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NCAA WRESTLING CHAMPIONSHIPS

March 19, 2011

Kyle Dake

PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA

149-lb. Champion

THE MODERATOR: We're joined by 149-pound champion Kyle Dake who becomes the first non-No. 1 seed to win so far today. The No. 4 seed, 31-2 on the season. Congratulations. Questions for Kyle.

Q. You said it yourself last year, the key to NCAAs is just don't lose. Well, you still haven't. What's the feeling right now?
KYLE DAKE: I feel really accomplished, to be a freshman and sophomore in back-to-back years winning an NCAA title going up a weight, losing the EIWAs, coming back and wrestling my heart out. It feels really good.

Q. Do you remember the last time you rode a guy for six minutes? Were you surprised that he took down just after you rode him for a near two and a half minutes the first period?
KYLE DAKE: No, I do not remember the last time. And I was kind of surprised because the first time we wrestled he didn't choose bottom, and I was really expecting him to choose two again. But when he chose bottom I felt very confident, I felt really good on top. I felt really strong, and I felt like I could ride anyone.

Q. Tell us a little bit about that turn. It looked like you had him in a vice grip and he was in quite a bit of pain according to the TVs over here. And, you know, is that something that you're able to use often, and how did you get into that position, because it really looked like you had it well done.
KYLE DAKE: Basically working on my legs for a long time, working my leg series, and he came up, and he wasn't expecting the half-backside and sunk it, cranked it over and held on as tight as I could.

Q. Just in general, how were you able to ride somebody off for six minutes? That's pretty incredible.
KYLE DAKE: I just mat turned him as hard as I could. And got my legs in, squeeze, squeeze, squeeze till I felt like it kind of relaxed a little bit, and then I moved on to the next thing and just kept working.

Q. Can you compare this year's championship to last year's? Was one tougher than the other? Was the journey harder one year versus the other?
KYLE DAKE: I don't know. Not really, I guess. This year I was more relaxed and I wasn't as tired out there, because I had done it before. I knew what to expect.
And I wasn't tiring myself up before the match getting too excited. And I just stayed calm, went out there, wrestled my best match.

Q. Before you were riding him, you seemed to have a little bit of fun with the lifts and throws. Is there any Greco influence, and do you have any plans to continue at some point wrestling Greco in addition to collegiate wrestling?
KYLE DAKE: Definitely Greco has helped me become a better wrestler, more well rounded, and my ability to throw and lift and be comfortable in those positions has made me a better wrestler by far.
But I think my Greco days are probably over. Moving on to freestyle. I like to attack the legs.

Q. Has it been difficult to kind of mentally separate the team race with your own quest for a title?
KYLE DAKE: No, not at all. I haven't really been thinking about the team race. I've been focusing on my individual goals, because this is an individual sport. And I'm just trying to go out and win the national title, and like we said before, if everyone does their job, then it will come.
And unfortunately we didn't get the job done this time. We'll be better, we'll be back.

Q. Last night you alluded to this year you dealt with things you did not have to do last year. Could you be more specific what they were? Was it academics? Was it something else?
KYLE DAKE: I was just really focused -- I was focused too much on cutting weight, and cutting weight became the goal and not winning.
And that changed after EIWAs. I was like what am I doing? I'm not having fun now and I need to be having fun if I want to continue with my success.
So I just -- I knew that I could make the weight and I didn't need to focus on that, I needed to focus on going out and wrestling my heart out for seven minutes and take it one match at a time.

Q. Could you tell us a little bit about balancing wrestling and academics at Cornell? And now that you're a champion, are there particular assignments in the classroom the next few weeks that you're focused on?
KYLE DAKE: Well, I mean, I guess it's just time management. I got pretty good at it since last year. Just do what I need to do; don't mess around, basically.
And, well, I finished like three out of my five midterms already. I did them early. So I guess I don't really have that many midterms left. So, yeah, I'm not too excited about doing any more.

Q. Obviously that's two, and people say you're halfway to four. Are you going to be ready for those pressures next year of continuing this?
KYLE DAKE: Next year I can't win four National titles; I can only win three. So take it year by year, match by match, season by season, you know. Just focus on the goals at hand and take it one year at a time.

Q. What were your thoughts on the illegal hold? Do you believe that was the only point --
KYLE DAKE: At first I didn't understand what I did. I felt like I was just riding tough, and then he stopped it and he said no, that was illegal. I had no idea what I did. I just asked him.
He said I put like -- I don't know what terminology he used. He said I basically tweaked his knee. So I was like, okay, whatever, I'm just going to keep riding.
At that point I already had a minute and four seconds of riding time. So it was like, all right, well, I have that point and I know I can keep riding him. So I wasn't too worried.
THE MODERATOR: Thanks, Kyle.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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