2025 NCAA WRESTLING CHAMPIONSHIP

March 21, 2025

Brock Hardy

Wells Fargo Center

Semifinals Media Conference

141 Lbs

THE MODERATOR: This is our 141 lb semifinal, Brock Hardy, with an 11-4 win tonight. Brock?

BROCK HARDY: Wrestling is fun. Go Big Red.

Q. How is everything feeling?

BROCK HARDY: Yeah, I mean, we're just -- let's be honest, the NCAA Tournament is crazy. This team is really freaking good. And there was a possibility that we came in here and didn't perform well, but the coaches peaked us at the right time. And I think we're just having our day, and we're just feeding off each other.

Q. This has been a journey for you, and I think some of it is internal, and I'll ask you, how important is it for you and your message and your journey and your path to stay focused and consistent? That's been big for you.

BROCK HARDY: Yeah, I've really struggled with consistency in the past. I've dropped a lot of weird matches. And wrestling consistently during a match that I started hot, ended cold, started cold, ended hot. It's just learning to control my mind and control my effort and control my focus.

Q. When you are wrestling well, you're scoring and taking over and being the one that pushes the action. Talk about this match, because obviously you got that rolling again.

BROCK HARDY: Yeah, Cael Happel is a scary opponent. He's got me a few times because he is a motor that doesn't stop running. I've wrestled in the past, and the same thing I just said, started hot, ended cold, started cold, ended hot. And those have happened against Cael Happel. So I knew I had to go out and give 100% effort for him. I had to be ready.

Q. How do you make the adjustments from somebody who has beaten you at least a couple of times you've wrestled, knowing that a spot in the national finals is on the line?

BROCK HARDY: Yeah, I honestly feel like the biggest adjustments are not him but rather in my own focus of wrestling, right? I feel like I've fallen short of my own execution. So wrestling my match was the biggest key.

Q. That letter on your chest, Nebraska wrestling, it's reidentifying itself, rebranding itself. What does it mean to you? What's the statement that you made out there on the mat once again?

BROCK HARDY: We're the school of, you know, a lot of gritty, hard wrestlers that like to do cool things like me and Ridge do and Lenny. We want to be the best of both worlds. We will do some style points, but we will also break you down if we need to.

Q. Brock, what's been the key for you to wrestle so free? What's that key?

BROCK HARDY: It's just been, you know, believing in seven minutes of attacking and seven minutes of my wrestling. I'm frustrated with this match that I turned it down a little bit, but sometimes you've got to get the win when you can.

I just think I'm best when wrestling is happening. So my goal is to make the wrestling happen. If I can force that occasion, I can force a win.

Q. I want to be true to who you are. Wrestling is fun. You're showing the country that the hard work pays, but wrestling is fun. How important is that to you?

BROCK HARDY: So big. I've been saying it for three years now. I just think that wrestling in all honesty is extremely difficult, and there are a lot of aspects of it that aren't fun, but if we're being honest, that's life.

There are aspects of life that are really hard, and there are aspects of our life that aren't very fun. But I want to focus on the parts that I love, because I do love a majority of wrestling, and I think that applies further forward. Life is fun, right?

There's a lot we can think of that's bad, but if you try to love your life, you will find the fun in it.

Q. Brock, what does it mean to you to make the NCAA finals?

BROCK HARDY: I think it's just one more tally on my own board of who I can become. I knew I could be there a long time ago, so it's good to prove that to myself.

THE MODERATOR: Brock Hardy. Thank you.