Weekly Weigh-Ins: Joe Langel
Oct 08 | Wrestling
ScarletKnights.com is pleased to announce a new weekly column dedicated to the wrestling program called Weekly Weigh-Ins. Each week leading up to the Scarlet vs. Black intersquad dual (Tuesday, Nov. 2), ScarletKnights.com will sit down with coaches and student-athletes for exclusive features and Q&A's. Additionally, Weekly Weigh-Ins will post exclusive video content to the RU wrestling social media pages of Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=117162087457) and Twitter (http://twitter.com/ruwrestling).
For this week's Weekly Weigh-In, ScarletKnights.com sat down with the RU 125-pound redshirt sophomore Joe Langel to discuss the first few weeks of practice, having the NCAAs in Philadelphia and his goals for the upcoming season.
ScarletKinghts.com:
Joe, you guys are about a month into the preseason, how's the squad looking?
Joe Langel:
We're looking tough. Everybody has been working hard. The guys have been coming and doing extra workouts. Some kids you wouldn't expect to be coming in have been, and clearly everyone is trying to get better right now.
ScarletKinghts.com:
You're one of nine guys that have prior NCAA experience on this team How does that help you coming into this season, knowing what it takes to get better?
Joe Langel:
I think the big thing is some of the guys maybe don't know what it is so we can show that and tell them about the work ethic. You can't come in here and expect to get by everyday and make it to the NCAA's. You'll really see the guys who have been there and how hard they work and how hard they push it. I think it will make the other guys on the team push it to that level too.
ScarletKinghts.com:
You're a Jersey guy, with the NCAA's being in Philly, how much is that an extra motivation factor not just for you but for the whole team?
Joe Langel:
I think it's a huge motivational factor because now it's like a home match for us. I know people that have been saying they got their tickets already, they're coming, and it's something that we will have a big standing there. Last year, we had seven guys make it, which was big, but now we want to have seven guys make it or even more and place now. Now we want to have people see that we're on the map. We're not just making it to NCAA's, but we are on the map and it will be good to do it because then we'll have a home crowd cheering for us.
ScarletKinghts.com:
As mentioned before, you are one of the guys that has been there before. Last year you upset the number 10 guy in your first match (at the NCAA Championship) and had a couple of close matches in your second two. Can you kind of say how much that motivates you, knowing how you can hang with some of the best?
Joe Langel:
It really does (motivate me). It motivates me because I know I was there, I know I could have placed. It just pushes you to work that much harder, because it stinks when you were so close and that it all just goes away from you. It just makes you realize, I need to push it that little extra bit. Whatever I can do to go to that next step, I'm going to do.
ScarletKinghts.com:
Finally, this is your sophomore year and now you're one of the people on this team that is being looked at as a top-10, top-15 guy in the country. How does that motivate you more to get to the All-America level?
Joe Langel:
It pushes you because you want it and you realize some people think (you can do). You want to move your ranking higher and also you want to prove your ranking. You don't want to go out and lose to kids that are ranked below you. I want to go out there and beat the number two kid, number one kid, number three kid. I don't want to go out and just get by beating the number 20 kid like last year when I was unranked. Now I want to go out there and push and I want to beat those top eight kids to prove that I should be there.
Visit RU wrestling on Twitter (http://twitter.com/ruwrestling) for the extended interview where Langel discusses his summer workouts and how training with fellow 125-pounder Vinny Dellefave makes him a better wrestler.
