Central Michigan University Athletics
Healthy Again, Oliver Recharged For 2017-18 Wrestling Season
10/26/2017 12:00:00 AM | Wrestling
Andy Sneddon, CMUChippewas.com
MOUNT PLEASANT, Mich. - The worst of it can bring out the best in some.
Whether that's the case for Central Michigan's Justin Oliver will play itself out over the next five months and beyond.
One thing is clear, however: Oliver enters his junior season with the Chippewa wrestling program recharged and with a clear focus for having endured the past 16 or so months.
Oliver and the Chippewas will debut on Friday (7 p.m.) with the annual Maroon and Gold Intrasquad Dual Meet at McGuirk Arena. Admission is free. CMU opens the season at the Michigan State Open on Sunday, Nov. 5.
Oliver's sophomore season ended with a loss in the blood round at 149 pounds at the 2017 NCAA Championships. He fell on a 12-2 major decision to Solomon Chisko of Virginia Tech at Scottrade Center in St. Louis.
After earning All-America honors as a freshman with a seventh-place finish the previous year, Oliver had come up one match shy of the podium. He finished 32-9 which, at the end of the day, is nothing to sneeze at.
But wrestling is like everything else in life: you're graded on the curve.
His dark journey through his sophomore year began just months after his freshman season. In June, 2016, while working out at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Oliver suffered a torn meniscus in his right knee.
He had sustained the same injury to the same knee while coming through the program at Davison High School, a wrestling hotbed.
Surgery followed in July, and when Oliver returned to the mat, he tried to make up for lost time and, because of soreness in the right knee, began to rely more on his left leg. The result was a sprain in the left knee just before the start of the season.
He wrestled through the pain because, well, that's what wrestlers do.
"It made me kind of develop bad habits as far as finishing shots," Oliver said. "I wasn't driving up like I should have been because of the pain that was there. Not as many solid attacks with finishes."
A lot of wrestlers would kill for a 32-9 finish and a 3-2 run at the NCAA Championships, battling through on two gimpy knees while, as a returning All-American, he took every opponent's best shot.
"It was more of a learning experience than the year I was All-American to be completely honest because of the fact that I had to redevelop my mindset for every match to adapt to what (my opponent) was doing," Oliver said.
He took time off the mat after the '16-17 season to heal, then returned to the wrestling room this summer, often sparring with CMU assistant Ryan Cubberly, a former Chippewa wrestler.
With two healthy knees, Oliver was able to work out the bad habits he had acquired over the previous 12 months. The time also served him well both mentally and emotionally, affording him the opportunity to digest his sophomore season.
And, look ahead.
"Not only the successes, but the pitfalls that happened throughout the process of it, losing to people I don't think I should have lost to (helped with the growth)," he said. "Looking back, it helped me develop a mindset to go into every match wanting to wrestle the same match, the way I want to wrestle, do what I do, and not do things, change things, because of who I'm wrestling."
Tom Borrelli, who is in his 27th season in charge of the Chippewa program, has noted a clear change, an emotional growth in Oliver, who enters the season ranked first in the Mid-American Conference and seventh nationally by WIN Magazine.
"I see a big difference in him, just mentally this preseason as opposed to where he was last year," Borrelli said. "I think part of it was the injury, part of it was learning how to handle the pressure of success. That's a big thing. Everybody's shooting for you now. They know who you are.
"When you go through those types of things you kind of learn what's important to you and you can filter out all the other distractions."
Players Mentioned
