With just one dual meet remaining in his quest for a national title, redshirt junior heavyweight Levi Cooper isn’t feeling the heat.
The All-American, who finished eighth at last year’s NCAA Championships in Philadelphia, has complete confidence in himself as ASU (6-10, 2-2 Pac-12) heads into its matchup with Stanford (8-6, 3-1 Pac-12) on Sunday.
“I felt pressure during the middle of the season, but recently, I’ve changed the way I’ve been thinking a little bit,” Cooper said. “I’m not even worrying about who’s on the other side, or how good or not good they’re supposed to be. I’m just focusing on wrestling the best that I can wrestle, because I know that if I do that, I have the opportunity to beat anybody in the country.”
This weekend’s showdown with the Cardinal has big implications for the team as a whole, as it will be ASU’s last chance to compete before the Pac-12 championships on Feb. 26.
“This is another conference match that helps with seeding,” coach Shawn Charles said. “It’s a big duel for us. I’m really hoping that we go out there with a fire in our belly and compete hard.”
Both Charles and Cooper know unranked Stanford isn’t going to come into Tempe and roll over for the Sun Devils.
“I know that Stanford is going to come in here and battle,” Charles said. “They wrestle hard, they’ve got good coaches, they train well, and they have a couple of individuals ranked very high. They’re going to bring it, that’s why I hope we do everything we need to do this week to prepare to put on a good show for our fans and win the dual.”
As has been the case all year, ASU will rely on Cooper and a handful of freshmen to carry the team to a win on Sunday.
The tenacity the Sun Devils bring to the mat also plays heavily into whether or not the squad will have a good showing in the season’s final meet.
“For us, this meet is going to be about coming out and trying to do what we know how to do, wrestling as hard as possible,” Cooper said. “Leaving (Stanford) with a feeling that when they get to the Pac-12 tournament, they don’t want to wrestle an Arizona State guy.”
Cooper knows better than every other grappler in maroon and gold exactly what it’s going to take to succeed not just against Stanford, but also down the final key stretch of the season.
In 2011, he went step for step with now-graduated Anthony Robles and Bubba Jenkins all the way to the national championship podium.
Both Robles and Jenkins ended up capturing crowns, a feat Cooper is trying to emulate this spring.
“(They) certainly gave me a blueprint to follow, but I think that there’s not any one person who has made their way to a national title the same way as another person,” Cooper said. “I’ve certainly taken influence from those guys, and other good people that I’ve watched, but at the end of the day, I’m doing what I feel like is going to help me prepare the best because nobody knows my body better than I do.”
Cooper also emphasized the importance of neither he nor his teammates taking a step back this Sunday after gaining momentum with a 24–17 victory over Cal Bakersfield last week.
“If we were to lose, we’ve got to kind of go back to the drawing board for the Pac-12s,” Cooper said. “This is the last time we are going to wrestle for three weeks, so it’s certainly a place to build off of and prepare for that tournament.”
Regardless of this weekend’s results, Charles recognizes the talent and potential his team possesses.
“I think we have a huge upside to our program because we are so young,” Charles said. “It takes time. You have to build a foundation and an environment for the kids to thrive in athletically and academically. We’re still putting together the pieces to make this a reality.”
Note:
Because of Super Bowl XLVI, Sunday’s action will begin at noon, and not at 2 p.m. as originally noted on the ASU wrestling website.
Reach the reporter at kjnewma2@asu.edu Click here to subscribe to the daily State Press newsletter.
