Wazzu’s club wrestling team held its annual Crimson and Gray dual Oct. 24, the team’s first opportunity this season to wrestle with an official in front of crowds. 

While the dual is composed of intersquad matches, it offers Coug fans a first look at what the team Head Coach Phil Burnett calls the hardest-working team he’s coached in his nine years with WSU.

“The team was extremely prepared…they’ve been working hard all season, and it showed the other night in their wrestling…it was phenomenal,” Burnett said. 

The dual, held during Parents Weekend, drew one of the largest crowds the team has seen in recent years. 

It also acted as the first college match for first-year team members. This season, the team brought in 33 freshmen, 20 men and 13 women, to create one of the largest and youngest teams in the program’s history. 

According to David Darroch, a former team member and current assistant coach, the top wrestling was the highlight skill-wise at the dual. 

“We have to work on our bottom, but whoever got the takedown was often scoring further…with such a young team seeing them scoring from the top consistently already is huge for their trajectory throughout college,” he said.

Despite the young roster, Burnett says the team is extremely dedicated, even though the team’s club status made all participation voluntary.

“We recruit extremely high-level wrestlers out of high school…they get right with the process that we’re teaching them. Coach David does a phenomenal job with the technique aspect,” he said. “We had 20 wrestlers show up at 5:30 this morning at the Chinook for voluntary lifting. That’s the kind of commitment we have.”

Since becoming a varsity-level team about four years ago, Wazzu’s wrestlers have claimed some big titles and attracted some big names out of high school, Burnett said.

Among some of the standout athletes from Friday was Ryan Wilson, the team’s returning 2x All-American, whom Coach Burnett expects to “compete at a whole different level;” Carl Schuenemann, a junior ROTC student who wrestles at 197, and freshman Caden Norris, from Spokane’s Lewis and Clarke high school, who was an equally impressive standout, Burnett said. 

According to Burnett and Darroch, the highlight match of the night was on the women’s side, between Gracie Pham, a WA State champion, and Macualay Lade, an OR State champion, with Pham edging out the win. 

According to Burnett, he believes there is a good chance of the men’s and women’s divisions taking nationals this year. Specifically on the women’s side, where the team already boasts a national title in duals. 

“I believe our women’s team will win the national title,” he said. “Last year, they were only four points out of first place out of 52 teams.”

In the past two years, the team has produced 20 All-American athletes, and Burnett fully expects them to maintain that output. 

“Our team is built to attack…we just have to continue that mentality of pushing the pace, using our extreme conditioning to our advantage by wearing the opponent out,” said Burnett.

The Cougs’ next home dual is Nov. 22. Wazzu will host Treasure Valley Community College at the Student Recreation Center, followed by another major home event Feb. 8, when Northwest Conference teams U of I, Montana State, Eastern WA and others will meet for a multi-team dual. 

“Idaho, Treasure Valley out of Ontario, Idaho, and us are the three elite teams in the division right now,” Burnett said of the competition.

According to Burnett, the team’s schedule this season is “pretty much grueling.”

Burnett said the addition of tougher tournaments and duals was deliberate, to push the wrestlers’ limits before the Northwest Conference Championships at Beasley Coliseum on March 14.

A key component of the team ideology, however, has nothing to do with wrestling itself. Burnett said the number one priority is for the athletes to flourish academically. 

“What they have is a coaching staff that cares more about their academics than we do what happens on the mat…that’s why our women’s team, only in its fifth year of inception, is already two-time national, academic national champions in just five years,” Burnett said. 

The women’s team has won the national academic title twice out of 52 teams, and the men placed fifth in the nation academically out of 89 teams, according to Burnett. 

Now entering its fourth year as a varsity club sport under the UREC department, the wrestling team operates independently of the university’s athletic department, meaning it is fully self-funded through fundraising and donations. 

Despite the funding challenge, the program has continued to grow in size and prestige each year since its graduation to varsity level, Burnett said.

“The nation is fully aware of who Washington State is…we’re not just a club team anymore. We just want people to come out and support their Coug wrestlers…a lot of people don’t even know we exist, but we’re doing something special here,” Burnett said.