Arkansas Wrestle (All images via lrtrojans.com)
LITTLE ROCK – In just five years, Little Rock wrestling went from Pac-12 newcomers to dual meet champions. Winning four out of five dual meets and coming out on top in tiebreakers, the Trojans are the conference victors in duals for the 2023-24 season.
“You blink, and we’re here,” said head coach Neil Erisman. “We had goals and expectations to do things like this, and now that we’re here, it’s extremely satisfying. Just a lot of joy.”
“The coaching staff and I have a huge sense of gratefulness to the people that believed in us,” he continued. “To all the people that made it happen, from Mr. Hatcher, to the guys that started the program in year one not too long ago, to the people that hired us, to the people who continue to help us be successful, thank you. We have a lot of gratitude toward everyone.”
Our year. Our team.#LittleRocksTeam | #ROCKedUp pic.twitter.com/PJUlyHo8pT
— Little Rock Wrestling (@LittleRockWRES) February 19, 2024
Before this season, the only conference opponent that Little Rock wrestling had defeated was CSU-Bakersfield. This year, they went 4-1, dropping only one dual to Stanford. Stanford finished with a 3-2 record, falling to both Arizona State and Oregon State this weekend. While the Sun Devils also finished 4-1, their sole loss was to the Trojans, putting Little Rock on top.
Going into this year, the Trojans had only 9 team wins across four seasons of competition, with the most coming from last year’s five-win season. A month ago, Little Rock doubled the program’s single-season dual win record and kept on going. They sit at 14-5 with just one dual left on the slate as they look to conclude their first winning regular season in program history.
“This even being a possibility a few years ago seemed highly unlikely,” Coach Erisman admitted. “This looked like it was so far away and really just unattainable. It’s one thing to talk about these things and one thing to do it. Two years ago we won one dual. Now we’re Pac-12 dual meet champions.”
Sure, the Trojan staff recruited well, bringing in strong underclassmen like Nasir Bailey and Stephen Little, who have risen to top 10 in the country in their respective weight classes. But they also developed well, lifting upperclassmen like Joseph Bianchi, Tyler Brennan, Josiah Hill and Triston Wills and ones that have trudged through all the losses, to new heights. How did they do it?
“Hard work, belief, and trust in the process gets to you to this point,” concluded Coach Erisman. “I’ve said it when things were tough and I’m saying it now when things are great: God is good.”
For the latest information on Little Rock Wrestling, make sure to check out LRTrojans.com. You can also find the team on social media at @LittleRockWRES on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.
#LittleRocksTeam
