The American University wrestling team placed 23rd at the NCAA Championships on March 21, headlined by redshirt junior Caleb Campos’ fourth-place finish at 184 lbs. Campos’ All-American performance tied American’s highest individual placement since 2016.
“[Campos] stayed very composed and stayed within himself and just was in a good headspace the whole weekend,” head coach Jason Borrelli said. “Even as in his match to be an All-American at one point headed into the 3rd period, he was losing 4-0 and you could just tell he was still calm and confident and his conditioning was working well for him.”
The team’s 23rd-place finish is the program’s best since 2012. American sent Eastern Intercollegiate Wrestling Association champions Campos and graduate student Max Leete, plus at-large qualifier redshirt sophomore heavyweight Emmanuel Ulrich to the national championships. The trio made up the largest Eagles contingent at NCAAs since 2020 when the meet was cancelled.
The championships took place at Rocket Arena in Cleveland. The final session of the championships had an attendance of 17,845 people — just a few more people than Bender Arena’s 2,900-person lower bowl capacity. With matches on as many as eight mats going concurrently, the noise played a role for American’s wrestlers, particularly for Campos and Ulrich who had never competed on this stage before.
“I will say that it was louder than I expected when I first hit the floor,” Ulrich said. “When I was heading out to my match, it was kind of deafening.”
“I would say coming from a mid-major program, when you get onto the big stage, you kind of feel the equalizer effect because there was two different instances, once when I was wrestling Iowa [Drake Ayala], and once when I was wrestling Dylan Shawver [of Rutgers], and there was moments during both of those matches that I shared with Caleb and E-man after where I could feel that the opponent I was facing, and both of those opponents being all Americans on the U.S., probably Olympic ladder, top tier athletes in our country, at my weight class. I could feel in both of them as we were wrestling, that they were hearing the sound of the stadium, to the exact same degree I was,” Leete said.
The Eagles’ coaching staff worked hard to keep their athletes grounded and only focused on the wrestling when they really had to.
“Well, I think for [Campos], one thing, you know, you’re in an arena with 17 to 20,000 fans that are loud and there’s roars because different cheering sections are cheering for different mats and it can overwhelm you if you’re not, one, used to it, but, two, if you’re in it too much,” Borrelli said.
Borrelli praised Campos’ mental fortitude in his individual matches, along with the hectic overall environment.
“He had good offense and he scored when he attacked, which is important, you know, a lot of times you take a shot and you don’t score and it wears you out a little bit and it also plays with your mental psyche, but he was able to score high percentage of the time when he attacked, which was really helpful,” Borrelli said. “He did a really good job staying back in the team area away from that environment, and not getting distracted by the ambiance of the NCAA championships and all the fans and everybody there … That takes a very mature individual because it was his first time at that tournament and oftentimes kids do get caught up in that.”
The performance at this year’s national championships also marked a major milestone for Borrelli’s program. Before American, Borrelli coached at Stanford and led wrestler Shane Griffith to a national championship in 2021. American’s program has made strides since his arrival.
“This is season five and he was the first guy to reach All-American status to punch through and a guy who’s been in the program that’s a team captain and works really hard,” Borrelli said. “He had bought into the vision and the plan and to see that kind of come to fruition is really very gratifying for coaches to see that happen, so really happy for him.”
Between Campos, Leete and Ulrich, American earned 10 wins at the national championships, with each wrestler taking at least one match. Campos reached the heights of the top eight 184-lbs wrestlers and therefore All-American status, while Leete had the misfortune of running into a two-time national runner-up in the blood round. Ulrich had a breakout season after sitting an extra year behind heavyweight Will Jarrell, who he was recruited to take over for.
“A lot of guys that are at that level might just kind of pack their bags and think about transferring and leaving, and, you know, ‘this isn’t what I signed up for, you guys are bringing him back, and I thought I was going to be the guy.’ Well, he wanted to stay and felt like even having a year to train behind Will would help him get better,” Borrelli said. “He decided to stay, even though he lost a year, and then this year he ended up being the starter and made it to the nationals, and I truly believe that a big part of that is because of the type of kid he is … He believes in AU, he believes in what we’re trying to do.”
Borrelli’s team is fully bought in, and it’s that focus that has contributed to their success. American is far from the most storied program in the country, but that doesn’t entirely matter when each match is one individual against another.
“It’s all the work that you put in that makes you better. You know, you don’t wrestle singlets, you wrestle people, you wrestle humans,” Campos said. “Everyone’s the same, like, we all have different abilities, but we’re all human at the end of the day.”
“I’m not only proud of the team and myself, but it’s great to see our coaches, all their hard work, seeing that become successful. Max and Caleb, both winning the conference, and then on top of that, we have the most placers on top of that in our program history. And then we have three NCAA qualifiers, Campos ends up getting fourth in the country, which was crazy. That was probably the best thing to see,” Ulrich said. “I’m happy for our coach, Borrelli. He goes from Cali all the way over here to D.C. and just in a few years he has an All-American. That just goes to show the type of coach he is.”
“Every day [the coaches] put in hard work into us, so I’m just glad to see that our program’s finally getting seen, and that we’re growing into a successful program,” Ulrich said.
Leete and Campos’ paths to Cleveland were simpler than Ulrich’s. They qualified automatically just by advancing to the EIWA finals, and locked up better placements by each winning an EIWA championship at 133 and 184 lbs, respectively. Ulrich’s fate was in the hands of the selection committee after a 3-2 performance at EIWAs.
“I was actually laying down at my bed at the time, and Borrelli called me and without giving me context, I was a little confused. He just tells me, ‘you’re in.’ And I’m like, ‘I don’t know what you’re saying.’ He’s like, ‘you qualified. You got the at-large,’” Ulrich said. “I didn’t know really what to say. And before I could even say anything to respond, he’s like, ‘whoa, congrats, you excited?’ I was like, ‘to be honest, coach, I don’t know what to feel.’ I was kind of at a loss of words. After that call, I instantly called my mom. I told her to get her stuff packed and get ready to go to Cleveland.”
The Eagles’ performance this season was the culmination of years of work from all involved, and there’s still more progress to be made in the future. But for now, they’ll try and appreciate the history they’ve made.
“It still hasn’t hit yet and I’m waiting for it to, but it’s still kind of odd that I’m All-American now, but hopefully one day maybe it’ll sit right and I’ll be like, okay, I can actually take it in as an actual thing. It’s like etched in history is going to be crazy. My picture’s gonna be like on the wall and stuff. It’s actually pretty cool,” Campos said. “I told Ganbayar Sanjaa actually, a month before the tournament, I was like, ‘Gan, I want my picture next to yours.’ And then he told me after the match happened, he’s like, ‘Caleb, your picture’s gonna be next to mine.’ And I was like, ‘yes, Gan, that’s exactly what I wanted.’”
This article was edited by Connor Sturniolo, Jack Stashower and Walker Whalen. Copy editing done by Avery Grossman, Ryan Sieve, Mattie Lupo and Nicole Kariuki.
