2023 NCAA WRESTLING CHAMPIONSHIP

March 17, 2023

Austin O'Connor

BOK Center

University of North Carolina

Semifinals Media Conference

THE MODERATOR: Congratulations, Austin O'Connor. Ladies and gentlemen, North Carolina, finalist at 157. Your thoughts and feelings on being a finalist this year?

AUSTIN O'CONNOR: It feels amazing. Last match wasn't the prettiest, but went out there and got it done. I set myself up to be in a spot to where I'm going to be running for the national championship again. Been in this position before, and I'm ready to do it again.

Q. Austin, you said it wasn't the prettiest, but there are a ton of upsets tonight. So how can it ever be pretty? Isn't it a gritty thing?

AUSTIN O'CONNOR: Yeah. I would have liked to have scored more points to make it prettier, but it doesn't always go that way. We've seen that tonight. One of the best wrestlers in the sport got upset tonight. So I'm glad I got in there and got done what I had to get done and got myself in the finals again.

Q. How did you battle back from injuries last year? What kind of journey has it been the last year?

AUSTIN O'CONNOR: It's been a crazy journey to say the least. I tore my ACL before the ACC tournament and wrestled in the ACC and made it worse, and I was grinding throughout the national tournament finding any way I could win. It made me a better wrestler to start with.

To be able to learn how to wrestle with one leg and learn how to adapt kind of helped me in that situation. There was a spot you need to adapt in a match. I didn't know I was going to need a ride out in that last match, but that's what it came down to. I knew I was going to ride him out to win.

Q. Is it special to win on St. Patrick's Day?

AUSTIN O'CONNOR: Yeah, I got my St. Paddy's day t-shirt on, last name is O'Connor. Can't get anymore lucky than that, I'm one lucky guy.

Q. Looking at your rehab over the last year, what are the things that have helped set you up for success to get you to this moment?

AUSTIN O'CONNOR: Honestly in years past after the national tournament or even when I was young, my season would end, and I would take time off, play football, do whatever, got wrestling off my mind. Didn't do all that much freestyle growing up.

This year changed a lot. This year as soon as my national tournament ended, I hit the ground running. I'm like, I am getting the surgery the following week. I had it set up before the national tournament started. I got it set up for the following week, got out there, got my knee fixed.

I had a few bumps in the road. After three months, you would think I would be walking around and running and getting the strength back in my knee, but instead I had to get another surgery to get the scar tissue out because there was too much scar tissue built up. And I didn't let that get in my head. I didn't let it get in my head the first time when I tore it, and I kept grinding and grinding until I started seeing results and that's what got me here today.

Q. Austin, you grinded through last year. Was there ever any thought with the injuries that you were having maybe just to pull away from that year to get yourself healthy so you didn't have to go through that or why did you go through that?

AUSTIN O'CONNOR: I thought about it, and that's just not who I want to be remembered as, as someone who pulls out. I want to be known as someone who is tough and grinds through the hardest situations. I mean, last year you seen a bunch of kids forfeit to protect their seed going into their conference tournament. And I knew my leg was injured going into the finals match, and I'm like that's not going to stop me. I'm going to wrestle on my leg in the national tournament, why not here. And I didn't get the results I wanted. It dropped my seed significantly, but in the end, I was up on the podium, first five-time All-American for the University of North Carolina and probably only five-time ever with the COVID year. So I mean, this just added to my legacy, and I'm going to continue to get through tough times and keep pushing myself.

THE MODERATOR: Congratulations, Austin. See you tomorrow.