Navy wrestling ended the 2023-24 season on an extremely high note. The Midshipmen sent five wrestlers to the NCAA Championships and collectively they won 12 matches during the tournament.
Senior David Key surprised a lot of people by placing eighth and becoming the 65th All-American in Navy history.
No other Mid placed, but Josh Koderhandt came close as he reached the so-called ‘blood round’ at 141 pounds. That is the term used for the fourth round of consolation matches where the winner earns a top eight finish and All-American honors, while the loser doesn’t place.
“I beat myself up for a couple of days about it, but it motivates me. I don’t ever want to feel that feeling again,” Koderhandt. “That was always in the back of my mind while I was training over the summer for sure.”
Entering his senior campaign, that match, along with the sting of Navy’s loss to archrival Army last season, weigh heavily on the Bellville, Illinois native. Navy appeared to beat Army in the final seconds of the final bout when junior Kaemen Smith put his ranked opponent on his back, but the referee wasn’t in position to credit a pin.
Elected to serve as the team’s captain, Koderhandt said beating Army is high on the priority list for the squad, “especially how that shook out last year, but you can’t leave it up to the ref.”
From an individual standpoint, Koderhandt began this season with a 79-29 record, which has him well positioned to earn the 100th victory of his career. Only 16 Midshipmen have ever accomplished that milestone in the 93-year history of Navy wrestling.
Although the senior has already picked up three victories early in the season, as a team, Navy has not started the dual meet portion of the schedule as well as Koderhandt or coach Cary Kolat had hoped.
After dropping a 35-3 match to nationally-ranked Pittsburgh on Nov. 3, Navy rebounded to split two matches Saturday, defeating Drexel, 29-9, then losing to 25th-ranked North Carolina, 23-16.
“It’s never ideal when you get one win out of the dual. Especially after last year getting the big upset over [Pitt]. We have a few freshmen who never wrestled in front of that many people, so they got a taste of what college wrestling was like real quick,” Koderhandt said.
Kolat, in his fifth season at Navy, was surprised by the poor performance against Pitt.
“I kind of left [Pittsburgh] with my head spinning. I don’t think our team wrestled bad. It’s not like guys went out there and just were outclassed. My guys just had mental lapses,” Kolat said.
Navy’s lineup thus far has featured at least five or six freshmen and sophomores in each match as Kolat emphasized he is looking for consistency from his young team.
“It comes down to training performance and — when the singlet goes on — competition performance. You want those things to be identical. I don’t want a different guy in the practice room compared to when he puts the singlet on,” he said.
There are still some battles going on for starting spots that Kolat said will work themselves out, but here is how the lineup looks after three matches.
At 125 pounds, plebes Garrett Trotten and Nick Treaster have each appeared for the Mids with the former looking impressive in posting a comeback victory to open the Drexel dual.
After a stellar freshman year that featured 22 wins and qualifying for the NCAA Tournament, junior Brendan Ferretti took a step back at 133 pounds, winning only 10 matches in his sophomore season. This year, Ferretti missed the Pitt match and lost both of his bouts against North Carolina and Drexel.
After Koderhandt, who is currently ranked ninth nationally at 141 pounds, Kolat says the Mids have three wrestlers that are still trying to emerge as the starter at 149. So far, Smith is 1-2 with sophomore Nicholas Vafiadis and junior James Latona pushing him in practice.
Maybe the most unsettled weight class is 157 as Navy has put up three different wrestlers — sophomores Charlie Evans and Jonathan Ley along with junior Devon Deem — in duals and all have lost.
Sophomore Tyler Sagi has been one of the bright spots so far for the Mids as he’s emerged as the starter at 165. The Old Bridge, New Jersey native is 2-1 with an impressive 11-3 decision over Drexel’s No. 31-ranked Cody Walsh.
Kolat also expects freshman Dylan Elmore, who was injured in practice, to push Sagi throughout the season.
Probably one of the best wrestlers on the team is sophomore Danny Wask, who went 25-13 in his first collegiate season and was one of only 26 true freshmen to qualify for the NCAA Tournament. After dropping a close 4-3 decision to 19th-ranked Luca Augustine against Pitt, Wask rebounded to win both of his bouts over the weekend.
Sophomore Daniel Williams (1-1) appears to have earned the starting role at 184, while highly touted freshman Payton Thomas has been really impressive at 197.
Thomas, who was nationally ranked coming out of high school in Oklahoma, earned a pin and a major decision against Drexel and North Carolina, respectively.
After last season, heavyweight looked as if it was going to be a strength for the Midshipmen with Jamier Ferere coming off a 20-7 campaign while mainly backing up senior captain Grady Greiss. However, Ferere left the team, which left Kolat looking for some depth.
It turns out Kolat had a heavyweight unexpectedly walk into the wrestling room inside Lejeune Hall, former Navy football offensive lineman Alistair Larson, who was a sixth-place state placer at Woodridge High in Ohio.
“[Larson] decided he didn’t want to play football anymore and asked if he could join the team. He wasn’t on my radar at all so it’s a great find,” Kolat said.
Larson’s transition from college football to wrestling has been rough thus far as he’s lost all three matches. However, against North Carolina, the 6-foot-5, 285-pound junior was ahead 1-0 against No. 33 Aydin Guttridge before getting turned on his back in the third period and ultimately losing by a major decision.
The road does not get any easier for Larson and the Mids in general as they will travel to Ames, Iowa, to face the sixth-ranked Iowa State Cyclones on Friday before competing in the annual Navy Classic in Annapolis on Nov. 23.
“It’s not an easy schedule out of the gate, but I feel like we are going to get better as the season goes on,” Kolat said. “Our team is going to get battle tested.”