Coaching staff on Kanen Storr’s transfer

It was last Saturday when head coach Kevin Dresser commented on Storr’s departure from Iowa State on Takedown Radio where he indicated that Storr had been tampered with from Storr’s ex-coaches.

“I kind of feel bad for Kanen. I’ve always been one, I lay it on the line and tell it how it is, sometimes I get in trouble for that,” Dresser said. “He was being tampered with…by some former coaches, I don’t think he got a chance to give my guys a chance. That’s the untold story there.”

Then Ben Visser of the Cedar Rapids Gazette reported that Virginia was being investigated for the alleged illegal contact with Storr with Iowa State requesting that Virginia reveal phone records from an assistant coach. It was also reported that an NCAA penalty is “forthcoming”.

Former Iowa State assistant coaches Trent Paulson and Travis Paulson are both assistants at Virginia.

Travis Paulson was an assistant at Iowa State for eight years and Trent Paulson for three. Both coached Iowa State’s middleweights.

Travis was a strong recruiter at Iowa State and Iowa State’s 2016 class, which Storr belonged to, was ranked No. 3 in the nation.

Both Zadick at the press conference and Dresser on Takedown Radio eluded that Storr never had the opportunity to give the Dresser lead coaching staff a chance.

Ian Parker steps up at 141

“He’s probably the best guy for the weight and it’s not like there was a step back for us,” Zadick said.

At 133-pounds this season, Parker accumulated a 3-3 record during duals this season while splitting starting duties with Markus Simmons down the stretch.

It was clear that Parker struggled at 133-pounds, but the transition to 141-pounds has Parker earning wins over two-time national champion Dean Heil from Oklahoma State and Oklahoma’s Mike Longo.

Zadick noted that Parker has a newfound energy during matches that he lacked when cutting down to 133-pounds and that his mindset helped put him over the top against Heil.

“You don’t go and just get lucky and knock off a two time national champ,” Zadick said. “There has to be an unbelievable strong mind for when you step on the mat.”

Sam Colbray’s ceiling

The coaching staff and Zadick are high on the talent of Colbray even comparing his ability to that of Kyle Snyder from Ohio State and Zain Retherford from Penn State. Both Zain and Retherford are two-time National Champions.

“It’s on him, but he could take college wrestling by storm,” Zadick said.

Zadick believes that while Colbray is taking steps in the right direction he needs to totally commit himself instead of taking the “path of least resistance” if he ever wants to achieve that level of performance.

Jarrett Degen’s development

Sunday’s match against Boo Lewallen was a sort of benchmark for his development this season as a wrestler.

Earlier in the season Degen lost against Lewallen 13-7, and on Sunday Degen fell short again losing 11-9 in sudden victory.

Despite the loss, Zadick is impressed with Degen’s development.

“He’s tightened up the funk of his wrestling,” Zadick said. “At the beginning of the year he was doing a lot of that funk that was getting him in trouble and now he is limiting it to now that when he does do it it’s to his advantage.”

Having already been banged up this season, Degen blacked out while bridging to avoid a pin during the Oklahoma dual which impressed Zadick how Degen continued to compete through that match.

“There’s not a lot of wrestlers that you can throw on the mat that will literally let their head pop off of their shoulders not to get pinned,” Zadick said.

Recently, Degen has been able to find a stride of confidence as he climbed to a 7-0 record after the Las Vegas Invitational, but lost both of his matches over the weekend.

“It didn’t set him back mentally,” Zadick said.