Carter Young’s Transfer Proves To Be A Midseason Game-Changer For Maryland Wrestling

He was the last to join the team, but Carter Young’s already one of its biggest contributors.

The redshirt senior’s path to College Park was unlike any other, but the right circumstances and a faith in head coach Alex Clemsen’s program created a partnership that’s already paying dividends for both sides. 

“It’s been awesome,” Young said “I’ve been enjoying it a lot. I feel like this team is a really close-knit team, and they still made room for me and embraced me. Everybody hangs out with everybody, and we’re all really good friends. It’s been really cool to be a part of.”

Young spent the first portion of his collegiate career in Stillwater, Oklahoma, wrestling for his hometown Oklahoma State Cowboys. After competing in several NCAA Championships, Young was ready to bring his talents to the Big Ten, and found a new home at Maryland.

“The guys in the Big Ten are supposed to be the toughest in the sport,” Young said. “So, it’s been good to get a shot at them.”

Young’s transfer couldn’t have come any later than it did. As a grad student, he didn’t have the typical transfer window, but one more match and he would have been committed to Oklahoma State for the remainder of the season. He had a decisive match slated, but transferred over to Maryland in time to salvage half a season with the Terps. 

“It didn't really take anything crazy from a confidence standpoint,” Young said. “I know I'm good at wrestling, so I knew I was going to be fine with a mid-season transfer. It was just about getting to a place that I felt was good and was going to help me wrestle my best and get me in some matches.”

As a lifelong wrestler, Young’s always had a competitive spirit. Young started wrestling when he was just four years old, so his time on the mat overspans his cognitive memories, but wrestling has been a key staple of his life for nearly two decades. 

“I don’t have many memories from the time I was four,” Young admitted. “But from what I’ve been told, I had a ton of energy, so my parents threw me into wrestling to mainly just try and get my energy out.”

An older cousin, Paxton Rosen, wrestled at Campbell University, paving the way for Young to make a collegiate name of his own. It took a while for Young to find his footing in the sport, however and recalls getting his own rear end handed to him more than once. 

“As a kid, I always worked really hard at it, but I kind of got my butt kicked a lot,” Young said. “I wasn’t very good at wrestling for a long while.”

He needed a mentor, and found one in the form of Daton Fix, a four-time NCAA Runner-up at Oklahoma State. Fix finished his collegiate career with over 120 career wins and took Young under his wing when the future Terp was in middle school.

“Right when he started training me, I immediately started winning everything,” Young said. “I got pretty good pretty quickly training with him in junior high. We moved to Sand Springs, Oklahoma, just so I could train with him.”

His career took off as his talent skyrocketed. After winning three Oklahoma high school state championships, he competed for the Cowboys for years before longing for a change of scenery. 

“I really enjoy the coaching staff, and I meshed well with them and all the guys, so I came here,” Young said. “I had a couple visits and a couple places I was going to check out, but I ended up committing here shortly after I went on my visit here, just because I really enjoyed the people, and the training schedule, and the program we have here.”

“He's made us look pretty smart,” Clemsen said. “He's done a good job of being really open to what we want to see from him and what we expect as a standard. He's come right in and bought into that, and I don't think that's always easy for a guy that's in last semester. To just blindly trust us and be able to be vulnerable and adapt to our ways of doing things says a lot. I think a lot of the credit goes to him and how he's presented himself, how mature he is, and that he's made it really easy to coach him and welcome him to our program.”

Clemsen said the stars aligned in just the right way to bring him aboard. Maryland needed a 149-pound wrestler and Young needed a place to compete. Shortly after his visit to College Park, Young signed on with the Terps, marking the start of a new partnership.

“We didn’t do much different,” Clemsen said. “If anything, I’ve probably just tried to spend a little more one-on-one time initially. You don’t over-coach initially. You try to watch and get a feel for where the guy’s at and who he is as a person.”

The personal aspect of Clemsen’s coaching has been one of Young’s favorite things about his unique transfer and new home. He found not only a coach, but a mentor and friend in Maryland’s head guy. 

“He's been awesome,” Young said. “It's been awesome working with him and having individual workouts with him and everything he does. He's really done well pushing me and making me go harder than I sometimes want to.”

Young’s already made a massive impact on the mat for Maryland this season. In 11 matches, he’s 10-1 and ranked sixth in the nation in the NCAA Coaches’ Rankings for the 149-pound weight class. 

“In wrestling, I feel like there’s a little more accountability,” Young said. “In other sports, you can play well and lose or have a bad game and win. But in wrestling, everybody’s watching you versus another man. It’s all on yourself to help the team at the end of the day.”

Most of Young’s efforts to bond with his new squad come away from athletics. When he’s not competing on the mat, he’s building relationships with the guys through his favorite video game: Fortnite.

“When we don’t have school, Braxton Brown and I have been putting close to six-hour days on Fortnite,” Young said. He’s nothing if not dedicated. When asked if he’d ever livestream his Fortnite matches, Young chuckled. “I’m getting to that point. I’m pretty good.”

But for now, he has a collegiate career and season with the Terps to finish. A true competitor, Young is soaking in the limited time he has left in his collegiate career. He’s not letting a moment pass him by, nor is he taking the chance to be a Terp for granted. 

“I’d want people to know that I’m going to go out there on the mat, give it my all every time, and try to do the best I can to put points on the board for the University of Maryland.”

“I think my only regret looking back is going to be that I just wish I had more time with him,” Clemsen said. “I really do enjoy coaching him, and I think the reason I enjoy coaching him is because of the person he is.”