LEWISBURG -- When Dan Wirnsberger started looking for wrestlers to jumpstart the Bucknell wrestling program, he wasn't very picky, especially that first year. With the program dormant for three years and Wirnsberger put in charge of the rebuild, he was looking for two things: A pulse and good grades.
Seriously.
He wanted as many wrestlers as he could get in the first class in 2006. And while Wirnsberger swung and missed a couple of times, he knocked a couple out of the park, and they have been the backbone of the BU rebuild.
For the first time since the program was re-established four years ago, there will be seniors wrestling for Bucknell. And make no mistake about it, guys like Dave Marble, Andy Rendos and Shane Riccio are the heart and soul of this team.
Those seniors and the rest of the Bison (2-2) will be put to the test this afternoon in a showdown with top-ranked Iowa, the unbeaten defending national champions who enter Sojka Pavilion riding a school-record 43-match dual-win streak.
There are five seniors on the BU roster this year, and four of them are expected to be in the lineup for the tri-meet against the Hawkeyes and Rutgers. Among those are returning All-American Rendos (165 pounds), Marble (133) and Riccio (174), as well as Brantley Hooks. They carry impressive and lengthy résumés, as you would expect for guys who have been starting for three or four years.
"We had to have the right kids, those that fit the Bucknell model," said Wirnsberger. "But those kids took a leap of faith, really jumped off a cliff when they came here.
"These seniors define this program."
Rendos became the school's fourth All-American last year, finishing fifth at nationals in his third trip there. He enters today's duals ranked sixth in the nation, while Riccio is ranked ninth and Marble 13th. Unbeaten junior Kevin LeValley is 12-0 at 149.
Rendos, Marble and Riccio are among the winningest wrestlers in school history. Rendos' 96 career wins is third, while Marble and Riccio are tied for sixth with 88 victories each. Rendos, out of Brockway, is ninth on the school's all-time pin list with 22.
They were all stars in high school, winning multiple state titles. They could have gone to a lot of schools with more established programs. But they decided to come to Bucknell, Wirnsberger said, because they understood they could be part of something special, blazing a trail for a program to return to prominence after it was left for dead.
"They were smart about it," said Wirnsberger. "They understood you can get a world-class education and get the opportunity to be in the starting lineup right away while wrestling some of the best competition in the country."
The opportunity to get on the mat right away is something Wirnsberger still uses to this day when he recruits, and one that has obviously worked when you consider some of the names who have come to Lewisburg in recent years, including Derek Reber and Cory Lear, two local scholastic grapplers from Lewisburg and Benton, respectively.
"You can go to Cornell or Penn State or Lehigh and see what happens, or you can come here and be our guy right away," said Wirnsberger. "We still aren't three or four deep at every weight, so we have a lot of competition."
As much as any college sport, wrestling is about ego, Wirnsberger said. But nothing can crush your soul like wrestling, particularly at the Divison I level, where four-time state champions sometimes don't even make the lineup for two or three years.
"It really is an ego thing, and these guys, the seniors, looked at everything and saw this was a good fit for them," said Wirnsberger.
"They were the right guys at the right time for our program, and they've done a heck of a job."
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