This Cardinal rules
It would be too simplistic to say Jake Kallestad can whip opposing wrestlers in his sleep.
He requires some wake-up time before taking the mat.
North Idaho College coach Pat Whitcomb discovered as much at a tournament in Muskegon, Mich., last year. The arena was crowded and wrestlers didn’t have much space to hang out.
“Jake spent the day sleeping on the mat while the matches were going on,” Whitcomb recalled. “There were some tough kids there and I was going to wait for him to get beat and then I was going to chew his ass about sleeping and not being ready.
“He’d wake up about 10 minutes before his match, stretch and go out and win. He went against a stud from Michigan State in the semis and the kid didn’t even warm Jake up. Jake gets done and he goes back and takes a nap. He doesn’t get riled.”
That’s not completely true. Kallestad, who is capable of catching some Zs on NIC road trips in vans, buses or planes, does get riled up, despite his calm, soft-spoken exterior. And he was thoroughly riled up at himself a year ago when he found out he was academically ineligible for the second half of the season.
He was ranked No. 1 at 197 pounds at the time.
“That was one of the worst times I’ve ever gone through,” the sophomore from Belgrade, Mont., said. “It just felt like I let my team down and wasted a year of eligibility. It just wasn’t very much fun.”
How he handled the situation probably set the foundation for his success this season.
“It would probably have been easy to say, ‘I’m going home,’ or not go to practice,” Whitcomb said. “He was at practice the next day and goes through practices all semester and makes Evan (Mattingly, Kallestad’s replacement) tougher. That tells you about Jake’s character.”
So does this. Roughly midway through this season, Whitcomb asked Kallestad to move from 197 pounds, where he was ranked No. 1, to heavyweight (285-pound limit). The switch was necessary to get another quality wrestler into the lineup at 197.
Kallestad, despite being outweighed by as much as 75 pounds, accepted the challenge. He’s undefeated as a heavyweight and is ranked No. 1 heading into this weekend’s NJCAA Tournament in Rochester, Minn.
“I’m getting used to it,” Kallestad said. “It’s hard because it’s so hard to move those big guys around. If you shoot in, they’re just going to lay on you. You have to be a little bit more careful.”
Kallestad, a three-time Montana state champ, has made the transition because of his strength, Whitcomb said. “At 220 pounds, he’s as strong as you need to be.”
Kallestad originally signed with Missouri, but didn’t qualify academically. He came to NIC to join fellow Montanans Jeff Hedges (125 pounds) and Josh Erickson (165).
Kallestad has been contacted by several four-year schools, but he understands that this weekend will factor heavily in his recruitment. That adds pressure, but it beats sitting at home, as Kallestad did during last year’s national tournament.
“I’d almost rather have a team title than an individual title,” Kallestad said, “just because everything begins with our team. But I still want to have one of those individual titles.”