Heavyweight Youssif Hemida has a simple goal for his senior year: “National Champion. Nothing else.”
For the fourth straight season, he’ll be a bright spot on a Maryland wrestling team that just wants to avoid a winless Big Ten campaign. The Terps are 1-35 in Big Ten matches since joining the conference, and coach Kerry McCoy said he’s hoping for an improvement over last year.
Led by Hemida, the Terps return 16 wrestlers who competed in a dual meet last year, and with a more favorable schedule than they had last season, there are reasons to believe Hemida and McCoy can both accomplish their goals this year.
“We’re going to continue to build and continue to grow,” McCoy said. “The expectation is that we give everything we can to be the best team that we can be.”
Hemida is one of three seniors who made the NCAA championships last year and enters the season ranked in their weight classes. Hemida is the No. 4-ranked heavyweight, Ryan Diehl is the No. 16 141-pounder and Alfred Bannister is No. 19 in the 149-pound division.
Bannister finished fifth in the Big Ten last year, and McCoy believes the redshirt senior can make a big jump in his fifth year in College Park.
“We told him that we believe he can be a national champion,” McCoy said. “He just needs to believe it.”
Hemida, meanwhile, nearly became a world champion this weekend. The Mamaroneck, New York, native earned a silver medal at the U23 World Championships in Romania.
“I was reading something that said never chase two rabbits at once,” Hemida said before the competition. “So right now, I’m putting all my focus into winning a world title and then after that, a national championship.”
Once he begins the college season, the path to becoming NCAA champion will likely be a lot friendlier than in years past. Ohio State’s three-time national champion and 2016 Olympic gold medalist Kyle Snyder graduated, and Michigan’s Adam Coon, the two-time runner-up, has also left the college ranks.
Still, Hemida doesn’t expect anything to come easy, and as his No. 3 ranking shows, there is plenty of talent he’ll need to overcome.
“I’m always going to have to beat a good guy no matter what,” Hemida said. “Any year, anyone can win and I think I’m a contender.”
Hemida and the rest of the talented senior class will be joined by breakout candidates such as freshman 133-pounder Orion Anderson and redshirt junior 197-pounder David-Brian Whisler, who went 14-6 last season.
“[Whisler] competed with a lot of the best guys in the country last year,” McCoy said. “He’s got the talent and the ability. … We’re just hoping he flips that switch.”
McCoy’s squad won’t be facing Ohio State and Penn State this season, two teams that beat Maryland by a combined 92-6 last year and have the last four national championships between them.
Despite still competing in the conference that’s produced the national champions for the past 12 years and beat up on Maryland for the past four, having teams like Michigan State — the only Big Ten team to lose to the Terps since 2014 — on the schedule means McCoy’s hope for a step forward might be more than just wishful thinking.
“We believe we can get guys to the NCAA tournament, we believe we can get All-Americans,” McCoy said. “The number one thing is maximizing every day, having a purpose, getting better every day. If we do that, at the end of the year we’ll be where we need to be.”
