It’s senior day this afternoon for the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga wrestling team, and one of those to be recognized when the Mocs face VMI is Nick Soto.
In his fourth year without benefit of a redshirt season, Soto already has etched his name into UTC’s record books — seventh on the all-time wins list, a three-time Southern Conference champion and NCAA tournament qualifier and twice a Southern Scuffle medalist.
“He came in and did so well we kept raising expectations,” coach Heath Eslinger said this past week. “It’s like making $50,000 and looking to make $75,000 and then making $75,000 and looking to make $100,000,.”
Soto posted a 25-win season in his freshman year, finishing as a Scuffle runner-up, earning a top-15 national ranking and winning the first of his SoCon titles.
Since he arrived in Chattanooga from Spring Hill, Fla., Soto has been making waves, in part because he immediately bought in to the philosophy Eslinger had put in place.
“I call it drinking the Kool-aid. He came in and chugged it and he’s still chugging it,” Eslinger said. “He’s an easy kid to coach — believes in us almost to a fault.”
Yet Soto almost didn’t get here. He had some academic shortcomings in high school and knew his future hinged on major improvement.
He’s here, so it’s obvious he did what was necessary — with encouragement from the UTC staff.
“I did enough in high school to get by, but since I was here on my recruiting trip my senior year I have believed in Heath,” Soto said.
One of the few disagreements might have been over Soto’s sophomore year foray as a 125-pounder. Despite Soto’s 26-8 season, Eslinger, upon reflection, says that might have been a mistake. The coach doesn’t care for wrestlers cutting weight.
Still, that moved Soto within striking distance of the Mocs’ top 10 in all-time wins, and he joined that group at the end of last season, displacing Javier Maldonado (86-27) for the No. 10 spot. He since has surpassed Pat Murphy (87-25), Tom Sell (90-29) and most recently Chris Thornbury (101-46-2).
With 106 wins to date, he is poised to pass Ben Reichel (109-37-2) and has a shot at joining his coach among the Mocs’ top five all-time wins leaders.
“Had we redshirted him, he might have become the all-time wins leader. If not, he would’ve been close,” said Eslinger, who stands No. 2 on the list behind Michael Keefe.
It isn’t just in wrestling, though, that Soto has grown.
“I think Nick came in and has since proved that you can be a pretty ordinary kid and exceed expectations,” Eslinger said.
Said Soto: “As a freshman starting the process as a student-athlete, I was disorganized. I’ve matured a lot. I’ve learned a lot about wrestling but also about the importance of what you focus on and taking care of the areas of my life outside of wrestling.”
So attaining 100 wins, which in the future will be a point of pride, currently has little meaning and certainly no time for patting himself on the back.
“I came here to be an All-American and national champion,” he said.
And there are those who believe Soto can do it.
“He’s beat the No. 1 wrestler in the country. He’s beat other ranked wrestlers,” Eslinger said. “He just has to be hot. It’s the same thing for everybody. He has to feel good about himself, and if he does that he can beat anybody in the weight class. I honestly believe that.”
“It has been frustrating,” Soto said of his NCAA disappointments each of the last three years. “I know I’m capable and I’m at the level to do it. I have to stay the course and trust the process. I think the past few years I didn’t really expect it of myself. I didn’t truly believe I could do it.”
There is a difference this year, though. No more demands on himself but rather a focus on his strengths.
“I’ve raised the bar training-wise, and I’ve continued to learn,” he said. “A goal I set for myself is just to wrestle the way I wrestle — my style in every match.”
Contact Ward Gossett at wgossett@timesfreepress.com or 423-886-4765. Follow him at Twitter.com/wardgossett.