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Sophomore Ben Herrmann wrestles in the 126 pound division.

Staring down an opponent, you realize that he is the only thing standing between you and your goals. Knowing that the only way to get what you dream of is to impose your will upon him. You storm forward, prepared to endure the thunderous pain of fighting. You strike your arm out, wrapping it around him, just as you have practiced for hours in the gym. You have gained the advantage, you pick him up, bearing the additional weight of someone equal in size. The thunderous clap of the mat booms as you throw him down upon the ground. Striking around, you take a dominant position. Despite facing resistance you continue to fight. This is wrestling. And for sophomore Ben Hermann, it is something that he has come to love.

“Wrestling has come to make up almost half of my life,” Herrmann said. “I started wrestling when I was a freshman, and I just fell in love with the sport.”

Coming into high school, Hermann had not wrestled in a competitive match,  but his father motivated him to became a wrestler.

“My dad wrestled in high school, which inspired me to wrestle in high school,” Herrmann said. “My dad took third in state, and then he went on to take third in the national tournament and wrestled Division I. My dad is not pressuring me to do it, but I feel I should at least somewhat live up to those standards.

Now after having wrestled competitively for two years, Herrmann has had to endure all of the hard things included in wrestling, including weight cuts.

“The first thing is to try and get down as far as you can while being healthy, by losing body fat,” he said. “So if you can’t get down to a weight just by losing body fat, what some people do is they limit their eating. If you don’t do it right that can result in you losing some muscle, but if you do it right you will lose weight but keep all your strength. But if you’re still over weight before a match, you will have to sweat off some weight just by putting on a bunch of sweat shirts and running or biking.”

Hermann had wrestled in two different weight classes before he found his place in the 120 pound weight class.

“Above 120, where I wrestle, is 126 and the only difference would be that guys are a lot taller and stronger than me,” Herrmann said. “I was wrestling 132 and then 126 before I went down to 120 earlier this year. There is definitely a difference in strength between guys at 120 and guys at 132. Wrestling at 120 is now a lot easier because the guys aren’t nearly as strong.”

During his two years Herrmann has come to understand the difficulties of the wait cuts, intense practices and brutalizing meets, but he also realizes what he has to do to become the great wrestler he wants to be.

“The best wrestler, before the match what they do is they will think about what they are going to do during the match. They imagine how they are going to beat the other person,” Herrmann said. “But during the match they are on autopilot. They are just going off what the other guy is doing. With some beginning wrestlers they have to think through stuff even in matches. To be good, you have to be on autopilot. It can take a few years and getting a lot of reps in. It’s going to sound crazy, but it will take a at least a couple thousand times before you don’t have to think about it and can just be on autopilot.”