KRISTIE MOSS / Scroll
Matthew Young, a freshman from Boise, Idaho, and Jonathan Carstens, a freshman from Klein, Texas, wrestle on Dec. 1.

The wrestling championship tournament will be held Dec. 8 at 5 p.m. in the John W. Hart Building, and Scroll brings you a closer look at who and what to watch for when you go.

Jonathan Carstens
Jonathan Walter, a senior from Rexburg, and student manager over wrestling, predicted Jonathan Carstens to take the championship in the 165-pound weight division.

Carstens, a freshman from Klein, Texas, is also a coach this semester.

“He’s an overall good guy,” Walter said. “He’s one of the coaches, and he’s a good wrestler too. He stands out because he does well at both,” Walter said.

When watching Jonathan, one may also notice his composure. While his teammates jump around to get themselves loose and alert for their matches, Carstens prefers to sit still.

“I don’t like [jumping around], it just makes you more tense and nervous. I just calm down and watch the match that’s going on and think about what I’m going to do for [my] match,” Carstens said.

A.J. Baldwin
Unlike many of the other wrestlers, A.J. Baldwin, a sophomore from Riverside, Calif., didn’t wrestle in high school. He started wrestling last winter, and since then has worked to improve his skills and catch up on what he missed in high school.

“He is the most dedicated wrestler we have,” Walter said. “He comes to multiple practices a week, just so he can get that extra practice in.”

Baldwin works hard at practices, constantly trying to outdo his last performance.

“[My biggest competition is] myself. That’s the hardest match. It’s not about outdoing others; it’s about outdoing yourself,” Baldwin said.

Baldwin is also smaller than many of the other players, making wrestling a better fit for him than other sports.

“I like wrestling because it’s more size-appropriate. Here, I can compete at a more fair level than in other sports,” Baldwin said.

Kyle Rose
Finally, be sure to watch Kyle Rose, a freshman from Goffstown, N. H. After turning down a wrestling scholarship to Plymouth State University in New Hampshire, Rose came to BYU-I and signed up to wrestle here.

“I actually like it a lot more [here], because on intercollegiate teams, especially when you have a scholarship, it’s almost like that team owns your soul and it’s your number one priority. Up here, it’s a lot more relaxed but there’s still that great competition level you’d get anywhere else,” Rose said.

Walter predicted Rose and Tyler Calderwood, a freshman from Ashburn, Va., to be in the championship round for the 170-pound weight class. After Rose broke his nose wrestling Calderwood in the first tournament of the semester, he wasn’t able to wrestle as much as he wanted.

“I haven’t been able to wrestle much since then… I’m kind of thirsting to get back into it again,” Rose said.

Kyle Rose wrestles for the Titans with his identical twin brother, Kevin. Kyle attributes a lot of his skills to wrestling with his brother, though they had to stop wrestling each other in high school for a while.

“We drilled the moves with each other every day, but after the first couple years of high school we both kind of got to a level where our high school coach told us we couldn’t wrestle each other anymore because we were beating each other up too much,” Kyle Rose said.