After a year off and a transfer, native son claims another NCAA crown
By Jim Hague
Mocco had decided to take a year off from collegiate wrestling to concentrate on the international style, with the hopes of qualifying for the Olympics. So he left the University of Iowa, where he had won the 2003 NCAA heavyweight championship with an undefeated season, to spend the entire year getting ready for the Olympics. The dream died in the semifinals. Only two heavyweight wrestlers went to Athens, and Mocco came in third.
Mocco returned from the Olympic Trials as a college wrestler without a home. The University of Iowa didn’t welcome Mocco back. They were upset that he took a year off and left them in the lurch.
So Mocco had to transfer to Oklahoma State University in Stillwater, Okla., to get a chance to return to the pinnacle of collegiate wrestling.
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“I had a lot to prove to everyone who felt like I made the wrong decision to take the year off and try for the Olympics, “Mocco said. “I knew what I had to do. People were telling me that I shouldn’t take the year off. People were telling me that I should switch schools. I put myself in a tough situation, but I had to make the most of it.”
Last weekend, Mocco made the most of his new scenario. Now competing for Oklahoma State, the 23-year-old Mocco won his second NCAA national championship, defeating Cole Konrad of Minnesota, 3-1, in overtime, completing an undefeated season at 36-0.
While it had certainly been a great feeling to win his first national title two years ago, a year after going to the NCAA finals and losing by a point there, winning his second national crown brought a sense of redemption for Mocco.
“It was a big relief to get the win there, “Mocco said in a phone interview from his Stillwater apartment, where he was in the middle of taking exams. “It’s a great feeling getting this one, an amazing feeling. I went through a lot of adversity, changing schools and everything. But I wanted to win it and silence everybody. I was really fired up for this season, and I was excited about getting back to the national championship again. Winning just capped a great season.”
Overall team title
Not only did Mocco win the individual heavyweight (285 pounds) title, but Oklahoma State also captured the overall team title, easily defeating Michigan by 70 points to lock up the school’s amazing 33rd NCAA team crown.
One of Mocco’s high school teammates at Blair Academy in Blairstown, N.J., Zach Esposito, also won a national title, also wrestling for Oklahoma State. Esposito won the 149-pound national crown.
Mocco said that he went to Oklahoma State because veteran coach John Smith has been more in tune with training their wrestlers with the international style. Mocco still is striving for the shot at the 2008 Olympics in Bejing, China.
“That’s my ultimate goal, “Mocco said. “Being at Oklahoma State is a better fit for me, because they prepare me for international competition.”
Not only is Mocco a brilliant athlete, but he is also a stellar student. He was recently given the Oklahoma State Award of Excellence and the school’s honor roll, because Mocco posted a 4.0 grade point average in education.
Mocco also received a congratulatory letter for his academic achievements from David Schmidly, the president at Oklahoma State.
When Mocco was a student at Blair Academy, he also received an award for his academic prowess, called the Stephen Curry Award of Academic Excellence.
“It’s a great school and I’m part of a great program, “Mocco said. “I’m happy to be a part of it.”
107 and 3
Mocco said that he pays no attention to records, so the fact that he’s now 107-3 as a college wrestler – and when you consider his high school career, he now owns a gaudy 320-4 mark as a scholastic high school and collegiate wrestler – bears no meaning to him.
“I can’t look at it any other way than I have to keep getting better, “Mocco said. “There’s always a higher standard to set. If I feel satisfied, then I’m finished. I have to keep trying at everything I do. Only the losses motivate you to train harder.”
Mocco has now won an amazing 70 straight matches as a college wrestler, going undefeated in both his sophomore and junior years. He became only the eighth New Jersey native to ever win two NCAA championships, and will shoot to become the only product of the Garden State to have three national titles next year.
“We had three national champions from New Jersey this year (Iselin native Esposito and Joe Dubuque of the University of Iowa and Glen Ridge being the others), so this proves that New Jersey is a great wrestling state, “Mocco said. “I’m very proud to be from New Jersey.”
And Mocco makes no bones about his affection for his hometown.
“I’m very proud to be a product of North Bergen, “Mocco said. “I felt it’s a great place to be from, and there have been a lot of great athletes to come from North Bergen.”
However, other than James J. Braddock winning the heavyweight championship of the world in 1935, the two national titles won by Mocco have to stand as the crowning achievements by any North Bergen athlete.
Mocco is not about to rest on his laurels. He will continue to wrestle on the international level, competing in the U.S. Open Wrestling Championships in Las Vegas next month and the World Team Trials in Indianapolis later this summer, with the eye on China and the 2008 Olympics.
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