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NCAA DIVISION I WRESTLING CHAMPIONSHIPSMarch 16, 2007Mark PerryAUBURN HILLS, MICHIGAN Q. Mark, every time people watch you wrestle it's like you're right on the edge. What goes through your mind? MARK PERRY: Like I told the other reporters, I haven't really wrestled well here at all. I wrestled really pretty pathetic, I feel like. But it's one of those things where I told my parents and whoever it's about winning. And I wake up tomorrow, I'm in the finals. I'll brush off the way I wrestled this tournament and get ready for the biggest match of my life. That's the difference in me now. In the past I might have panicked in those kind of situations where I get reversed and not wrestling the way I planned on, but now I just have it in my head that I'm not losing. We made a big adjustment after I lost to Tannenbaum at Michigan. I pretty much snapped. I couldn't figure out what was going on, and I just made some big adjustments and I really haven't wrestled the way I wanted to. I pretty much bought into everything they tell me. I'm just going to find ways to win, no matter if it looks bad or not. I would like it to look good, but I'm going to win. Q. Tell us what those adjustments are. MARK PERRY: Just mental adjustments between panicking and not. A lot of it has been the extra time I've put in every morning since I lost to Tannenbaum. I would come in once or twice a week, compared to five, six times a week in the morning, just the philosophy of the sport that they've preached to me and stuff. It's just mental things. You find ways to win. It got him tonight, but a lot of people don't like the way Dustin Slater wrestles, because he wins by one every time, but that's one tough dude. He can win 30, 40 matches, but I caught him tonight, and that's not the way I want to wrestle. But when it comes down to it and you're not wrestling your best at a national tournament, you need to find a way to win. This is what you have prepared for. Q. Talk about the contacts of your opponent tomorrow night, Johny Hendricks and Oklahoma State and your history with that program, and your recent history on the mat with Johny Hendricks. Do you feel you have somebody to prove tomorrow not? MARK PERRY: Not really. I'm going out to accomplish a goal I've had since I was six. I've lost to him I don't know how many times. I'm going to say, five, six, seven, eight, in my whole life and I've never beaten him. He could beat me 150 times in a row, and I'm just not the type of person. If it's there, I'm going to throw him on his back if it's there. I'm not scared of him one bit. I'm not intimidated by him, and I'm going out to win. I don't care how many times he's beaten me. This is probably the last time I'll probably get a shot at it, so this is the one that means the most to me. But as far as my family, pretty much everyone knows my uncle is the coach, my dad was a coach there, he wrestled there, my whole family, my cousins and a lot of my good friends go to college there. That's where I grew up. I like Oklahoma State a lot, at least when I was competing against them. I mean, that's where I'm from. It's a little unique and it was hard for me. My first year in college, it was real hard for me. I was getting so nervous, not to just wrestle Hendricks, but more so having my uncles in the corner that I've looked up to my whole life. As a wrestler, that's kind of the way I try to -- I wrestle -- I'm a little bit funkier than they are. John is quite a bit better than I was. No, I have utmost respect for the program and Hendricks. But they're in the way of what I'm trying to accomplish, so tomorrow night he's just another target to take down. Q. Do you have any type of personal relationship with Johny Hendricks? Do you guys ever see each other? I'm wondering what it's like when you see each other not actually on the wrestling mat? MARK PERRY: We haven't in the past, but once I'm through with college and he's through, it's older. I can get along with him great, but when we were -- I was a senior, after I signed at Iowa, he was a red-shirt freshman, or no, a true freshman, yea, we hung out. That was five years ago. We would be good buddies off the mat, if I went to school there, I'm sure. But when you're on the mat, you're there for yourself. I have nothing against him, besides I want to beat him more than anything in the world. But once it's over, it's over. End of FastScripts |
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