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Illinois junior Mike Poeta at top of his game entering NCAA Championships

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by Craig Sesker

  • Video interviews from Big Ten individual champions

    Illinois junior Mike Poeta's harshest critic is the guy he looks at in the mirror.

    So when the top-seeded Poeta suffered back-to-back losses to Minnesota's C.P. Schlatter and Wisconsin's Craig Henning at the 2007 Big Ten Championships in East Lansing, Mich., he closely examined and scrutinized what he did wrong.

    And he vowed to fix it.

    "That was probably the most disappointing tournament I've had in my life," Poeta said. "I lost a close one to C.P. in the semis and then stuck my thumb in my mouth and I was pouting. I didn't come back and wrestle hard and lost to Henning for third. It was a big wake-up call for me, toughness-wise. I realized from that point on I had to get tougher."

    Poeta came back strong to place third at the 2007 NCAA Championships in Auburn Hills, Mich., after falling to eventual champion Trent Paulson of Iowa State in the semifinals.

    Poeta is one of the favorites to win the 157-pound title at the 2008 NCAA Championships next week in St. Louis. He captured the Big Ten title last weekend and takes a 32-2 record into the NCAA meet.

    "Mike is one of the best athletes I have ever coached, he works extremely hard and he's a very tough kid - that's a great combination," Illinois coach Mark Johnson said. "He is a real student of the sport who is constantly looking for an edge. Nobody is tougher on himself than Mike Poeta is."

    Poeta won a very strong 157 class at the Big Tens that saw Henning, a returning NCAA runner-up, fail to place in the top eight.

    "Henning not qualifying for nationals shows just how tough this tournament is," Poeta said. "For people who complain that the Big Ten gets too many spots, just look at Craig Henning. The kid beat everybody all year. His only losses were to me and (Indiana's) Brandon Becker going into this tournament. That shows the (72 national) qualifiers we get from the Big Ten are all deserving."

    The lightning-quick Poeta excels on his feet and appears to have a bright future ahead of him wrestling internationally in freestyle.

    "He's going to be great at it," Johnson said.

    Poeta was asked after winning Big Tens if there was pressure on him since he may be the top seed at the NCAA meet.

    "Everyone is 0-0 right now," he said. "The seven guys from Big Tens who qualified for nationals are all 0-0 and any one of those guys has a chance to win a national title. There is pressure on everybody because this is the big show, whether you're seeded or not seeded. This is the one event everyone has prepared for all year. If you lose here, it doesn't matter what seed you are."

    Poeta's strongest competition at nationals may come from Edinboro's Gregor Gillespie, who won an NCAA title at 149 last year before bumping up a class this year. Gillespie is ranked No. 1 nationally by InterMat and Poeta is No. 2.

    Poeta, from Highwood, Ill., edged Gillespie 4-3 in an entertaining finals match at the Cliff Keen Las Vegas Invitational. Poeta was named Outstanding Wrestler of that event. The Poeta-Gillespie match involved arguably the best scramble of the year when Poeta somehow managed to score the winning takedown during a wild sequence near the mat's edge.

    "It was a great match - Gillespie's pretty good," Johnson said. "Mike's a great scrambler with great instincts. He has a great feel for where he's at on the mat. He's comfortable everywhere."

    Poeta appears to be at the top of his game right now.

    "My coaches have me wrestling as well as I can possibly wrestle right now," he said. "I do feel like my wrestling and my approach mentally is at the highest level it's ever been."

    Johnson shares a similar view.

    "Mike knows he was good enough to win the national tournament last year and he's even better this year," Johnson said. "When he's on, he's the best guy.

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