Redshirt Long is Learning the Ropes

AMES, Iowa ? The Iowa State wrestling team is ranked No. 2 in the country but is thoroughly supported by enough wrestlers to form three more high-caliber squads. ISU has 11 true freshmen on the wrestling team, along with eight redshirt freshmen.

Andrew Long is in his first year with the Cyclones after capping off a stellar prep career for Creston with a 175-13 record. Long was a three-time Iowa state champion (2006 ? 103 pounds; 2007 ? 112 pounds; 2008 ? 125 pounds). He is redshirting in his initial year in the ISU wrestling room.

Redshirting gives many incoming student-athletes the chance to acclimate themselves to college athletics and an opportunity to get a year of studies under their belt before jumping into competition.

Long is especially looking to benefit from his redshirt year.

“It is good to see how well each person improves as an individual and the areas of technique that each wrestler picks up,” Long said. “It is good to see that steady development.”

Wrestlers being withheld from competition still have opportunities to get on the mat, although unofficially. Matches wrestled as an unattached competitor do not count towards the individual's career record. Long wrestled unattached in the Midlands Championships in Evanston, Ill.

“The Midlands were good,” Long said. “But they didn't go how I had planned. That just shows me what I need to do really improve and take those extra strides. I want to expand the score next year and beat up on some of those kids.”

Long wrestled to a 1-2 record at the Midlands, including a 16-0 technical fall (7:00) of Northern Illinois's T.J. Wunnicke. Long will be given chances to prove himself again thanks to the expertise of Iowa State's coaching staff.

“If they see something that is wrong in our technique or something that we can improve, they speak up to us quickly about it,” Long said. “They aren't shy to tell us that there is a better way to do something.”

There is already one set of brothers helping guide Cyclone wrestling with their younger sibling on the team. Those are the members of the Sanderson family, but the freshman Long is happy to have the same type of support from his older brother, Dylan Long.

The elder Long was the 2003 141-pound NCAA runner-up for Northern Iowa and qualified all four years for the NCAA Championships. He is in his third year on the ISU coaching staff and is currently a graduate assistant and academic coordinator. Long's younger brother knows his brother has the experience necessary to help him along his journey.

“He's my brother and a coach; you've got to look at it both ways,” Long said. “We get along though. He's here to help and keeps on me about my schoolwork, which is what I usually have disagreements with him about, but he just wants me to stay on task.”

Staying on task in the classroom and on the mat will be Long's goal in his career at ISU.

“I want to leave here a decorated veteran Cyclone, in the end,” Long said. “I hope all my future accomplishments can give me that status.”