“It’s good for the sport” — that’s all Lehigh’s Michael Beard has to say about his national-leading 15 tech falls.
He knows that fans want to see him put points on the board, and that’s exactly what he does. In fact, in his last five matches, the Mountain Hawk has totaled at least 19 points, outscoring his opponents by a combined 102-23.
Beard’s mindset, much like two other national tech fall leaders, Ohio State’s Nick Feldman and Lock Haven’s Wyatt Henson, is to score and score often. It’s an aspirational goal for any wrestler, but these three athletes have a unique perspective on how to implement that offense and how they might be able to leverage their attacks to bring home hardware in March.
Beard’s story starts first. A 2018 graduate of Malvern Prep, Beard had always been an elite talent. He won three National Prep titles in high school and finished his high school career with a 172-7 record and an 11th-place ranking in his recruiting class. He then did what so many top high school athletes have done since 2010 and committed to wrestle for head coach Cael Sanderson and the Nittany Lions.
As a redshirt freshman at Penn State, Beard finished on the podium in seventh place, but the tournament that year was a weird one for Beard, as he competed in an empty arena following the COVID pandemic. He wrestled just 16 matches that year too, picking up six bonus wins but just one tech fall.
The following season, just as the sports world was returning to normal and fans re-entered the arena, Beard’s world was turned upside down again. Cornell NCAA finalist Max Dean elected to transfer to Penn State, sliding in at the 197 pound spot previously held by Beard. This move pushed Beard to the bench, and while he wrestled ten matches that year through a combination of open tournaments and one dual, his title hopes were dashed. Dean, on the other hand, went on to win a national championship at Beard’s weight. Dean’s decision to stay at Penn State for the 2022-2023 season prompted Beard to enter the transfer portal where he ultimately settled at Lehigh. He went 23-5 that same 2022-2023 season with 57.1% bonus but fell shy of the podium.
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Now the Mountain Hawk is in the midst of the best season of his career, boasting a 22-1 record with his lone loss coming against Trent Hidlay of N.C. State (another tech fall leader) at the Journeymen Classic. His dominance, though, is what stands out from Beard’s results this year. He holds a 91.3% bonus rate and, as of last week, was averaging 4.41 team points per match. He’s also currently ranked No. 3 in the country at 197 pounds behind Hidlay and three-time NCAA champion Aaron Brooks.
So what changed? For Beard, the answer is simple: a shift in focus from results to growth.
“I think previously, I kind of put too much focus on the accolades,” Beard said. “And this year, I'm really just trying to be my best self. My goal is to prioritize being my best self instead of focusing on being a national champion, or being an All American or anything like that. I think that will come if I compete at my best.”
Fellow tech fall leader Nick Feldman of Ohio State has a slightly different perspective. Despite being a freshman, Feldman is vocal about wanting to be a national champ, and he has the confidence to believe he can do it at 285 pounds, a weight where he is currently ranked No. 7 with 11 tech falls.
“Big Ten Champion. National Champion. That’s all I’m looking at right now,” Feldman said.
Feldman’s confidence can be attributed to a number of factors.
First, he, like Beard, came into college as a highly-touted recruit. He was ranked No. 1 overall in his class at heavyweight and No. 3 in the pound-for-pound rankings, and he was part of one of Ohio State’s best recruiting classes in school history.
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He’s also found success early. In his first 12 varsity collegiate matches, Feldman went undefeated, picking up eight total tech falls in these first dozen matches and dominating nearly every single athlete in his way.
Adversity hit Feldman at the Cliff Keen Invitational when he took an injury default loss to Taye Ghadiali of Campbell and a major decision loss to Iowa State’s Yonger Bastida. He then lost his next dual to Owen Trephan of NC State.
But the turning point came a few weeks later in the Ohio State-Michigan dual when Feldman beat two-time All-American Lucas Davison 4-3 to seal with win for Ohio State.
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That’s a moment he had dreamed about, and it’s the moment when he knew he could compete, and win, at this level.
“I always just tell myself 'I wanted this.' You know, there's no place else I'd rather be,” Feldman said. “I don't want to compete in a crowd of 10 people, I want to compete in a crowd of 10,000 people right and I want to be the guy that my team can always rely on. So I just want to go show the world what I can do.”
While Feldman is more outspoken about his goals, he too has grown into his role as a point-scoring machine. He’s made big gains in his two years at Ohio State, gains that he credits to assistant coach Bo Jordan and his training partners Kollin Moore and Amar Dhesi from the Ohio RTC, as well as some of his freshman teammates.
He’s also had to be patient and learn how to take down some of the biggest, strongest, heaviest guys in the country. This year has been a journey of improvement and success for Beard and Feldman, but they aren’t the only ones who have made names for themselves via their dominance.
Lock Haven’s Wyatt Henson is also making waves, and like Beard in particular, Henson has taken a roundabout way to get to where he is. After starting his career at Iowa and then transferring to Oklahoma and now wrestling for Lock Haven, Henson believes he’s finally found the right home to help him achieve his dreams. His results suggest as much too.
With a 27-2 record and a 70% bonus rate at 141 pounds, Henson is ranked No. 19 in the country but has a win over All-American Cole Matthews. He’s, without a doubt, in the hunt to fight for a podium spot in March.
Henson attributes his success to knowing that, as he says, he’s “stronger and faster” than everybody else. He’s also happy to be in an environment surrounded by “like-minded people” with a gritty mentality.
One more tech fall would tie Henson with Beard in the national rankings, while Feldman needs four more. All three of these athletes though will get at least three matches at their conference tournament and potentially five (or even more) matches at the NCAA tournament.
The race is on, but, no matter who finishes with more tech falls, the effort to create these point-scoring situations will be, as Beard suggested, good for the sport of wrestling.
