The Hillsdale College Wrestling Club finished in the top third of collegiate club programs after the team traveled nearly 1,000 miles to Shreveport, Louisiana, over spring break to compete in the National Collegiate Wrestling Association national championship.
Eight wrestlers represented Hillsdale in various competitions this spring break, which doubled the number that competed last season and marked a significant step forward for the growing club.
The team competed in three meets during the spring semester before attending a regional qualifier in Columbus, Ohio, where freshman Stephen Petersen and junior Matt Riehle qualified for the national tournament. Sophomore David Gregory also qualified for the championship via an at-large bid.
“The NCWA national championship overall is a very professional, well put together event pulling in over 500 very high quality wrestlers from around the country,” Hillsdale Club Sports Director Ryan Perkins said.
Perkins made the trip alongside Dean of Men Aaron Petersen and club coach Carter Ballinger, who is also head wrestling coach at Jonesville High School.
According to Gregory, the tournament is the largest college wrestling tournament held in the nation and is formatted as a massive double-elimination event, featuring schools ranging from large universities — some transitioning between NCAA divisions and temporarily ineligible for NCAA championships — to technical and trade schools.
“Liberty University, for example, is a huge school with a bus just for wrestling, and they compete in the NCWA and always bring a ton of guys,” Riehle said. “Some apprentice or trade schools also compete in the league because they aren’t in the NCAA.”
Despite being one of the smaller squads, Hillsdale finished 27th out of 85 teams. Gregory went 4-2 in the 149-pound division, finishing in the top 16. Petersen posted a 3-2 record in the 197-pound bracket, also earning a top 16 spot. Riehle, competing at 174 pounds, reached the semifinals undefeated before dropping two tough matches to finish fourth overall with a 4-2 record.
“It really shows how exceptional of a wrestler Matt is to be able to not just compete with but stand out among the crowd in the tournament,” Perkins said. “It’s always exciting to watch him compete.”
With a growing roster and continued success on the mat, the Hillsdale Wrestling Club is hoping to attract more students to join their ranks, according to Riehle. They offer a flexible, balanced approach to the sport, aiming to reignite the passion for wrestling that many student-athletes leave behind after high school.
“Our biggest obstacle is that in high school, wrestling is just so intense, so guys are still burnt out from high school and don’t realize it is a totally different college experience,” Gregory said. “It is so much more manageable.”
“If you want to show up every day and wrestle really hard and drill then you can,” Riehle said. “But if you only come occasionally, or miss some days because of a paper, that’s fine with us as well.”
