MOREHEAD CITY — Skyler Oxford kept falling just short as a sophomore.
His junior season is different.
The West Carteret wrestler earned a 120-pound division title Saturday in the Swiss Bear tournament.
“It felt really good,” Oxford said. “I was happy to finally get a gold medal, so it’s still new to me, but I like the feeling.”
He entered the final facing a formidable foe. In two previous matchups with Havelock’s Seth Bliss, Oxford found himself on his back early.
“I’ve gone against him since my freshman year, and I’ve always gotten pinned, in the first period,” he said. “It was not even close. He bullied me.”
The 120-pound final provided a different outcome with Oxford pinning Bliss (11-2) in 2:35 to earn the gold medal.
“It was crazy,” he said. “I didn’t expect that. My coaches motivated me, told me what to hit before the match, told me what to hit during the match. It just worked out perfectly. That was something else. There was nothing like it, seeing how my teammates reacted, how my family reacted. It’s nothing I could explain.”
Sporting a 9-1 record and beating a rival he had never bested before has the West wrestler brimming with confidence.
“I feel like I’m way further ahead than I thought I was,” Oxford said. “I can’t wait to see where I go and the team goes from here.”
He nearly came up empty again, however, after struggling to get past the semifinal where he toughed out an 11-8 victory over D.H. Conley’s Christopher Bonner (14-2).
“That was a rough match,” Oxford said. “He would not go to his back. I looked at the coaches, they told me what to hit, and I got through it.”
Oxford reached consequential matches last season, but they didn’t end the way he wanted.
In the Coastal Conference tournament 113-pound final he suffered a pin in 3:32 to Swansboro’s Isaac Gawronski. In the 3A regional, he aimed to qualify for the state tournament, but South Johnston’s Collin Jones ended that dream in the quarterfinal with a pin in 47 seconds.
“I would get right there, then I would fall,” Oxford said. “I got a really bad seed at regionals, went up against the top seed in the semis, and I went up against a stud in conference. It was just a rough series of events. Now my teammates are pushing me, my coaches are motivating me, and it’s looking good.”
Adding salt to the wound, he saw his best friend, Joshua Knipe, qualify for the state tournament and leave him behind.
“It was rough,” he said. “It just gave me more motivation to fight harder.”
Knipe joined him at the Swiss Bear with a title in the 195-pound class.
Those late-season losses had Oxford hanging his head entering the offseason, but he put in the effort to get better after his coaches told him he could do big things in the sport.
“I worked hard,” he said. “This year I’ve worked really hard in practice compared to my freshman and sophomore year.”
This season then quickly tested his optimism after getting pinned in 3:48 by West Brunswick’s Marquis Shaw in the 120-pound final at the Patriots’ annual Beach Brawl.
“That was a tough one,” he said. “That kid was strong and he knew how to roll, and I freaked out. I wasn’t in the right mindset. After the match, I asked my coach what I could I have done better, and we worked on it. I was more positive.”
Oxford reported his improvement hasn’t been a result of increased strength or size but by reaching a higher level of technical skill.
“I used to just hit things and hoped it worked,” he said. “Now I hit my moves, and I’m confident about it.”
Oxford starting wrestling in sixth grade after watching WWE and receiving encouragement to try out for the sport by his friend and former Havelock wrestler Jamie Duffy.
“I loved it,” he said. “I was a natural to it, and it stuck. I wasn’t the best, but I knew what I was doing.”
Right from the start, he knew he wanted to wrestle as long as he could, meaning continuing his career in college. It was about the same time he started to take his academic work seriously.
“I didn’t start doing well until seventh grade,” said Oxford who sports a 3.37 GPA. “I told my mom I dreamed of wrestling in college, and she told me I had to get my grades up, so I started taking it seriously. Wrestling is the main reason I try hard in school.”
His dream schools are Appalachian State or Western Carolina, but Oxford said he’ll go anywhere that will allow him to keep wrestling.
“Wrestling is wrestling,” he said. “I’ll love it wherever I go.”
Here are a few of Oxford’s favorite things, as well as his ideal groups with which to eat dinner and survive a zombie apocalypse, and the five items he would take with him on a deserted island:
Favorite Movie: “Goodfellas.”
Favorite TV Show: “Survivor.”
Favorite Band/Artist: Nirvana.
Favorite Book: “To Kill a Mockingbird” by Harper Lee.
Favorite Team: New England Patriots.
Favorite Athlete: Kyle Dake.
Favorite Vacation: Outer Banks.
Favorite Hobby: Shooting guns.
Favorite Subject: History.
Favorite Quote: “Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.” – Confucius.
Favorite Food: Anything breakfast.
Favorite Drink: Smoothie from Smoothie King.
Favorite Restaurant: IHOP.
Favorite Season: Wrestling season.
Favorite Sports Memory: “When I beat Seth and heard the crowd get hype.”
Favorite Teacher: Mr. Brian Roberts.
Favorite Sport: Wrestling.
Favorite Pre-Game/Post-Game Ritual: Warm up by getting in my stance and then get Joshua Knipe to stretch my upper body out, and going to IHOP with the entire team after matches.
Favorite Website/App: Track Wrestling.
Favorite Follow on Social Media: “The Wrestling Club” on Facebook.
Ideal Dinner Guest List: Dan Gable, Kyle Dake, Spencer Lee, Jordan Burroughs and Cary Kolat.
Ideal Group to Survive a Zombie Apocalypse: Joshua Knipe, John Shultz, Cole Reynolds, Dylan Shirley, Hiroki Cruz and coach Eric DeGiule.
Items For A Deserted Island: Fire starter, a pot, chickens, rice and gallons of water.
(0) comments
Welcome to the discussion.
Log In
As a privately owned web site, we reserve the right to edit or remove comments that contain spam, advertising, vulgarity, threats of violence, racism, anti-Semitism, or personal/abusive/condescending attacks on other users or goading them. The same applies to trolling, the use of multiple aliases, or just generally being a jerk. Enforcement of this policy is at the sole discretion of the site administrators and repeat offenders may be blocked or permanently banned without warning.