Wrestling Senior Spotlight: Geoff Alexander
12/15/2015 12:00:00 AM | Wrestling
By Greg Goldstein, Maryland Media Relations Assistant
Redshirt senior Geoff Alexander has had a great amount of success throughout his wrestling career, from being a high school champion, to making the NCAAs in his first two years as a Terp. The 133-pound grappler has been a consistent force for Maryland's wrestling program. However, all of this triumph did not come without having to fight through a fair amount of adversity.
Alexander comes from a wrestling family. His father, Geoff, wrestled at Clarion University and his brother, Justin, wrestles for Maryland as well. He has been involved with the sport from a very young age and his father has been the driving force behind all of his success during the past 18 years.
“I've been wrestling since I was five years old, my dad got me into it,” said Alexander. “It's been a long ride for me. I've wrestled probably thousands of matches all throughout elementary, middle and high school, and now I'm in college in my redshirt senior year. It's going to be hard to leave after 18 years of wrestling, knowing that my dad's been there the whole way with me. It's going to be hard on him as well because that's been his life since I was born.”
During his recruitment process, Maryland was not initially in the picture for the Pittsburgh, Pa. native. That changed when he won the Super 32 Challenge in 2010 at 125 pounds, one of the most prestigious national high school wrestling tournaments in the country.
“I'd been down [at Maryland] for a camp and I talked to some of the coaches, but when I won the Super 32 tournament with 157 kids in my bracket, it was very big for my recruiting process. After that, coach [Mike Catullo], he's from Pittsburgh, came up to me and said why don't you come down for a visit. After I visited campuses like North Carolina, Drexel and many other places, I came down and I loved the atmosphere here, so I changed my mind. I made my decision in the next couple of days after that.”
After being enrolled at the university, Alexander wasted no time getting adjusted to the college wrestling scene, going 22-12 at 133 pounds as a freshman. He also was a runner up at the ACC Championship and was named to the All-ACC team during his rookie campaign. Up next was a berth in the NCAA Championships in his first year on campus.
A year later, the 133 pounder had a great sophomore campaign in the ACC, as he finished 25-11 on the season. Alexander finished 5-0 in duals, and received his second berth to the National Championships, this time going 3-2 at the event. Alexander has never been the person to back down from a challenge. His competitive nature and drive was the main reason that he didn't want to take a redshirt year during his first two years in College Park.
However, Alexander's junior year turned out a little differently than the two seasons prior. After thinking about it for a long time, he decided to take a redshirt year in his third season on the wrestling team. This decision was not an easy one, but it was something that he felt he needed to do in order to maximize his potential as a wrestler.
“It was a good experience,” said Alexander. “I got two years under my belt and my goal was to get on the podium [at NCAAs]. I thought taking a year to really develop my skills and kind of figure out what I actually need to do to get on that podium was going be the right move. After talking to my coaches, parents and teammates, it was the right decision. It was a good year for me too, I lost one match and I won four tournaments. It was also hard because wrestling two years before that, I had teammates that were on the team like Jimmy Sheptock and Christian Spencer, and it was tough not to be able to go out and compete with them. But I was there every step of the way to do what I could to help the program and the team even though I was redshirting.”
Taking a redshirt season proved to be wise for Alexander, as he went on to win 14 matches while making his third appearance in the NCAAs during his redshirt junior season. Some of these wins included beating the No. 9 ranked wrestler in his weight class, Mason Beckman of Lehigh, and defeating the No. 18 wrestler in his division, Eric Montoya of Nebraska.
But the start of this season was not as kind to the redshirt senior, as injuries forced him to miss the first month on the mat. While Alexander recognizes that this is his first serious injury he has had in his entire wrestling career, he is confident that he has gone about rehabbing the correct way, and knows that his season will not be defined by the first month, but by the last month.
“This year was hard after a good summer of training, it was hard coming into September knowing I wasn't 100 percent,” he explained. “I just physically couldn't do things that I normally would be able to. It was a process that I had to sit down with the coaches and figure out. But in the end, I had to realize that my goal is March, my goal is not now. As long as I'm healthy and ready to go for March, that's what matters. So my training might be different than everyone else's for the whole year, but that's what I have to do to make sure I'm ready for the Big Ten Tournament and the National Tournament.”
Alexander appears back on the right track, as he boasts a 3-0 record on the season including another victory over then-No. 9 ranked Montoya in the team's dual match last week. The win has caught the eye of the national wrestling scene, as the redshirt senior now claims the No. 13 position in the 133-pound weight class via the latest Intermat Wrestling rankings.
Alexander also recognizes that while he came in as a highly-touted wrestling prospect, he appreciates all that head coach Kerry McCoy has done for him so he could improve as a wrestler and person, even though his competitive personality may make it difficult at times.
“I just kind of like to put my head down and run through a wall,” said the captain. “It's harder for me to listen to people trying to tell me what to do because I just want to do what I think is best for me. Kerry [McCoy] and I have bumped heads a little bit throughout the years, but maturing is a big part of life, and that's a big thing that he's talked about this year, how I've matured a lot, not only as a wrestler, but as a leader on the team that holds people accountable for their actions inside and outside the room.”
This will be the last year that he will have to accomplish his goal of getting on the podium, and while Alexander would love nothing more to end his Maryland career in that fashion, he knows that if he just works as hard as possible and gives his best effort, there's really nothing he can be upset about.
“My goal is to be on that podium, but you know in the end, all I care about is if I go out there and give it 110 percent every single match. If I still come up short doing that, then there's nothing that I can complain about. When you lose just because someone beat you and they were better that day, that's something that you can live with because the next day you may be on your game and win. I just want to go out there right now and have fun and enjoy every moment because it's almost over, and when it's over I'll be looking back on it and I won't be able to be in that moment anymore, so you just have to give it your all now.”
--Terps--
