Redshirting is common in the Maryland wrestling room.
Nearly half the roster has a redshirt designation next to their school year. It’s not just commonplace among young wrestlers entering the program, but also for established starters.
For 174-pound redshirt senior Dominic Solis, redshirting brought early benefits. It allowed him to wrestle at a less physically demanding weight class and improve his wrestling skills.
“He’s learned how to get himself out of some trouble spots,” coach Alex Clemsen said. “He’s learned how to have a little better defense and hand fight.”
[Maryland wrestling wins first 2 duals over Gardner-Webb, The Citadel]
Solis entered this season off a redshirt 2024 campaign despite having three years of experience. Clemsen made the decision to redshirt Solis because of one person — No. 15 197-pounder Branson John.
“If we knew Branson was going to be able to double jump weight classes, we probably wouldn’t have wrestled him last year,” Clemsen said. “We probably would have redshirted him, but we didn’t have a crystal ball.”
Solis welcomed the opportunity to develop. The redshirt season prevented Solis from competing with Maryland, but he could compete in open tournaments. Those competitions came with an additional benefit as Solis moved from the 174-pound class to 184.
The transition made weight cutting easier for Solis, who spent most of last season around 187 pounds. The lack of weight cutting gave Solis an added sense of freedom and allowed him to focus on wrestling skills.
The shift in weight class also meant more time wrestling with No. 5 184-pounder Jaxon Smith during practice. One of the skills Solis worked on was his single-leg takedowns.
[Inside Branson John’s offseason regimen for Maryland wrestling]
“I’m pretty good at finishing a single leg, but there’s going to be top 10, top 15 wrestlers that I’m going to be wrestling against that are also just as tough,” Solis said. “So my finishing from a single leg has gotten a lot better because of wrestling Jaxon.”
It translated against The Citadel’s Braxton Russell on Saturday as both of Solis’s takedowns came through a single-leg move. In both scenarios, Solis did not get a clean shot but used his lower leverage to put him on the mat.
Solis added he worked on his hand fighting with John during his redshirt season, which was highlighted in his first takedown against Gardner-Webb’s Isaiah Guerrero.
The points in both bouts came during the team dual. In both, he entered with Maryland either tied or trailing with its opponent.
Solis won both contests by major decision, sparking a run in which Maryland scored bonus points in at least two of its next bouts.
“It allows me to be a little more relaxed,” Clemsen said. “We can survive a pitfall or step on a landmine and it’s not gonna completely maim us on the back end. We got some dudes that can go out and be destructive.”
