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WVU Wrestling

Work Away From the Mat has Noah Adams Winning to Start the Season

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MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Thursday’s Backyard Brawl loss to Pitt was a rough one for the WVU wrestling team. West Virginia wrestlers lost each of the first eight weight classes, including close, one-point losses in 149 and 157.

By the time the 197 match came around the Panthers had built a 29-0 lead over the Mountaineers, but the team was still looking for at least one bright spot on the mat.

WVU’s 197 wrestler, sophomore Noah Adams, has been the best Mountaineer on the mat to start the year. He came into Thursday’s meet riding a 10-match winning streak. Adams began the season with back-to-back tournament wins at the Southeast Open and Mountaineer Invitational. Adams was also victorious in the team’s first two dual meets against Northern Colorado and no. 24 Army. The 10 victories placed Adams at 11 in the InterMat rankings for the 197 weight class.

Pitt’s Kellan Stout would be his toughest opponent yet, however. Stout transferred to Pitt two seasons ago from Penn State. In his first year with the Panters he climbed as high as 20 in the InterMat rankings and went 11-4 in dual meets, including defeating Adams in last season’s Backyard Brawl.

This season’s rematch between Adams and Stout was as close as expected. After a scoreless first period, Adams scored four points on a pair of reversals to lead 4-3 after the second. Adams scored two takedowns in the third to come out with his 11th straight victory 8-6.

Second-year head coach Tim Flynn credits Adams’ hot start to the work he put in over the offseason.

“He does a lot of things wrestling-wise well, but I think his biggest thing is his approach to the sport,” Flynn said. “He trains year-round and put a lot of effort and work into it. Whenever you do that you’re going to be in the mix.”

Adams said his biggest improvement this season has been not fading late into matches. He focused on his conditioning in the offseason so that he could wrestle hard the whole way through his matches.

“Just keep going, I think that’s one thing I didn’t do last year,” Adams said. “When matches got close I kind of stopped and didn’t wrestle as hard. I’ve been focusing on keeping going until the very end, I think that’s something that’s helped me a lot this year.”

Adams said last season he learned that if you can wrestle hard enough you can beat any opponent.

“If you wrestle hard a lot of things can happen, especially at the college level,” Adams said. “That’s one thing I’ve learned, that no one’s safe until the match is over.”

Flynn said they have not set any goals for Adams this season, rather they just want him to stay focused and continue improving.

“He’s got to get some good nutrition, get to bed, watch the film and get better tomorrow,” Flynn said. “Then by the time March comes around, I think he’ll be pretty hard to beat.”

“I just want to get better every week,” Adams said. “I feel like if I do that then at the end of the season I’ll be where I want to be.”

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