Poeta won't settle for less than No. 1
Illinois junior 157-pounder Mike Poeta has a simple answer for his love of wrestling.
"I was born to do this," he said.
Poeta's career path proves his point.
Seeded No. 2 heading into the NCAA championships that begin Thursday at the Scottrade Center in St. Louis, Poeta (32-2) held the No. 1 ranking for nine weeks this season after a victory against Edinboro's Gregor Gillespie, the preseason No. 1 and the NCAA's top seed in the weight class. But the evidence that Poeta was born for the sport began years ago in the northern Chicago suburbs.
Poeta quickly caught the attention of other coaches after hitting the mat at age 5 while wrestling in the Highland Park Little Giants club started by his father, Domenic .
"Everyone kept saying, 'Did you see what he just did?' Domenic said.
"My older son, I had to drag him off the couch for practice. Mike was always sitting in the car, honking the horn, yelling, 'Let's go.' ''
Poeta won six club state championships and two national championships. He finished his Highland Park High School career with back-to-back Class AA state titles and was rated as the nation's No. 1 prep recruit. By the time Poeta reached college, he was already prepared for the college wrestling room.
Former Illinois All-America Griff Powell served as Highland Park's head coach for Poeta's final two seasons. Powell and former Illini national qualifier Tony Siebert, a Highland Park assistant coach, wrestled with Poeta everyday in practice.
"He had two guys right around his weight class that just got out of the game," Powell said. "It's a big difference between high school and college. He was already exposed to it. He basically got two years of college experience before he got there.''
Wrestling was a full-time passion for Poeta. When he wasn't wrestling, he was watching it. Poeta built a vast library of videotapes in his Highwood bedroom.
"Other kids were watching TV,'' he said. "I was watching wrestling tapes.''
Technically sound and exceptionally quick, Poeta went 9-1 in open tournaments while redshirting in 2004-05, when the Illini already had star Alex Tirapelle at the weight class. Poeta qualified at 165 for the NCAA meet as a redshirt freshman, then tore rib cartilage late last season. He finished third at 157 despite the painful injury that kept him off the mat for nearly a month.
"He still wasn't 100 percent at the NCAAs,'' said Illinois coach Mark Johnson. "He took third at 80 percent. That shows how good he is.''
Poeta took over the No. 1 ranking this year after defeating Gillespie in the Las Vegas Invitational, but fell from the top spot after a loss to Michigan's Jeff Marsh in a conference dual.
"Ten minutes after that first loss of the season, a light bulb went off,'' Poeta said. "I was embarrassed. I'm so much better than that kid. I have to distance myself from these kids. I can't lose to a kid like that.''
Poeta doesn't plan on waiting until his senior year to get an NCAA title.
"Since I'm only a junior, people say I'm not going to put pressure on myself, that I always have next year,'' Poeta said. "Screw that. I don't want a national title next year. I want it now.''
In the Huff Hall wrestling room, pictures of Illinois' past NCAA champions hang on the wall, including the seven won by Illini during Johnson's tenure.
"When you're capable of winning a national championship, that's what your goal should be,'' Johnson said. "You visualize things. He visualizes the pictures on the wall. We talked about that stuff.''
Illinois sophomore Jimmy Kennedy (28-5), of Fox Lake Grant High School, is seeded second at 133 after finishing second in the Big Ten meet, a loss that snapped a 14-match winning streak. Illinois junior John Wise (28-14), of Pittsfield, qualified after winning 10 of his last 15 matches with the only losses to opponents ranked in the top six nationally.
ESPNU will broadcast the quarterfinals at 10 a.m. Friday, the semifinals at 6 p.m. Friday and the consolation finals at 10 a.m. Saturday. The championships begin at 7:30 p.m. Saturday on ESPN.
John Supinie can be reached at Johnsupinie@aol.com. For more coverage, read the Illini Talk blog at www.sj-r.com and www.pjstar.com.
Illinois in the NCAA wrestling championships
Thursday-Saturday
Scottrade Center, St. Louis
Seeds
125 -- No. 6 Gabe Flores (25-10), Sr., Medera, Calif. (Clovis)
133 -- No. 2 Jimmy Kennedy (28-5), So., Ingleside (Fox Lake Grant)
157 -- No. 2 Mike Poeta (32-2), Jr., Highwood (Highland Park)
197 -- No. 9 Patrick Bond (26-7), So., Chesapeake, Va. (Great Bridge)
Other qualifiers
165 -- Roger Smith-Bergsrud (19-10), Jr., Lake Bluff
174 -- John Dergo 26-13), So., Morris
Hwt. -- John Wise (28-14), Jr., Pittsfield