McKendree women look to make WCWA Nationals team race interesting

The McKendree University women’s wrestling team has only been around for five years, but that’s all it took to turn the squad into a title-contending threat.

In 2013, McKendree called Sam Schmitz to see if he would head up the newly created women’s team. At the time, Schmitz, a three-time NAIA All-American for Lindenwood and an NJCAA All-American for Clackamas, was serving as the head women's wrestling coach and head assistant men's wrestling coach at Lindenwood University-Belleville.

“We started that spring and ended up with 17 kids in the fall of 2013,” Schmitz said. “We had zero All-Americans that first year. We had three or four lose the All-American round. The next year we had seven or eight, and the year after that, we had 11 All-Americans.”

Schmitz is impressed by the growth and the fast success of his team. He pinpointed a few things that he thinks has brought the Bearcats to prominence. Among them is his wife, the former Michaela Hutchison, who has caught the attention of many recruits.

Hutchison was a three-time WCWA national champion for Oklahoma City and a two-time National Team member, who won several international medals, including silver at the Bill Farrell International, and was also the 2016 U.S. Open champion.

Also adding to the growth is the hard work of the athletes and McKendree’s involvement on the USA Wrestling circuit.

“This program has grown because the kids believe in the process, the school and what’s coming out of our coaches’ mouths,” he said. “Also, being a part of USA Wrestling has helped grow it. Seeing that a program has athletes in those events, winning matches on the Senior level and putting girls on Junior World Teams is a huge part of recruiting and growth in women’s wrestling.”

Under Schmitz, three Bearcats have gone to the World Championships at the age-group level.

Alexis Porter, a senior this year and two-time All-American for McKendree, won a 2016 Junior World bronze medal in Macon, France. Earlier this year, she was the U23 World Team Trials runner-up.

In 2017, McKendree sent two others to the World Championships, including Alexandria Glaude, who competed at Junior Worlds in Tampere, Finland, and Megan Black, who represented the U.S. at U23 Worlds in Bydgoszcz, Poland.

For Megan and Alex, it was an eye opener,” Schmitz said. “I think they realized that they have what it takes to win at the national level but when it comes to the World Championships, they have to come with a killer attitude and can’t let up. They’re both extremely talented with good heads on their shoulders, and they came away from those experiences with new perspectives and things to work on. From my view, that experience just made them hungrier. They’re ready to do it again.”

It’s evident that Schmitz and his staff have brought in some real talent to help them move up the ranks in a short amount of time. This year, the Bearcats have a talented lineup with 10 returning All-Americans, including Black, the 2017 runner-up at 130 pounds, and Brandy Lowe, who finished third last year for the Bearcats and also owns a 2015 second-place finish at 191 pounds for Ottawa. Glaude is taking a redshirt year.

“We have a loaded roster and some really tough kids this year,” Schmitz said. “This is the first time we’ve had a tough kid at every weight class. We’ve had some standouts in different spots of the lineup in the past, but this year, we’re solid from top to bottom.”

So far this year, the Bearcats have been impressive and shown that they are true WCWA title contenders, individually and as a team.

In November, they won the Missouri Valley Open as a team with three individual champions and eight other top-eight finishes. Their 242 points outscored second-place Menlo by 30 points.

At the Bearcat Open last weekend, hosted by McKendree, Schmitz’s squad produced three championship performances with six runner-up finishes and placed nine others.

In dual action, McKendree is 4-1 on the season with its lone loss coming to Campbellsville, 24-19, in the NWCA National Duals finals.

“The National Duals loss was something that we needed because it was a dose of reality that there are a lot of talented teams out there,” Schmitz said. “We needed to be hit in the mouth a little bit. This was a lesson in picking yourself back up and getting focused. That second-place trophy is in our locker room right now as an everyday reminder. They believe in each other more than they ever have. Because of that, I think this team can really win at WCWA Nationals.”

Campbellsville is also a young team that has only been around for four years. As the sport grows, the college team aspect becomes more and more interesting. Several other new programs are shaking things up alongside the steady powerhouses, such Emmanuel College and Grays Harbor College, which have been around for three and two years, respectively.

“Competition is getting better and better and I think that’s a testament to all the hard work the coaches have put in before us and helped build up the WCWA. I’m honestly speechless every time somebody asks what it’s like to coach women because I don’t really know how to explain it. You just have to come see it for yourself how awesome it is,” Schmitz said.

With WCWA National Championships just a couple weeks away, Schmitz said the hope for his athletes is that they rise up and compete to their full potential, something the Bearcats have struggled with in past years at WCWAs. In 2014, their first WCWA appearance, the Bearcats finished 11th. Since then, they have registered three-straight sixth-place finishes.

“We’ve had potential every year, but sometimes you just never know,” he said. “For some reason at WCWAs, that’s been our worst performance every year we’ve been there. We’ve just underperformed and it’s disappointing. We do all the right things and it seems like we’re on a good path and we’re peaking at the right time, but then we get to WCWAs and we seem to underperform. Hopefully that changes this year and we go into with a renewed mindset and a different approach. When the dust settles, we’ll see where we end up.”

The Bearcats, ranked No. 3 in the WCWA’s most recent rankings, will enter their fifth college nationals with their eyes on the top prize on Feb. 9-10 at Abe Lemons Arena on the Oklahoma City University campus in Oklahoma City, Okla.

“We had preached that this program would be what it is today,” Schmitz said. “We talked in the very beginning about how this program would become a machine that directs itself. With a lot of hard work and dedication to the process, it’s become a well-oiled machine.”