” Music said. “After that, I wasn’t so tentative. When you are confident, you can just go out and wrestle your match. I started going out and attacking and wrestling my style.”
“We call him our little hammer,” Malecek said. “Brandon just keeps pounding away. Mental toughness is big for him. He’s coachable and he’s got that fiery attitude.”
Four of UW-L’s eight national qualifiers are seniors, so Mauseth and Music will be expected to absorb as much as they can this weekend and come back next year as tested veterans.
“We’re going to try to build our program around them for the future,” Malecek said.
Joel Badzinski can be reached at (608) 791-8402 or joel.badzinski@lee.net
