Consistency is Key for Gallick

AMES, Iowa ? It is often said that consistency wins championships. Affirming that phrase, Iowa State junior 141-pounder Nick Gallick is on a steady course this season. Gallick owns an 18 match winning streak against collegiate competition.

Focus and determination can be strong assets to a wrestler as the long season progresses. Luckily for Gallick and his Cyclone teammates, they are learning from a former ISU wrestler who never lost his focus or a match. Head coach Cael Sanderson went a remarkable 159-0 in college on his way to four NCAA titles and Gallick knows the Cyclone wrestling room is a great place to improve because of Sanderson's experience.

Nick Gallick Photo Album
Photo Album

“It is a great atmosphere in here, but it can get intense too,” Gallick said. “Everyone has good personalities and we mesh really well. When there is work to be done, we get it done. When there is time to have fun, we have fun.”

Gallick holds a 24-2 overall record in the 2008-09 season, a year after finishing fifth at the NCAA Championships in St. Louis. The intense workouts in the ISU wrestling room are a factor, but Gallick's grit has set him apart as one of the top 141-pounders in the country. The Tucson, Ariz. native is ranked No. 3 overall.

“I go out and wrestle every match with the same mentality,” Gallick said. “I push myself to score points and I come in to practice every day with the same attitude I have out on the mat.”

Winning against the best competition during the season can give a competitor an edge when the postseason arrives. Gallick has edged four opposing 141-pounders who were ranked within the top 15 by Intermat. In what is considered an exhibition at the NWCA All-Star Classic in Columbus, Ohio, Gallick knocked off the defending 141-pound NCAA champion, J Jaggers of Ohio State, 6-2.

“I try to score points and not worry about winning or losing,” Gallick said. “I am just preparing myself for the NCAA Championships. To win the NCAAs, you have to be consistent, and that is what I've been training myself for this season.”

Iowa State wrestling fans knew the Gallick name before the Cyclone's current 141-pounder could get out of his redshirt year. Older brother Nate Gallick won the NCAA 141-pound title his senior year, which was the younger Gallick's first year in the wrestling room.

“What (Nate) did was great, but I want to do better,” Gallick said. I want to win the NCAAs twice. I have two more chances. That is what I want. I want to be the national champ this year and next year. What Nate did his senior year was awesome, but I want to make my own path here and one-up him a little bit.”

Sibling rivalry isn't the case for the Gallick brothers. There might not be a better person to learn from than a friend that has always been there.

“I have a lot of respect for Nate.” Nick Gallick said. “We are very close and talk pretty much every day. We are as close as brothers can be.”

Friday marks a return for the older Gallick brother to Hilton Coliseum. The former NCAA champion is an assistant coach for UT-Chattanooga. The Mocs are led by yet another familiar face to Cyclone wrestling fans. Chris Bono, a 150-pound NCAA champion in 1996 for ISU, runs the Moc wrestling program. The older Gallick is in his second year on staff.

“It is a little weird, but I've wrestled the Chattanooga 141-pounder this year and last year and (Nate) didn't sit in the corner against me,” Gallick said. “It's still different with him being on the opposite team now, but he is still a Cyclone at heart. I'd much rather see him in my corner, but that is the way it is right now.”

This weekend the Cyclones get Chattanooga at home before wrestling at Missouri on Sunday in Columbia, Mo. Gallick will be looking to continue his winning ways. For the ISU junior, that starts with staying in control and pushing the action.

“In a match, whatever the pace is, I want it to be because I dictated it and I set it that way,” Gallick said. “That is something I always strive for every time I go out there. That is kind of how my style is.”

The ISU wrestling room is an intense place because the current No. 2 team in the country practices there. Scrapes and scratches occur, along with bloody noses. The black eye that Gallick currently sports can't be attributed to friendly competition though.

“(Jon) Reader hit me,” Gallick said. “Okay, I'm actually kidding. It's from the UNI match. Somehow I got a black eye. It's not really going away at all, so that is kind of interesting. I must have hit his head or elbow.”

Gallick, along with the rest of the ISU squad, will be working towards emulating that black eye and not going away as the Big 12 and NCAA Championships rapidly approach.

Players Mentioned

Nick Gallick

Nick Gallick

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