As one of the members of Kevin Jackson’s 2010 recruiting class, Luke Goettl had high expectations.

After losing his first four matches following a month-long absence from a knee injury, the redshirt freshman 141-pounder has won seven of his last 10 matches — including a sixth-place finish at the Midlands Championships in late December.

“You’ve got to find it within yourself,” Goettl said of his toughened mentality. “It took me a while, but I think I found it.”

Jackson said after Goettl’s 3-2 loss to Minnesota’s Nick Dardanes — who was ranked 10th at the time — on Dec. 9, Goettl began to experience a turnaround in how he competed on the mat.

“Going out there and wrestling with him and keeping it so close and being right there to win it just gave me a lot of confidence,” Goettl said. “Since then, I haven’t been nervous.”

The newfound confidence for Goettl also came before he became fully healthy for competition.

“He wasn’t 100 percent at that time, but he just went out there and he battled,” Jackson said. “As he continued to get healthier, he started feeling better about the way he felt in matches.”

At the Midlands, Goettl defeated No. 2 Zack Kemmerer of Penn and No. 10 Billy Ashnault of Rutgers en route to a spot in the semifinals of the 141-pound championship bracket.

Despite going on to drop to a sixth-place finish after three straight losses — all to ranked opponents — Goettl’s mentality has not waned since.

“Once you start getting some wins versus some quality competition, which he did at Midlands, it even gave him a higher level of confidence,” Jackson said. “Right now, he’s just wrestling with a lot of confidence and doing what he’s supposed to do.”

Mayfield on the mend

Max Mayfield has returned to training after sitting out from a concussion he sustained on Nov. 6, Jackson said Tuesday.

Concussions are not uncommon in college athletics, but Jackson said Mayfield’s concussion was one of the worst he had ever seen.

“For the first month, I was pretty out of it,” Mayfield said. “I had broken my nose at the same time, so I actually had to have surgery on my nose. I was just getting headaches all the time, not feeling right every day, so it was kind of tough getting through school that last part of the semester.”

Mayfield said he had to take a lot of time off to make sure he was ready to compete again for the cardinal and gold.

Jackson said Mayfield’s return to training, however, has been met with some nausea and dizziness as a part of the concussion.

“In terms of being healthy and being in shape, I’m probably at about 80 percent right now,” Mayfield said.

With Goettl’s recent success at 141 pounds, Mayfield said he and the coaching staff have discussed having him competing at 149, but nothing is set in stone as of now.

As far as his preference between 141 and 149 pounds, Mayfield said he likes both for different reasons.

“At 141, I feel a lot bigger and stronger than [my opponent],” Mayfield said. “But at 149, that’s not to say I’m not just as strong as the other guys, but I feel a little quicker than them.”