At the beginning of the season, I wrote a newsletter about the idea of a tipping point (Newsletter). I was thinking about how progress works in a program. Most of the time, it does not announce itself. It builds quietly through ordinary days, hard practices, small improvements, and a lot of belief. Then, if enough of the right things keep stacking up, something shifts.
This past weekend in Cleveland, I think we all felt that shift.
Stanford finished 6th at the NCAA Championships, the highest finish in program history. We had four All-Americans, the most in program history, and Aden Valencia became the third NCAA Champion Stanford wrestling has ever had.
Those are incredible accomplishments, and they deserve to be celebrated. But what I keep coming back to is that Cleveland did not feel like a surprise. It felt like confirmation. It felt like the kind of moment that only happens after a long stretch of building toward something bigger.
That is what made it so special. It was not just a great weekend. It was the visible sign that this program has started to tip.
And if I am being honest, what I felt most in Cleveland was not relief or even pride. It was belief.
Belief has been growing in this program for a while now. You could feel it in small ways early in the season. In how the guys trained, in how they competed, and in how they responded when things did not go their way. As the season went on, that belief started to show up more and more each week.
Belief in the coaches. Belief in the system. But most importantly, belief in each other.
That kind of belief is hard to fake.
Last season we had trouble finishing matches. We would get leads, and when things got stressful, we would fall apart at times. I think those situations, the really tough moments, are where your belief is truly tested. Do you believe in yourself, your training, and your environment? It was not fully there last year.
It is there now, and you can see it.
It shows up in tight matches. It shows up when you are wrestling someone seeded higher and the moment is big. It shows up when the easy thing to do would be to just let the match slip away, and instead you find another level.
I have coached long enough to know that you cannot manufacture that in a week. It has to be built over time. This team built it, and you could sense it building through the second half of the season. We were getting better week to week, competition to competition, and the guys could feel it.
And that belief showed up in Cleveland in a very real way.
We did not win every match, but every athlete stepped on the mat believing they should win, and gave everything they had to get their hand raised. I was incredibly proud of the courage displayed by these young men across the competition.
Nico Provo should be named Outstanding Wrestler of the consolation bracket, winning five straight matches by a combined score of 48-12 to earn 3rd place. He absolutely dominated, including a major decision over the returning national champion in the third place match.
I am not sure exactly what shifted after his loss to McGowan, but Nico wrestled the best he has ever wrestled in competition over those last five matches. Once he broke through in the blood round and became an All-American, it was like a weight was lifted and he wrestled the most free I have ever seen him wrestle.
If Nico wrestles the way he did on the backside, anything is possible in his career. National Champion. Olympic Champion. It is all there for him.
The award for returning All-American given the least chance of repeating by the wrestling media was Tyler Knox. It seemed like everyone outside of Stanford was talking about anyone but Knox to place in this year’s NCAA tournament.
Knox made sure to change that narrative.
He took out two wrestlers seeded above him, including #5 Larkin of Arizona State, and not only repeated as an All-American, but moved himself up two spots, finishing 6th in the country. Tyler hit a bit of a slump midyear, and it was great to see him work his way out of it and compete the way he did in Cleveland.
I do wonder if they will doubt a two-time All-American next year.
At 141, Jack Consiglio did not get what he wanted in Cleveland, but he gave one hell of an effort. After his second round loss, he fell into a tough wrestleback match against #9 Oliveri of Rutgers. In one of the best examples of supreme effort, he gave everything he had to score the match winning takedown.
I do think that effort took a lot out of him, and he just did not quite have the same energy in his final match, but that does not take away from how he competed. Jack has steadily improved and, more importantly, fully bought into what we are doing. He made big jumps this year, and I expect another big step forward this offseason.
I’ll get to 149 later.
Now we get into what I would call heartbreak row.
The NCAA Tournament is emotionally brutal for a coach. I love these guys like they are my own, and when things do not go their way, it hurts, even when there are a lot of great things happening around them.
Dan Cardenas wrestled the way he always does, with all of his heart and soul. After a tough loss on the front side, he came back with two dominant wins before running into #3 Shapiro of Cornell who was upset in the championship bracket. Dan was close to scoring multiple times but just could not quite finish. In the end, Shapiro was able to extend a scramble and find the score late.
I truly believed Dan was going to win a National Title, and to watch that slip away was heartbreaking.
At 165, #27 seed EJ Parco made his way to the quarterfinals by upsetting the #6 and #11 seeds. It was one of the best two match runs I have seen at the NCAA tournament. His win over Araujo was my favorite match of the weekend.
Down four, on bottom, with ten seconds left, most people are thinking about finding a way just to tie the match. EJ found a way to win.
Illegal locked hands call, escape, takedown. Five point play in 10 seconds for the win. Incredible! We will be using that as an example to future Stanford wrestlers that you just keep wrestling and good things can happen.
His blood round loss was incredibly tough. A stall call I did not agree with, followed by another that forced overtime, and then a takedown against him. Another really hard one to watch.
