|
|||
|
|||
|
 |
|
|
NCAA WRESTLING CHAMPIONSHIPSMarch 22, 2014Nick GwiazdowskiOKLAHOMA CITY, OKLAHOMA 285 POUNDS  (North Carolina State) THE MODERATOR: Nick Gwiazdowski, heavyweight champion from North Carolina State. Q. You have to explain what happened after the injury timeout. You chose to let him up and not even cut into the riding time. Talk about that decision. NICK GWIAZDOWSKI: We knew he'd get that riding time point anyway. But if we take neutral, he wouldn't get a point. So it worked. It's 2‑2. And where we were with‑‑ already had that one warning, he had one attempt, we were comfortable. I was comfortable I could take him down again. So‑‑ Q. Why would you be comfortable with the fact you could take him down? NICK GWIAZDOWSKI: I just took him down. Injury time‑‑ that really, it's something, when you see your opponent do, something's wrong. It's there and you've gotta attack. I went, anchor, come back, tape. I didn't even know he got hurt, but anyway, I knew I couldn't get to that shot. I just didn't pull the trigger in the beginning period and just went after. Q. Did part of that confidence come from the fact that you were taking him down a lot last summer in Stillwater? Obviously in a folk‑style match where you do a lot of mat wrestling, there's no advantage to the takedown, but clearly, you've taken him down before. NICK GWIAZDOWSKI: Yeah. I knew I needed to get my feet to his body quicker before my hips. So I just pressed the release off the head and that kind of stuff. And I knew every time I've gotten to like this tournament, I've been attacking, getting my hips in, driving through with my head, and after that first one I got in the first period, I went out of bounds, I knew I can take this guy down. Q. Nick, you have obviously a lot of confidence, but he just got done riding you for two minutes. Did that not do anything to you to hurt your confidence, at least kill the energy in you? NICK GWIAZDOWSKI: It hurt my confidence in bottom, I'll tell you that much. But I felt him breathing heavy on top of me. Once I do that, I start controlling my breathing to relax a little bit. And I figured when that injury time, let's take bottom to get out or take neutral so I don't have to risk that anymore, because then he's on his knees, not on his ankle or whatever. Q. Think of your days as a youth growing up in Albany and just imagining what your wrestling career would be like. Was winning the NCAAs part of that journey? And what's it like for you now that you've achieved that? And at a pretty young part of your career. NICK GWIAZDOWSKI: Right now I can't really believe it. I grew up in a small town, probably 80 kids, graduating class. And a lot of them I'm still in contact with. So after the quarterfinals when the All‑American again, my Facebook, Twitter, text message has been blowing up. It's bizarre. People I don't even know texting me, Facebooking me, good luck. Capital region section two is behind you. When you have that many people rooting for you‑‑ not even from my school, you know. We're a basketball school. But now we've got a national champ in wrestling, so‑‑ Q. Would you talk a little more about the people back home. Obviously you left that area. So they didn't feel betrayed? You know what I'm getting at? NICK GWIAZDOWSKI: No. The people that cared about me when I left Binghamton, even at Binghamton, students and friends, they knew what I was going for. I was going to go win a national title somewhere. So whether I did here or there, I still talk to those people. I was texting them before, watch ESPN, I'm going to be on tonight at 9:00. So no hard feelings between any of them. Q. Nick, your weight class was loaded this year. People are beating themselves back and forth. Nobody went through the year perfect. What made the difference for you in the last couple of weeks that made you prepared to take on all these real tough challengers? There's nothing easy about any of the roads to the Finals here. NICK GWIAZDOWSKI: I guess just being confident in what I do. Again, like I mentioned yesterday, working out with Tervel. That's a huge help. He's a huge help. He's a good friend of mine now. And just being confident in what I do. Not a lot of guys can wrestle like me. And I go out there nervous. I'm sweating. I'm in the wrong corner. I'm following around David Taylor and Logan. I'm like, what goes on now? Now I'm one of them, you know. Just sticking with what I know, I guess, not forcing anything, keeping within myself. Q. The fact you wrestle in the Big Ten heavyweight, you wrestle in the Big Ten heavyweight, the fact that you never saw them during the regular season, except for maybe a scuffle, were you feeling disadvantaged? NICK GWIAZDOWSKI: No, because I wrestled Nelson, wrestled McMullen. Couldn't beat me in December. So I was, I wrestled arguably the three best guys in the year, outside of Telford, I guess, and I've wrestled Chalfant before, and part of it is they go through a Big Ten schedule where they're beating up every weekend, you know, wrestling No. 2, No. 3 ranked guy. And our schedule is paced. I wrestled some top 20 guys. I think I wrestled 15 out of the coaches poll. So I see decent guys and I also see the top tier guys I need to beat. So I've got a taste of everything. Q. You talked a bit about the legacy in North Carolina State heavyweight champions, and now you're on that list. When you've gotten one, do you start thinking about more than one? NICK GWIAZDOWSKI: When I came to NC State, Frank Beasley told me I'm going to be a three‑time national champion with what we can do there. The first step, it's always in the back of my mind. I'm not going to lie, coming up today, in the hotel room, the worst I can do is second. So that's good. But at the same time, it's like I beat this guy before. I can do it again. And if anything, I've gotten better since that point. So I just stayed focussed and kept in the back of my mind. I think about it the most when I'm out there. I think about my friends, my family. It's like, let's do it for them. They're back at home watching. They're cheering for me. Q. Did you watch last years NCAAs in the sense did you scout him at all? NICK GWIAZDOWSKI: I think he's‑‑ like I said yesterday, he's good at what he does. And outside of those things, if you could exploit him, you can exploit him. Get angles. That kind of stuff. He's strong, he's tall. And he knows what he's good at. Top wrestling. Got a defense. Work your offense on him, he doesn't come back too well from a hole. No offense to Tony. He's a very good wrestler, but that's one of the things we know about him. He'll win a 1‑0 match any day of the week. I just knew if I scored points, it would benefit me. THE MODERATOR: Thank you. 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
|