A year ago this week, Graham Rooks qualified for the NCAA Wrestling Tournament, and his brother Cayden just missed out on an at-large selection.
As it turned out, neither was able to compete in the NCAA after it was canceled that week because of the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Now, the Columbus East graduates and Indiana University sophomores are preparing to compete in the NCAA Tournament for the first time, and they’re using last year’s absence as motivation.
“It gave me a lot of fuel, and it gave me a lot of confidence,” Cayden said. “You want to have a chip on your shoulder, and you want to think of as many things as you can to have a chip on your shoulder and that was one of them.”
“I think it was just taking it as more fuel from last year,” Graham said. “I used that to kind of motivate me, and now, I’m grateful for the opportunity to go. I take it as a blessing.”
Graham, a 2018 East graduate who redshirted his first year at IU, qualified for this year’s NCAA with a sixth-place finish in 149 pounds in last weekend’s Big Ten Conference Tournament at Penn State.
“I don’t think I wrestled as well of a regular season this year,” Graham said. “I lost to a couple of guys I could have beat, but I think I had a better Big Ten performance.”
While Graham knew he’d be headed to the NCAA after the Big Ten event, Cayden had to wait a couple of days to learn his fate after finishing 10th in the conference at 141 pounds. The 2019 East graduate was selected for an at-large berth on Tuesday.
“It was pretty nerve-racking,” Cayden said. “My coach told me that he thought I’d have a pretty good chance after I beat the guy from Minnesota that was ranked 20th. I was trying not to get my hopes up too high just incase I didn’t get it. But it was super exciting whenever I found out.”
With 33 wrestlers in each weight class making the NCAA field, two have to compete in a preliminary match to see who gets to take on the No. 1 seed. Cayden (5-9) was given the No. 32 seed at 141 and will face No. 33 Vinny Vespa (4-5) of Hofstra.
The winner will meet top-seed Jaydin Eierman (8-0) of Iowa. Cayden and Eierman did not meet in the Big Ten Tournament.
“I like my chances,” Cayden said. “We’re working really hard, and kind of going in being young, coach (Angel Escobedo) always tells us to be on the attack. We have nothing to lose when we’re out there. I think we’re going to surprise some people.”
Graham (4-5) earned a No. 21 seed at 149 and will face No. 12 Max Munn (4-3) of Iowa in the opening round. The pair did not meet in the Big Ten tourney.
“He was ranked pretty high going into the tournament and then dropped two matches to guys I had close matches with and guys I think I can beat,” Graham said. “So I like my chances.”
If Graham wins, he would face another Big Ten wrestler — either No. 5 Ridge Lovett (8-1) of Nebraska or No. 28 Peyton Omania (4-6) of Michigan State — in the Round of 16.
“The Big Ten is the toughest conference in the country, and if you do well there, a lot of guys in two weeks do well at the NCAA Tournament,” Escobedo said.
The NCAA tourney starts Thursday and will continue through March 20 in St. Louis.
With IU’s facilities shut down most of last spring and summer, Graham and Cayden were left mostly to practice against each other, along with their roommate and teammate Paul Konrath and former East teammate Dawson Combest. Combest is competing for University of Indianapolis this weekend in the NCAA Division II Championships.
“Anywhere I could really get on the mat in the summer, we did,” Graham said. “We had a mat in my garage, and we would go in there and wrestle as much as we could. Just being able to keep our cardio up, for our timing and everything when we got back, it was huge.”
Both Graham and Cayden said it means everything to them that they were able to qualify for the NCAA alongside each other.
“It’s something we both train our entire life for,” Graham said. “It’s one of our dreams since we were little. It’s just like a dream-come-true, something we’ve both worked really hard for.”
“He’s my practice partner since I was 4 years old,” Cayden added. “I’m grateful that we were both able to make it.”
Escobedo thought at least one of his other wrestlers — and another East graduate — should have been selected. Sophomore Nick South had beaten a couple of wrestlers that made the 165-pound field.
“He got screwed over,” Escobedo said. “I’m still pretty upset about that. They did a disservice to him. When I look over the formula at how they pick wild-card selections, Nick South was at the top. He put in the work, and they skipped right over him.”
South might be able to use that as motivation for next year the way the Rookses did this season.
“That’s what we’ve been talking about all year, just to get back and compete,” Escobedo said. “Graham still remembers that day (that last year’s NCAA was canceled). He was heartbroken, and to be redeemed, I know he’s going to capitalize on this moment. The Rooks brothers are just hard workers. You can’t count them out in any match.”