What a year for EJ. Starting at 149, moving up to 165 for the team, going 0-2 at Midlands, and then making the round of 12 at NCAA’s. That is a testament to his commitment and growth, and I believe his best wrestling is still ahead of him.
Abe Wojcikiewicz possibly entered the tournament as one of the most beat up wrestlers. The only live wrestling he did in the last four weeks was at the ACC and National tournament. Despite this he wrestled incredibly hard giving the #5 seed in an incredibly tough match and was able to pick up a tech fall in the consolation bracket, which was huge in relation to the team race (a tech fall is worth 1.5 points and we placed 6th ahead of Michigan by, you guessed it, 1.5 points).
It was a productive year for Abe, he improved a ton, and got a lot of valuable experience. He needs to heal up a bit, but I’m certain once he is healthy, if he keeps on his current trajectory he will make a lot of progress this off-season. If he grows as expected he should enter next year a serious threat among the best of the NCAA.
True freshman Angelo Posada had a great first NCAA tournament, becoming an All-American by placing 6th. Angelo entered our program ready to compete and quickly showed that he was one of the best in the country. To get to the end of the season and prove that as a true freshman is an incredible feat.
He started with two dominant wins in the championship bracket before falling to one of the best wrestlers in the tournament, #1 seed, Josh Barr. He picked up a dominating major decision in the blood round, and picked up a gritty win in his next match to go for 5th. Ultimately, he lost a hard fought battle and ended up 6th.
I view Angelo as one of our easier projects as he really needs to get a bit stronger. He has a little trouble with the bigger and stronger wrestlers, so he will become very good friends with our strength coach, James Surovcik. Angelo has all the wrestling tools to become a National Champion and I can’t wait to see what the next 5-6 months of training creates. Angelo had an amazing first season with us and the best of Posada is ahead.
And then there is Aden.
He sent me a long message after the tournament thanking me for believing in him.
My response was, “I am so pissed at you. I don’t know how many times you made me cry this weekend.”
I do what I do for those moments, when someone reaches a goal they have dreamed about for a long time, and to see Aden do it hit me hard.
The team stormed the stage when he won and embraced him, many with tears of joy. No other team did that. It was special.
The matside interview with ESPN where Aden said he did it for her sister, also an All-American, who tore her ACL at the first ever NCAA Women’s Nationals. More tears.
The team greeted him after his press conference chanting, Aden! Aden! Aden! More tears.
Then there were the interviews. Who, but a Stanford student, references a paper that they wrote in a Lit class in their press conference. He talked about the fact he manifested the win. It was awesome and if you haven’t seen it you should watch it. More Tears. (https://youtu.be/EgZkGOetkRc?si=TisaL6krqGg91ks-)
It was a special weekend for Aden. One of the coolest things as coach was simply observing Aden throughout the weekend. He was like a kid in a candy shop. So excited. So confident. So full of joy!
Watching him win was pretty cool too!
As the night wrapped up, Aden Valencia stood at the top of the podium as a National Champion.
But this was not a one man performance.
That is what made it so meaningful to me. It was not just the result of our top performer. It was the consistency up and down the lineup. It was a group of guys who gave everything they had in every match.
And that does not happen by accident.
It happens when a group starts to believe in something bigger than themselves. When they trust the process, when they trust the people next to them, and when they invest in each other day after day, long before anyone is watching.
That belief has been building in our room, but it has not stayed there. It has started to spread.
You could feel it in Cleveland. In the alumni who made the trip, in the messages from former wrestlers, in the energy from the Bay Area wrestling community, and in the nearly 1,000 fans per dual we saw all season long.
There is a team on the mat, but there is also a team around the team. Donors who believe in the vision. Administrators who want to help in any way they can. Alumni who stay connected and invested. Families who trust us with their sons. Fans who show up, who care, who bring energy into our environment.
All of that matters more than people realize.
Because tipping points do not just happen inside a locker room. They happen when enough people are pulling in the same direction, when belief becomes shared, and when it extends beyond the room and into a community.
That is when things start to move differently.
That is when something real starts to build.
There is a new Post-it note going up on the wall.
It is simple. Just one word.
Believe.
Isn’t that why this program even exists? When Stanford Wrestling was facing elimination in 2020, a group of people believed they could find a way to keep it. Because of that belief, this program just had the best NCAA tournament in its history.
6th place, the highest finish ever. Four All-Americans, the most in program history. A National Champion, the third in school history.
I believed we could win a trophy in Cleveland. We came up a little short, but I also believe this program is capable of winning a National Championship.
And the most exciting part is that it no longer feels like a quiet belief inside our room. It is starting to spread.
Our athletes believe in each other. Our coaches believe in what we are building. Our alumni, our fans, and the Bay Area wrestling community are starting to believe with us.
That is how something grows.
That is how something tips.
And once enough people believe, it becomes very hard to stop.
