2023 NCAA WRESTLING CHAMPIONSHIP

March 17, 2023

David Carr

BOK Center

Iowa State

Semifinals Media Conference

THE MODERATOR: David Carr, ladies and gentlemen. David, congratulations. Thoughts and emotions about the match and about tomorrow?

DAVID CARR: Thank you. I just want to say not, I Christ in me, Jesus Christ is my Lord and savior, and I put my faith in him, and he's the reason I'm in the finals because I keep putting my faith in him. What an awesome match with an opponent I respect a lot, Quincy Monday. Obviously our dads have had some crazy history of matches.

Q. David, did you show us a different way to win than perhaps you had not done before?

DAVID CARR: Just finding different ways to win, and my coaches said find ways to win. You're good on bottom, good on top. He's obviously good on his feet. This year I worked on being a complete wrestler, being good on all areas of the mat, scrambling, wrestling, top, bottom.

Q. Can't overstate this, the rivalry between your dads, to think that they had sons that would wrestle in the NCAA championship semifinals, almost doesn't make sense. How do you process that rivalry?

DAVID CARR: It's like written out of a movie, two of the most historic wrestlers, Kenny Monday and my dad, they battled in overtime, close matches. And that match came down to close matches. And I mean, you can't write it any better. I think it's God, his script, the way things fall.

Q. So looking in your corner, your dad was over in that area. How does it feel for your dad to be back there supporting you? I know your family as a whole is very supportive. The Iowa State family is very close. Tell me what that means to have them in your corner?

DAVID CARR: That was awesome. Review of the match, I looked over and saw where my dad was, and he looked at me and said you're good, right here, locked back in and just that little motion had me laser focused to, all right, I got this. This is still a lot of match to wrestle.

Q. David, I wanted to ask about now we can talk about the title match. You're in it. You have a rematch with Keegan O'Toole. You guys have said you have a lot of fun with it. You look forward to it. Now you're going to do it again when it matters the most. What are your thoughts and what are you looking forward to the most?

DAVID CARR: Big match-up, round three. We're both competitors. And honestly I look forward to wrestling him every time because he pushes me. I love my competitors. I don't have any hate towards anyone. As Jesus calls us to love everybody, even our enemies and I truly appreciate my enemies because they get me to wake up every morning and work hard. They get me to do extra sprints and work out hard in the weight room against Durbo.

So they push me. I appreciate everybody in my tough weight, and I appreciate Keegan O'Toole because he pushes me.

Q. One of the biggest things you have learned about yourself since bumping up a weight and now you're heading back to finals?

DAVID CARR: I just learned to trust in God. Wrestling isn't everything about me. It's not who I am. It's just something that I do. My faith and who I am, my character is who I am. Whether I'm talking to a janitor or an opponent, I want to show them love, no matter who I am talking to, because my character is more important than winning championships.

Q. You and Marcus have a close bond. He's a two-time All-American. How did it feel to see him get that?

DAVID CARR: Amazing, what a beast. We have a special bond between the team. I want to go and look and see what -- Sam is in overtime, so I don't know what happened in that match, but I'm going to try to figure it out.

THE MODERATOR: David, thank you. Congratulations. Good luck tomorrow.