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NCAA WRESTLING CHAMPIONSHIP

March 19, 2016

Gabriel Dean

New York, New York

THE MODERATOR: Coming into the room is two-time champion at 184 pounds, Gabe Dean, from Cornell. Gabe, a quick opening statement about your match.

GABRIEL DEAN: Athletic, big, strong kid. Some history there. He'll get his way. He obviously did his homework, kept getting out of that position there. He fought hard there. And no question he's a great wrestler.

Q. Rob Koll said if we have 28 percent of the NCAA champions on our team I'll be pretty fired up after Brian went down. What's this say about your program, you guys got 20 percent, two out of the 10 champs. What's it say about Cornell wrestling and how fired up are you right now?
GABRIEL DEAN: I'm really fired up, actually. I'm containing myself because I have to be professional. But, man, from where we started to where we are now as a group, I remember coming into Cornell when I was a kid, getting the crap kicked out of me every day by Cam Simaz. And I guess it's great to be on the other end of that now and not getting my head shoved into the bleachers every day. But the point was these kids, not just me but my whole class, we kept coming back and didn't take no for an answer. And you know what, we didn't have the perfect NCAA Tournament, but we got a lot of fighters on our team and a lot of support. And I'm just happy to be a part of it.

Q. You're shooting for that single leg when you kept losing him time and time again. Were you thinking, uh-ho, I've got to pull out something here he might get me. What were you thinking when you kept missing that leg?
GABRIEL DEAN: Get back to the leg, just keep coming back, keep coming back to the leg. I almost felt like he wanted to toss me or throw me there. So I had to kind of be somewhat calm in that position and not try to rush anything. Like I said, he's a big athletic kid and a strong wrestler and (indiscernible) I'm sure since we wrestled earlier this year. So, credit to him and (indiscernible).

Q. With the win, are you glad football didn't work out?
GABRIEL DEAN: Yeah, I suppose so actually. I kind of joke I'm a football player that's just trying to help his wrestling team. But I guess I'm a wrestler that's a former football player now. But I love football and when one door closes, another one opens. And after that door closed on me after I had my experience at Georgia Tech and Cornell opened. And you know what? I can't imagine my life being any other way than it is right now.

Q. Gabe, were you going to go to the Olympic Trials? Will you take a break? Will you wrestle freestyle, Greco or both? What's your plans in that area?
GABRIEL DEAN: Well, I'm pretty inexperienced at Greco, really inexperienced Greco, trained for two weeks, that experience, that's pretty much all the Greco I've done all my life. Freestyle I'm still really inexperienced. But thankfully Cornell has an RTC program where I can train with guys like Kyle Dake and Enoch Francois and these kind of guys. So I'm just really going to go with the flow here. I will do whatever my coaching staff wishes me to do. And I'm almost at this point right now more going to really enjoy this moment with my family and my friends and my support system. That's a huge reason why I was able to do what I do. And I will go from there.

Q. When you look back on the decision to focus on wrestling instead of football, aside from obviously the great success you've had in it, looking back on it, how much does it affect you now knowing what we now know about football and concussions and head trauma and issues like that?
GABRIEL DEAN: You know, I never really have been -- I'm sure I've had -- I'm sure I've been hit pretty good a couple times. I know I have. But I think football, what it did for me, as a quarterback anyways, it helped me deal with a lot of pressure. The quarterback position in football is a lot like two guys out there wrestling -- you've got to come in as a whole team and get them to work together to win a football game and score points. But the thing I liked about wrestling the most it's a sport where you can control your own destiny at the end of the day. So wrestling is a sport where it's really on you, and you walk off the mat whether you won or lost if you did do a couple of things you that you didn't want to. And football, you have to rely on other things. Football helped prepare me a lot mentally, but I love wrestling because you are in control of your own destiny.

Q. Jumped into Damion Hahn's arms. What did you say to him? What did he say to you and what does he mean to you?
GABRIEL DEAN: Said I love you, man. Damion is a special, special person in my life, kind of like a second father. I get emotional because he's a very, very special human being. His family. They're like parents that I -- second parents to me. Without him I wouldn't be sitting in front of you guys right now, and I would not be sitting in front of you guys last year and I don't even know if I would be at the tournament. So I can't say enough about the man. I don't even have words to describe our relationship. I just love him to death and I would give my own life for that guy.

THE MODERATOR: Thank you.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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