2023 NCAA WRESTLING CHAMPIONSHIP

March 18, 2023

Vito Arujau

BOK Center

Finals Media Conference

133 pounds

Q. Vito Arujau from Cornell, national champion at 133. Just start off, give us your emotions, your feelings on becoming a national champion.

VITO ARUJAU: I've heard it described a lot of times. And I should start by saying this isn't my dream. I never dreamt about being an NCAA champ. For some people it's everything. It's their entire reason for wrestling. But my dream is always to be an Olympian, a gold medalist in the sport of wrestling.

That was (indiscernible) my father at a young age. This was never really a dream of mine. But it was a milestone. It became a milestone. And it really kind of stuck with me for a little bit as I'm going through my career.

And obviously freestyle is where I want to excel at, but this is part of our society in America and you have to do it.

So I'm wondering, am I that good? If I am, then why am I not winning? I'm pretty sure I'm the best guy in these weights, but I'm not winning. And it was always a disconnect.

And that's why I say this is a moment of satisfaction. It's a moment of validity of my own cause and my own greatness. And I'm very happy to finally have that -- not checkmark, but little checkmark, all right, I did that.

Q. You mentioned freestyle being your thing, but what you got done saying, (indiscernible) folkstyle put doubt in your head that perhaps you never had. And also the second question is that reversal that you put him to his back, where did that come from? Did you prepare for that such thing at all?

VITO ARUJAU: I have no idea, like the start. I have no idea what happened in that match. I'm completely just about unconscious when I'm wrestling. It's all muscle memory and just my own creativity, my subconscious creativity at work.

So I couldn't tell you where that came from. I can only tell you that me as a wrestler is capable of doing that.

Q. Did folkstyle start putting more doubt (indiscernible)?

VITO ARUJAU: Not necessarily doubt. As soon as folkstyle started it's a clean break and I can start freestyle. It never necessarily put doubt in my head. It definitely made me think folkstyle was stupid for a while. Like, I'm so much better than these people. Why do I keep losing?

I don't remember the last time I lost to someone that straight up outclassed me. It's always been my errors. There was doubt in myself -- definitely some doubt put there with, am I capable of winning those matches.

Is it a performance issue? And I dug deep. And this year I did a lot of work on my mental game because my physical game was always there. You can't convince me that I'm not one of the most skilled -- I understand how wrestling works, but myself, my own emotions and mentality, it was something I didn't delve into.

And it's something I put a lot of emphasis on this year and it was obviously what I needed. It was the difference between taking fourth or taking third and being the national champion.

So I'm very proud of myself for doing the work and taking the steps that I needed to take to accomplish this and everyone in my support system that helped me get to this point, I'm just really relieved.

Q. In this match, you were really dominant. You were really aggressive. And as they asked about your wrestling style, you were talking about your (indiscernible). Tell us more about how maybe you just get out there and wrestle and how other kids out there, young people can just go out there and wrestle and give a performance like that?

VITO ARUJAU: I'll start out by saying it really does just come back down to the work you put into the sport. And the sport's beautiful like that where it really is -- you can come from any background, any sort of body type, any sort of circumstance, anything, and if you put the time and effort into the sport of wrestling you will get back what you put in.

It may not be equal. You may have to put in all one to a thousand, or you might put in one and get back a thousand. It's different for everybody. But there is a fundamental cause and effect.

Q. It's a hard day.

VITO ARUJAU: I'm really tired. Cause and effect, that you put in work and you get results. If anyone is looking to one day become a national champ, just dedicate yourself to it. Give it your being because that's what it's going to demand.

Q. The second half of the question we asked you last night, everyone was talking about Roman Bravo-Young and (indiscernible), the champions in this weight class, and here you are sitting at the podium. How does that feel?

VITO ARUJAU: Like I said before, I wouldn't say I'm overjoyed. But I'm very satisfied. I'm very happy with myself in the accomplishments I've given myself. Sometimes I talk to myself as, oh, that's future Vito's problem or past Vito, he's such an asshole, (indiscernible) all these problems.

But I'm really just happy for myself that I was able to accomplish this. And just satisfaction.

Q. What was it like to see (indiscernible) president?

VITO ARUJAU: I was like, oh, he's here. They're going to make a big deal out of it. I was, like, you get to go meet him? That's really cool. Yianni, my teammate, he actually went to go meet the president last year. I thought that's really cool. I think I got a picture somewhere. I'm going to look forward to that.

Q. Wanted to ask about your relationship with your father. (Indiscernible). Any pressure being his son considering what he had done. And did he help you with the mental part that you wanted to work on this year?

VITO ARUJAU: Pressure from my Olympic medal world champion father. Honestly, when I was little, no. I was like he was really good at wrestling. And the further that I've kind of delved into the sport, the more I have scale. I can see where I am currently to where he was.

It's crazy how good he was. And the closer I get to that, like he was a world champ at 20. He was an Olympian about my age. I'm like, what am I doing? But we grew up in different worlds and we have different lives.

I think now as we're both adults, I think he can see that and see me as more of my own person, which I am. We're not the same. We don't wrestle anything similarly. He definitely helped me grow my foundation and my understanding of the sport.

But looking back, he was teaching me some advanced stuff. But it was so simple, too, because he shows foundational wrestling but there's such a deep understanding of the sport put into just a push, a pull and a single leg. But it's so complex and so many layers that I, as a 13-year-old, 14-year-old kid, couldn't understand. I just saw a push, pull, shoot. Oh, this is simple. What am I doing here? Is this wrestling?

Now that I have this grander understanding of the sport, it's so masterful. It's a craftsman at work. And I just hope to one day get to that same level where -- I'm getting there. I am. And I hope to one day -- my final goal for the sport is just to beat my dad. I want the gold medal at the Olympics, yeah, dad, look at me.

Q. Talking about that a little bit more. How does a weekend like this (inaudible)? How do you get to that point of the gold medal? Obviously the styles are different but this is a mental test, I think, that helps build character.

VITO ARUJAU: I think something that's really important to understand is the U.S. cares about folkstyle. It does. It cares about it a lot. Puts on one of the biggest performances of a wrestling tournament in the world.

I've been to the world championships. I've been to -- I haven't actually been to the Olympic Games yet but I imagine it's honestly similar to the NCAA Tournament. So much emphasis gets put on the folkstyle that it's impossible to reach your goals without it.

And going through the folkstyle circuit per se, go through a college career which I haven't made a circuit out of it, but helps you build that structure to be able to chase your dreams of being an Olympic world champion, whatever, because you get so much support just going through the -- winning a national championship can give you so much popularity, make a name for yourself, help you get those sponsorships, help you build your brand, especially with NIL now in effect.

There's so many great things that come out of folkstyle besides the wrestling. It gives you a solid understanding of the sport. Any form of wrestling is good wrestling, Greco, folkstyle, freestyle, it doesn't matter. But understanding wrestling is understanding wrestling. But it definitely helps, as I said, build that foundation to further achieve my goals.