2022 NCAA WRESTLING CHAMPIONSHIP

March 18, 2022

Myles Amine

Michigan

Media Conference

THE MODERATOR: We are joined by Myles Amine from Michigan, top seed in the 184-pound weight class.

Q. Congratulations. This has been a long-time coming. You've put in a lot of years at Michigan, real close to making the finals. This is your first one, what does it mean?

MYLES AMINE: It's special. Especially being in Detroit. We had five semifinalists, and some guys didn't perform the way they wanted to, and I had it in the back of my head that I wanted to go out there and compete for them and for Michigan and try to score as many point as I can for my team.

Obviously I was thinking about myself a little bit. I've had some tough bouts in the semifinals and that played a big role in how I wrestled, just trying to go out there and take it, not expect for it to fall in my hands.

Q. Talk about your roots and they prepared you for this moment?

MYLES AMINE: My grandfather was an immigrant from Lebanon and lived in the Dearborn area, metro Detroit area almost his whole life, and he raised my father and my uncle, both successful college wrestlers, and my dad was NCAA Finalist at Michigan, always a little joke on the side, and he kind of always had that over me, so I've got to give him grief for that.

My family has been really connected to wrestling and the whole state of Michigan. My dad and uncle wrestled together in high school, and my brother and I and my cousin were Detroit Catholic Central, right down the road, and my other cousin Brighton High School, so deep, deep roots from the Amine family. I said this before the tournament I wanted to focus on this for myself and after this I think I will have time to focus on the legacy.

Q. When you beat Brooks in overtime, you made a point of saying you forced him to move on you and it seemed to open up. Penn State is hard to score on. Is that the key to beating Penn State and Brooks?

MYLES AMINE: It's funny, I just tried to wrestle the best match I could against him and at the end I felt like things played out the way I wanted them to but that's the best part about wrestling is I'm sure he has continued to evolve his strategy.

I'm going to be ready for whatever comes tomorrow night and I just look forward to the high-level wrestling match and getting to compete on that stage. That's what I trained for and I love the rubber match. That's something I was thinking about since the day after Big Tens is I know it going to be a fun match, deep waters. I love that stuff.

Q. You had two close matches with Aaron Brooks. He said you bring out the best in him. Can you say the same about him?

MYLES AMINE: Absolutely. At the end of the day I want to tear his head off on the mat, but you look forward to competing against great competitors. That's what makes you evolve in the sport. I could say the guys that I wrestled before, a guy from Penn State, Mark Alt, those matches stung the most and that's what propelled me to try to exceed the expectation of what I had the previous day. I think that just goes to the whole sport of wrestling, I think the best competitors will tell you they lover to face the best guys in the world.

Q. During the match you looked like you were having trouble scoring, getting in. I know he caused some problems with his length, his long arms. How do you during a 7-minute match figure out when and how you're going to get in there?

MYLES AMINE: You have to keep trying. I try to switch up my attacks a little bit and I think when he did the best job of was forcing me to that angle and the position. I tried to get high crotches and he would shoot my head back outside and force that so I knew it -- it's interesting, the deeper you get into a match the easier that shot gets.

Don't get me wrong in overtime when I was taking about 45 seconds to finish that first one, I had to shake my arms out a little bit, this guy is you tough and get back to the center and say hey let's get back to it and I think the next one we're going to finish.

Q. Myles, it's been over 10 years since Michigan won a national title, tomorrow your team has a chance to win two. What would it mean for you and your team to bring back two wins?

MYLES AMINE: I think it ties perfectly into the story line. We had a big-time showing, I know that Penn State came to wrestling, I'm not sure of the score. Now I have to do my individual job and see how the rest of that plays out. Yeah, it would just be really special. I think everybody wants to win an individual national title. I think that's what we all grow up dreaming of, so beyond that, spotlight stage and get to actually a chance to do it and it's going to be really exciting. I'm just -- I love these moments in the sport. It's why I came back this year. I can tell you that there's not many moments like this.

THE MODERATOR: Best of luck tomorrow. Thank you.