Craig is back on top
12/15/2009 12:15:00 PM | Men's Wrestling
 |
Working hard to be the best is certainly the attitude this Lehigh athlete possesses. Senior David Craig is a firm believer in being the best athlete you can, and working his hardest to get there. Of course, a few losses came along that road, but Craig knew never to let them set him back.
The Florida native has been wrestling since he was four, and his drive to succeed only grew from there. Craig explained he was only an average wrestler at first, never having tremendous enthusiasm for the sport. “I sort of just fell into wrestling in high school; my older brothers competed, so it was just placed on me.”
With his hard work, before he knew it, Craig was winning major bouts in high school competitions, and coming to Lehigh University in the fall of 2006 to be a part of a historic Lehigh wrestling program.
In high school, Craig was a major competitor with numerous achievements and honors. He was ranked the No. 1 recruit in the country according to InterMat.com, an online forum of national amateur wrestling news, rankings and articles. Craig was a four-time state champion out of Brandon High School with career record of 179-0. Other accolades to his lengthy resume include winner of the Dave Schultz High School Excellence Award, National High School Coaches Association champion at 171 lbs, and a junior national champion in both freestyle and Greco-Roman.
With all his success in high school, Craig knew he wanted to try and continue that success and pursue wrestling in college. Craig explained he also knew the benefits with being recruited as an athlete with a chance to get a good education through wrestling in college. When coming to Lehigh, Craig was excited to get both the academic reputation and the athletic reputation that came with the wrestling program.
“I knew I wanted to wrestle in college and it was also a great way to get a great education paid for. Lehigh was a great combination for me in terms of academics and athletics. They had such a historic wrestling program and it was a cool thing to think you would be a part of a program like that.”
Craig’s laundry list of awards and achievements did not stop after his high school career; the journalism major arrived at Lehigh and only produced good things for the Mountain Hawks program.
In the 2006-2007 season, Craig tied for the team lead in victories as a true freshman and reached the All-American round at the NCAA Championships. Craig led the team in dual meet wins with 17 and was second on the team in falls with nine. He earned the No. 1 seed at the EIWA tournament and six of the freshman’s 11 losses came to Division I All-Americans. In his 2008-09 season, Craig captured the EIWA Championship at 184, winning four bouts without allowing a point and totaled an impressive 21-2 record in dual meet. Craig finished the season with a 21-3 record in the final 24 bouts of the season.
Craig commented on the coaching staff saying the great improvements that have been brought to the team under head coach Pat Santoro.
“Coach Santoro has brought a lot more fire to the team. Under his watch, he has brought us together as a closer group. Part of that has to do with us being more successful as a program,” Craig said.
Craig explained he always had a certain mentality of what kind of sport wrestling is for him. While wrestling is a team sport in some ways, Craig said when it comes down to it, individual execution is what counts.
“Wrestling is an individual battle,” Craig said. “There is the team aspect where you go help and train with your teammates for wins. But ultimately it’s about every person individually doing their job. You can say that’s a dynamic for a team sport as well, but I feel it’s different. It is an individual battle.”
With the 2009-2010 season starting for the Mountain Hawks, Craig explained that the expectations he has for himself this season as well as the team are very high. Everyone including Craig is ready to get back into competition and meet those expectations and pick up where the team left off last season.
“I am definitely ready to get back out on the mats and try for that EWIA title again this year. I know the team has a lot of goals overall as well and I am confident we can execute this season to achieve those goals,” Craig explained.
“I think we are going to do really well. We have almost every guy back, so I don’t see any reason why we can’t pick up from last year, even with our tougher schedule this season wrestling some top teams,” Craig said.
The preseason is an important time for any athletic team Craig said. This year the team worked extremely hard in the off season, to get ready for the long and strenuous season, which includes some matches against some top teams in Division I.
“Coach Santoro gave us a good workout in the off season. I think he has really tried to have us geared up for the tough schedule we have coming,” Craig said.
With five months of competition in their season, Craig knows there is a challenge mentally and physically on the team, however, they all work hard to overcome the adversity.
“When you wrestle in college, chances are you have been doing it a really long time, now you’re sort of numb to that thing,” Craig said. “It is a physical and mental challenge for any wrestler to compete in such a long season but we wrestle all year round. There is no real off season. You’re always training and always wrestling.”
Craig said it’s important to go out every season, no matter what year you are, with the attitude to do the best for the team and he hopes to do exactly that for the Mountain Hawks in this 2009-2010 season.
“I know people look to me as a veteran but I look to really just to go out there and do my job for the team in order for us to be successful,” Craig said.
Craig and the Mountain Hawks, who are currently 6-2 in duals and ranked No. 11 in the country, will be back on the mats on December 29, when they head to Evanston, Illinois for the prestigious Midlands Championships, a two-day event hosted by Northwestern.
Story written by Kaitlin Dean ‘10
