|
|||
|
|||
|
 |
|
|
NCAA WRESTLING CHAMPIONSHIPSMarch 22, 2013Quentin WrightDES MOINSE, IOWA THE MODERATOR: To my left, Quentin Wright, Penn State, 32‑0 now, on the season. He will wrestle Dustin Kilgore of Kent State in the final. Can you tell us about any history you have? QUENTIN WRIGHT: We don't have much history, maybe one freestyle match about five years ago, but that's about it. Q. You wrestled twice before, and both those matches were pretty wild to say the least. What were you expecting out of him in this match? And how do you prepare mentally based on what happened in the previous matches? QUENTIN WRIGHT: I was expecting a tough match, kind of like grind it out. The match pretty much went how I thought it would it, except I thought I was going to get a few more takedowns there. I was on the leg a few times, but he's a tough wrestler, a solid kid. I just happened to come up with more points. Q. Penn State has five guys left, all finalists. Talk about how special that group of guys are, especially the heavier weights. Do you contest each other during practice? QUENTIN WRIGHT: Really we're just a band of brothers, really. We are cheerleaders of each other and when we are in the practice room we try to push each other as hard as we can to the point where we want to puke or pass out, because we want to make each other better and the only way‑‑ and wrestling is hard. We're not going to do anything illegal. There is a lot of time we get into funky positions. We tap the leg. We're not going to keep going because somebody is going to get hurt, but we try to outwrestle and try to beat each other at practice. Q. This tournament has had a lot of very close matches. Do you remember a tournament in your wrestling career that has been this competitive, this tough for you? QUENTIN WRIGHT: Every year. I'm not converting a lot of my takedown shots. I was in on a few shots this match and in other matches, which would extend the lead a little bit but these guys have been watching me. I've been around for five years. So they are buckling down and stopping what I've been doing. I got to go to different things. Q. I asked David this question earlier. What do you do tomorrow to prepare yourself mentally? You have a whole day to think about this match. What's going to be your routine? QUENTIN WRIGHT: Wake up, get something to eat, and in the morning I'll get a good match with Ed in the morning. We will crank one out. It's always fun wrestling him. That's just‑‑ treat it like any other match, you know, done this before. So it's just, you know, tomorrow just wake up, make sure I'm eating, drinking enough and get ready for the match tomorrow night by getting a match tomorrow morning and then I'll be ready to go. Q. (No microphone.) QUENTIN WRIGHT: Not in particular, but we have been eating a lot of junk. Q. When you get into the ride‑out periods, are you doing any scoreboard watching? You had five seconds, you just had to keep him down for a certain amount of time. Are you looking at that and trying to gauge what you need to do based on the time that may or may not be there? QUENTIN WRIGHT: From watching Nick's match, I realized‑‑ I remembered that in the second overtime that you got to have more riding time than the other guy no matter if he gets out or not. After that, when I got into that position I knew I had to get out as fast as could and hold him for one more second in order to win the match. So in that sense, I was well prepared from watching his match. Q. Is that a technicality that you learned just now? QUENTIN WRIGHT: Pretty much, yeah. Pretty much it just reminded me of what that was because you don't get there a lot of times. But when I saw that, I'm like, oh, yeah, I remember that now. So going into the second overtime, I knew I had to get out as fast as I can, and the coaches were screaming at me from Nick's match. They were like, hold him down for longer than he's got riding time on you. Q. What type of match do you think it will be tomorrow night?  Points scored, upper body a little bit? He has shown over the course of the last few years that he can have an offense. QUENTIN WRIGHT: Yeah, I don't know, I mean, I thought I was going to come into the tournament and tear things up, but my matches have been different. It could either be a high‑scoring match or a barn‑burner like the one I just had. It depends on what's workin', who is taking risks, who is going after it. So that's what it comes down to because two good guys are either going to have a barn‑burner or each one is going to try to score points and everybody is going to put up points. Q. Tomorrow night will be your final match for Penn State. Can you talk about looking back quickly about how this is ending? Would you have imagined it to be this way? QUENTIN WRIGHT: When I started in college I never‑‑ well, my goal was to be a four‑time national champ, undefeated, just like every good kid coming out of high school thinking you're the greatest thing in the world. Then you get in college and get beat up and then you realize, okay, I'm human again. But being under that coaching staff, it was important for me to get my All‑American status, and quarterfinals was emotional, because to be a four‑time All‑American is just tough. To be one time is tough, and I've got to thank the coaches and my family and my wife and my mother‑in‑law, they're family, for supporting me over the course of all these years. Helping me get to this point because it takes a lot of people around you to help you out. So when I was getting into college I didn't think it would be like this, but I hoped it would be like that. But with the people I have around me, it is what it is now and it's been a great ride. Q. Third time into the finals, how do you compare with one to your other two? QUENTIN WRIGHT: Yeah, it's the finals match. All or nothing, there is no next year, so this one is a little bit more important. But really it's‑‑ I'm glad to still be‑‑ have my health and my knees and shoulders and all that stuff. I'm excited to go out there and give it everything I have. Not like The All‑Star meet, though, I'll hold back a little bit. Q. You have settled into this weight class, now you're wrestling one of the biggest guys in the country. Does that change your approach at all heading into this match? QUENTIN WRIGHT: These guys are harder to score on. When I get into those positions. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
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
|