All-American

When he was in high school, Tyson Hurst’s coach used to take his team to Coeur d’Alene to watch North Idaho College wrestle.

Watching the 13-time national champions made the West Valley 152-pounder want to be a Cardinal, to be a part of the storied program.

“I really wanted to be part of it all,” Hurst said. “This is where I wanted to wrestle.”

Hurst, wrestling at 157 pounds, capped his junior college career last month with a fifth-place finish at the National Junior College Athletic Association National Championships in Rochester, Minn. Hurst earned All-America honors.

As a team, the Cardinals placed second at the tournament for the second consecutive season.

“I came into the season with the goal of reaching the national tournament, becoming an All-American and helping my team do well there,” Hurst said. “I feel good about how I did. I think that was the toughest tournament I’ve ever been involved with.”

Hurst opened his national tournament by scoring a 3-2 decision, but dropped a heart-breaker in the quarterfinals, 2-1.

“I think if it had been more of a one-sided decision it would have been easier to handle,” he said. “But when you lose 2-1, you go back and think about what you could have done differently.

“To be that close in the quarterfinals, you spend a lot of time thinking about what might have been. I was that close to making the semifinals and guaranteeing myself being an All-America.”

The sophomore rebounded with back-to-back pins. After a 16-4 loss, Hurst bounced back to score an 11-5 decision to earn the fifth-place trophy.

“I’m not the kind of guy who goes in thinking I’m going to win it all,” he said. “I’ve never thought like that. After I lost, I just had to go back to my original goals, and I was able to come back and accomplish what I set out to accomplish.”

Hurst knows about championship tournaments. As a prep wrestler with a career record of 108-33, he was a three-time state placer at West Valley, earning a third-place trophy at 152 pounds his senior season, a second-place trophy at 145 as a junior to go with a seventh-place finish at the same weight as a sophomore.

Those three trophies did not make him a standout in the NIC wrestling room, however.

“Every guy in there, wrestling every day in practice, was a former state placer – most of them multiple times,” Hurst said. “This really is a whole different level.”

For one thing, Hurst said, collegiate wrestling is quicker and more aggressive.

“I had to learn to shoot more,” he said. “And you have to be faster on your feet.

“But technique-wise, we don’t do a whole lot that’s different from what we learned in high school.”

Hurst said collegiate wrestlers are better able to maintain their weight.

“We work so hard in the practice room that we don’t have to do a whole lot to make weight,” he said. “We’re only in there for an hour and a half every day, but we work so hard that we don’t have to do much else in order to stay on weight.”

Placing at the national tournament should allow Hurst to continue his collegiate career.

“I haven’t had anything definite, but it should open a few doors somewhere,” he said. “I definitely want to keep wrestling.”