In a season filled with highs and lows, Cal Poly wrestling has managed to send five wrestlers to compete in the NCAA National Championships in Kansas City, MO.
Starting on the morning of Thursday, March 21 redshirt freshman Zeth Romney, redshirt sophomore Chance Lamer, redshirt junior Legend Lamer, graduate Adam Kemp and redshirt sophomore Trevor Tinker will represent the Mustangs for a chance to win NCAA glory.
Jon Sioredas entered his eighth year as the Mustangs’ head coach and was coming off his best season yet in the 2022-2023 season.
Sioredas led Cal Poly to an undefeated 5-0 record in the Pac-12 conference a season ago, while knocking off some Top 25 ranked opponents along the way, and had some expectations to live up to entering this season.
The team’s journey to get here
The Mustangs started out the year with a 4-1 non-conference record, beating some formidable Big 12 opponents in Northern Colorado and Air Force and having individual successes in the Cliff Keen Invite and Ken Kraft Midlands tournaments.
Going into conference play, Cal Poly was ranked No. 23 in the nation by the NWCA rankings and looked to make another run going into Pac-12 play.
Romney, just a redshirt freshman in his first season as a starter, and Chance Lamer were ranked as high as No. 9 and No. 5 in their respective weight classes.
Kemp and Tinker were also highly ranked throughout the season, but would also deal with lingering injuries, preventing them from wrestling with the team opening conference play.
The Mustangs would struggle against higher-ranked Pac-12 opponents and stumbled to a 6-5 overall finish with a 1-4 conference record.
Sioredas says it obviously wasn’t what they wanted, but they weren’t overly concerned with wins and losses and were more focused on maximizing their development.
This is a product of mindset and performance coach Coyte Cooper, who is in his first full season with the team. Cooper and Sioredas have really pushed the idea of minimizing disappointment and maximizing improvement.
“Coyte really introduced a new way of thinking and a new approach that works at the highest level,” Sioredas said.
While it may not have shown in their record, Sioredas says the team is improving day in and day out and this way of thinking was crucial in the team’s performance in the Pac-12 Championships.
Exceeding expectations at the Pac-12 tournament
Heading into the Pac-12 Championships, Cal Poly was overshadowed by the likes of Stanford, Arizona State, Oregon State and even Little Rock.
Sioredas wanted to make it known to the team that whatever happened during the regular season doesn’t matter anymore and that they can just let loose.
“There’s a lot of pressure I think that a lot of people carry and we work very hard in alleviating that and just going out there and letting it fly,” Sioredas said.
The Mustangs threw any pre-held notions out the window as the No. 1 seeded Kemp took home the 174-pound Pac-12 title over Little Rock’s Tyler Brennan in a 3-2 decision victory.
“He’s got the potential to wrestle with anyone in the country,” Sioredas said. “I think he’s going to show a lot of people that [at NCAAs.]”
Chance secured a second-place finish in the 149-pound weight class as he was just edged out by Kyle Parco out of Arizona State in the championship bout in a 5-1 decision, dropping his record to 17-5.
Despite the loss in the final round, Chance says it felt good to get back into wrestling in tournaments.
“My last tournament was all the way back in December”, Chance said. “So it’s good getting the [Pac-12] tournament in before the real deal.”
Chance’s older brother, Legend, secured his third NCAA Championships appearance of his collegiate career. Legend finished in third place in the 157-pound weight class over Little Rock’s Matthew Bianchi in a 5-3 decision, improving his overall record to 14-10 on the season.
Legend also says that Cooper’s growth mindset has paid dividends and could especially feel it in the Pac-12 tournament.
“Now I feel loose and free and I’m just ready to go out there and let it fly,” Legend said.
In a season where his success was unexpected to anyone outside of Cal Poly, Romney secured a third-place finish in the 133-pound weight class, clinching his first NCAA appearance in just his first season as a starter.
Romney, like the rest of the team, experienced his highs and lows during the season, but he says that the rankings are the last thing he’s looking at and that he’s more focused on getting better.
“I had to get my groove back this weekend [at Pac-12s], but I’m feeling amazing now,” Romney said.
Heavyweight Trevor Tinker earned his second consecutive at-large bid from the NCAA committee after finishing in fourth place in the Pac-12 tournament and holding a 13-5 record. Tinker also holds the No. 28 seed in his weight class at the NCAA tournament.
With half of the starting lineup in the tournament, the Mustangs are hungry and ready to make some noise at the NCAA Championships starting on Thursday, March 21 through Saturday, March 23 at the T-Mobile Center in Kansas City, MO.
“We’ve had our ups and downs just like anyone else,” Sioredas said. “But I think we’re well rested, we’re healed up and ready to rock and roll.”