|
|||
|
|||
|
 |
|
|
NCAA WRESTLING CHAMPIONSHIPSMarch 22, 2014Alex DieringerOKLAHOMA CITY, OKLAHOMA 157 POUNDS THE MODERATOR: Alex Dieringer, 157‑pound national champion. Q. How does that feel? ALEX DIERINGER: Oh, geez. Winning on that big stage, there's really nothing better. I've been working so hard in the room, doing extra workouts, all that. So to know that it all paid off, it's a great feeling. Q. Alex, the Finals is always a different animal. Looked like you really were wrestling well and scoring the points. And did you get in a point in the match where you said, hey, I've got this thing? Or were you always kind of just pushing forward? ALEX DIERINGER: Once I got that near fall, I was up 5‑0 I think, I knew I had it locked because I know how to wrestle smart when it comes to a guy like that. I've wrestled him many times before. And his shots aren't easy to stop. He shoots low ankles. That's what he tries, sometimes doubles, but he just plain crashes right to them. So I knew he was coming. Q. Is this the best you've ever wrestled, in the Finals match? ALEX DIERINGER: Geez, yeah. I wrestled really good, I'd say. But last year, for [indiscernible] semis and third place match, I wrestled the best I ever have, too. So I think just handling the pressure, it's not very hard for me, I guess. I get nervous. But when that whistle blows, it's on. Q. Coming from Big Ten country, from where you come from, you seem to have a really good knowledge of all these guys. Have you seen a lot‑‑ did you see a lot of the Big Ten wrestlers in regional meets and so forth growing up? ALEX DIERINGER: Oh, yeah. James Green. I wrestled him before. He's been in my brackets, Fargo. Wrestled him in my junior year at Junior Duals. I wrestled Joe Ness three times in one year, in my junior year. So I mean, I go way back with a lot of these guys. So, I mean, that's from going on around the country. And I thank my parents for that because if I didn't have them, I wouldn't be where I am today because they took me to a national tournament every two weeks probably. And if I was staying at home, I'd go to two tournaments each weekend. I was just wrestling all the time. They were spending so much money on me. I'm so thankful for that. Q. At the beginning of the season we asked you, what are your goals? You immediately said, I want to be a three‑time national champion. You get the first one here. Talk about what that does going forward for you. ALEX DIERINGER: I mean, I'm going to take it one at a time. Starting when I get back, you know, I'll take a week off or so. Just let my body recoup. It's been a long year. I'm a big 57‑pounder. It's been hard on my body. I'm going to get big, real big, and I'm going to go 65 next year, so I'm excited. Q. You chose to go to Oklahoma State, which has won the most NCAA wrestling titles and had some of the great wrestlers in our sport history. How does it feel to be a champion for that program, and just give us your thoughts about being a cowboy. ALEX DIERINGER: That's the reason I came here, you know, just the name, John Smith. The history. All that. They've had an Olympian every year since like 1914 or some early 1900s. That's an amazing stat right there. And I don't want to just do college. I want to do 2016, 2020. So I'm looking past that, too. But just having Coach Smith, Coach Coleman Scott, we've got Espo and Guerrero, all those guys, they're great coaches and I wouldn't have done it without them. Q. Can you take John Smith yet in a live wrestling match in practice? ALEX DIERINGER: He won't go with me. He won't go with anyone. He kind of‑‑ he's gotten a little old, obviously. [Laughter] ALEX DIERINGER: But no, he's definitely still got it. I've seen him wrestle some of the recruits before and he whoops up on them like without even trying really. So he still has it, but I'm probably a little big for him. Q. Alex, I know the attitude you guys take: Take care of your own business and that helps the team. There was a long shot maybe to get back into the team title. Were you aware of Josh's match before you went out there? Do you know that, okay, that's probably done; I need to not even worry about bonus points, even though you collected some? ALEX DIERINGER: I mean, yeah, I knew after that we weren't going to be able to take first. But, I mean, Josh Kindig, he had a awesome tournament. Nothing against him. He lost in overtime to a really, really good competitor. So we all had a great tournament. We had a couple of guys go out when we didn't want them to. But we fought hard. We did as good as we could. Q. Alex, you like to wrestle a lot. Will you take a break or will you jump right back into some freestyle? ALEX DIERINGER: I'll be training it. I don't know if I'm competing this summer. But we'll see. Q. [Indiscernible]? ALEX DIERINGER: For most of the summer, yeah. I'll probably go home to Wisconsin for a couple of weeks to say hi to my family‑‑ or my brother. My parents moved to Oklahoma, so all I have is my brother back home now. THE MODERATOR: Congratulations. 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
|