ISU wrestling coach Kevin Jackson doesn’t know who decides on national rankings, nor does he care.

After finishing the 2012-2013 with a No. 11 ranking in the final poll, the ISU wrestling team heads into the 2013 slotted at No. 8, sharing the top-10 spot with Wisconsin.

“I think that’s nice for our fans to see us moving in the right direction, moving back into competing for national championships, but we don’t pay much attention to the rankings,” Jackson said. “I’m not sure who does the rankings, I’m not sure how well they know wrestling at all. Rankings are rankings.”

Complimenting the team ranking are five individual rankings, four of which land in the top 10.

Kyven Gadson, senior in child, adult and family services, and Michael Moreno, senior in liberal studies, both All-Americans in 2013, head into the season with a top-3 ranking. Moreno, ranked No. 4 at 165, finished with a 31-10 record in route to a sixth place finishing at the NCAA tournament, while Gadson, ranked No. 3 at 197, finished last season with a 30-5 record and took home sixth place also.

Tanner Weatherman, at 174 pounds, is ranked at No.9 with 184-pounder Boaz Beard ranked at No. 7. Luke Goettl rounds out the individual rankings at No. 19 for the 149 pound weight class.

Moreno echoed Jackson’s comments in regards to the preseason rankings, saying those who made the rankings might want to double check.

“We’re a wrestling school, it’s always been that way,” Moreno said. “We’re No. 8 in the country and it is only going to get better. I think we’re under-ranked. I don’t think it’s right, I think it’s a typo.”

Weatherman’s unfinished business

Tanner Weatherman started his 2013 NCAA tournament campaign with a bang, knocking off the No. 10 seed Daniel Yates of Michigan and No. 7 Jordan Blanton in consecutive rounds.

With just one round before the semi-finals, Weatherman fell to No. 2 Matthew Brown, of Penn State. In the wrestle backs, Weatherman fell to Cody Walters of Ohio, just one win short of All-America status. 

“Tanner has all the ability in the world, his talent is off the chart,” Jackson said. “Tanner knows he should have been an All-American last year and I think he’s going to wrestle accordingly [this season].”

That day, Gadson saw something in Weatherman that he hadn’t seen before, something that still resonates heading into the 2013 season.

“That was the only time I’ve seen some emotion from Tanner,” Gadson said. “He doesn’t usually show much on the mat and I believe that definitely drove him. You can see it in his eyes when he’s lifting and he was definitely much more of a presence this summer.”

Since the end of that match, Weatherman has been focusing on one thing: the future.

“[I] just got to get rid of the past. There’s nothing I can do about it now,” Weatherman said. “I need to focus on what I can do now in order to prevent that from happening; come and stay focused in my drills, stay focused on top and bottom positions and just preparing for every match in the same way. “