|
|||
|
|||
|
 |
|
|
NCAA DIVISION I WRESTLING CHAMPIONSHIPSMarch 16, 2007Jake VarnerAUBURN HILLS, MICHIGAN Q. Jake, congratulations, talk about the last period when it was tied. What were you looking for? What happened? JAKE VARNER: It was 0-0, I was able to hold off the takedown on him and attack with my moves before he had taken me down in the first period. Q. Apparently your victory just put you ahead of the team race, talk about that. JAKE VARNER: Yes, it's real exciting to be a part of this, to be able to go out there with the teams tied. Wrestling is such an individual sport when you go out there, but when you perform for your team, it gets exciting and it gets me ready for the final. Q. You mentioned that you had wrestled with him a couple of times before. Was there anything you changed up going into the match, you were looking to change in how you were going to approach him? JAKE VARNER: The first two matches I pushed into him a lot. I think I pushed a little too much. I just changed up from an open position. Q. Looking ahead to the finals, what do you know about Jake Herbert. Have you met him before; and if not, what do you know about him? JAKE VARNER: I know he's tough. I haven't faced him in college yet. I wrestled him in freestyle right before my freshman year at Ohio State. He beat me once and I beat me twice. But he's tough. It's going to be a tough match. Q. Did you think you could be in the finals? I know you come in here with that mentality, but was there ever a point you doubted you would get this far? JAKE VARNER: Yes, because that was my goal coming into college. I wanted to try to be a four-time All-American and multiple national champion. And if I could win it every year, that's better for me. I haven't really been real nervous all yearlong. This tournament is probably the most nervous I've ever been, coming in as a freshman to the NCAA, you don't see many of them. I surprised myself. I also was expecting to be there, and that's just my mentality. Q. Talk about the way this tournament opened up for you. Each step you've had a fairly dominant match until this last one. It seemed like it's really opened up [we'll|well] for you, the way everything is set up for you. JAKE VARNER: Yea, each match, you come into this tournament and each match is tough. It doesn't matter where the guy is from, whether he's seated or not. It's good to get that first match out of the way of a tournament. And yesterday, just getting both of those out of the way, it felt good. It was the best I've wrestled in a long time. And today, I felt like I was long, and I felt I was able to do it in the semis, and I did it. Q. I don't know if many people know that you beat Herbert twice in freestyle. How different do you think your match, freestyle versus collegiate, and how that plays into this? JAKE VARNER: When I wrestled him in freestyle, there's a lot of scrambles we got into. Not to put him down or up or anything, but he's long and lanky too, and I was trying to stay behind him, and his arm was there to stop me. It's hard wrestling long guys, like it's hard wrestling short guys. We both know how each other wrestles and we know each other is going to go hard and what makes it fun. End of FastScripts |
|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
About ASAP Sports •
FastScripts Archive •
Recent Interviews •
Captioning •
Upcoming Events •
Contact Us
FastScripts | Events Covered | Our Clients | Other Services | ASAP in the News | Site Map | Job Opportunities | Links |
|
ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297
|