Ames– All it took was perfect timing for Sinjin Briggs to earn his way to starter as a walk-on.
Sophomore Jakob Allison is out after breaking his right hand during his match against Northern Colorado which led to an empty spot at 125 against Oregon State.
Briggs saw an opportunity when he saw Danny Vega had left the team and sent an email to the staff which led him to get an invite to join the team in the wrestling room.
“It was something I always had and not having it in my life was weird,” Briggs said about wrestling.
Briggs, a true-freshmen considered transferring to a smaller school in hopes of pursuing wrestling after being a two-time state qualifier at Gilbert High School.
“It is absolutely the craziest thing I could ever think about. You know, you have dreams of being on a D1 team and I walked on and I was like ‘wow this awesome’,” said Briggs.
Kevin Dresser approached Briggs after his 1-2 performance at the Pat “Flash” Flanagan Open, that his time was now.
Briggs, a tall, lanky athlete and not your average body type for a 125-pounder, sees keeping weight not a big issue after his commitment to a smaller weight class in high school and the coaching he’s receiving in the room.
Briggs has a completely open mind on what to expect for his future on the team and is just here to prove he can wrestle and get scrappy on the mat after training with the team for about a month.
For Briggs, being able to just be in the wrestling room has been a dream for him due to admiration for the staff.
“I love this coaching staff. They’re the best in the world at what they do. They’re going to make a great program I can tell and I want to be apart of that,” said Briggs.
Briggs will make his official debut at the Virginia Dual’s where Iowa State will face Virginia and Arizona State.
“He’s come in, he’s working hard and he’s excited to be an Iowa State Cyclone,” Dresser said. “Everything that he’s doing is yes, yes, yes and we’ll see if he’s excited Sunday morning when he gets on the plane after he’s had five division one college matches.”
