 |
| Matt Pell |
MatChat: Matt Pell
On Nov. 20, senior Matt Pell stopped by to answer your questions about the start to the season for himself and the third-ranked Tigers.
Pell retums for his senior season and is expected to build on last year's NCAA Championship experience. The native of Luxemburg, Wis., owns a career record of 100-28, and became Mizzou's 14th member of the Century Club last week with a win at Ohio State.
|
 |
 |
|
Moderator: OK everyone....welcome to week two of MatChat. This week, we'll be talking with senior All-American Matt Pell. We're about 25 minutes away from the start of our weekly chat so get your questions in early! |
|
|
| Al (St Louis): What does your average day consist of as far as your training? |
 |
|
Matt Pell: On the days that we have morning practice (Monday, Wednesday and Friday) I'll wake up and go to practice. After practice I usually go to class for a couple of hours and then try and get an individual drill in sometime after class but before practice. That can be anything from running four miles to drilling for 30 minutes and wrestling live for 20. Then, I usually go home make a sandwich and come back to wrestle again for practice. After practice I run for 20-25 minutes and then I'm done for the day. |
|
|
| Gene @ KC: No question...just a word of encouragement for the season. I hope all your hard work pays off with a successful year.
ON a side note, my son really appreciated the interaction and encouragement you provided at the camps in Kansas City. Thanks from his dad and best wishes for a great senior season. |
 |
|
Matt Pell: Gene-thank you for the encouragement. I hope your son has a good year and I look forward to seeing him at camp next year. I really enjoy working with young wrestlers and helping them achieve their goals. I was fortunate enough to have people that felt the same way when I was a kid growing up. |
|
|
| Craig: Matt- Congrats on a great wrestling career at Mizzou. Any chance of you and Ben switching weight classes for Conference and Nationals? Three straight days of making weight can take its toll on anyone. Since your frames' bigger then Askren's and he wants to wrestle 163 internationally, why not switch leading up to conference? That way you'll have anchored 165 most of the season which will make it easier for Ben to cut and you moving up to 174 could be huge for the team. Remember Damien Hahn of Minnesota, who struggled at 184, moved up to 197 late in the season and won a National title? |
|
|
Matt Pell: I plan to wrestle at 165 for the entire season. It's really not that bad for me to make weight. I'm pretty good about always keeping my weight around 170, where as last year I'd kind of let my weight go up right after weighins. I made 165 for Ohio State and had all the energy in the world. |
|
|
| Mark Roth (Fulton, MO): What's your biggest goal to achieve personally this season? |
|
|
Matt Pell: My goal this season is to win the National Championship. I'm going to do everything it takes to get there. |
|
|
| The Banning Family: Matt,
First off, good luck this season.
We hope to see you gain All American status at the NCAA championships this year. Our question is this - was Askren too scared to wrestle you yesterday at the Missouri Open?! We couldn't stick around to the end and saw that you two were co-champs!
Our serious question is who do you see as the toughest opponents you will face this season and what will you do to counter anything that they bring? |
|
|
Matt Pell: I think Ben and I were going to flip a coin to see who was the champ anyway so it worked out better that we were co-champions. Ok, seriously though, my mindset this year is not to be focused on any one opponent and what they're going to bring. I'm more focused on what I'm going to bring to the mat and blowin' through everybody. |
|
|
| conquistadors (Chesterfield): Matt, first congratulations on all the success you've had so far at Mizzou and best of luck at battling for the National Championship this spring.
Who is your toughest opponent at 165 and what makes him so tough?
Just curious why you wrestled 174 yesterday?
Can you tell us what the extent of the ankle injury to Ben Askren is? |
|
|
Matt Pell: My toughest opponent last year was myself. Making weight and not doing it right is what beat me last season. I think if I focus on trying to be disciplined with my weight and focus on wrestling seven minutes as hard as I can every match I can compete with anyone. I had a meeting with Coach Smith last week and we talked about what meets I was going to make weight for and the Missouri Open is one we decided I was going to wrestle 174 at, although I weighed in at 169 in order to certify for 165 for Las Vegas. The reason for doing so is so that my body isn't worn out by the end of the season. From what I hear, Ben should be back wrestling in time for Vegas. |
|
|
| Jim Frustere (Cleveland,Ohio): 1. How much work did you do in the off season to prepare for a run at an NCAA Champioship in this, your senior year?
2. Have you ever wrestled Hendricks from Oklahoma State before and, if so, how did you do against him?
Good luck this year. I'm predicting a Pell -vs- Hendricks 165 lb final at this year's NCAA wrestling championships. |
|
|
Matt Pell: I wrestled everyday in the off season and lifted every other day. I was working wrestling camps all summer so I was always around wrestling. I think that's one of the major benefits to working camps is that you're never away from the sport too long. I've wrestled Hendricks three times. Once my redshirt year (five years ago) and he beat me 3-2, once in a dual last year and then at the Big 12 tournament I lost in triple overtime. |
|
|
| Nathan Jandrin Luxemburg, WI: Hey there Matt I wrestled with you back In high school Just wanted to wish you luck this upcoming season tear it up you were the best wrestler I have ever seen go through Luxemburg so good luck. Any good looking women down there. Peace Out. |
|
|
Matt Pell: Nathan....hey! Thanks for the post! You should round up a bunch of wrestlers from Luxemburg and bring them to the Central Michigan (Dec. 9) or Michigan State dual (Dec. 10). Good hearin' from you. |
|
|
| Bob (Omaha): I was looking through the media guide and noticed that since you started wrestling at Missouri you've competed at 157 pounds, then 184, now 165 and apparently on ocassion, 174. How does you body handle all the changes? What type of eating habits to you have to have to maintain weight? |
|
|
Matt Pell: I wrestled 145 my senior year in high school so when I got to Missouri 157 wasn't very hard for me to make. I gained a bunch of weight to get up to 184 and I was never really a 184 pounder. I would weigh in at 176 on a regular basis. It was never like I was actually 184....I just wrestled those guys. I dropped down to 165 and that was kind of tough on my body. Especially after not having to cut weight for three or four years and then having to cut. Now I've got it under control. The main thing I've been doing this year is drinking only water, nothing else, and then just eating smart. I eat a lot of yogurt for calcium. For breakfast I'll have a yogurt, a bagel and water. Lunch is a sandwich, just meat and bread and water. Then, at dinner I'll have hard-boiled egg whites, frozen fish that I bake and water and then I'll try and switch it up on what type of bread I'll eat. Once in a while I'll eat some pasta. I eat any kind of fruit. I love pineapple. And vegetables too. I eat a lot of vegetables. |
|
|
| Andrew (Norfolk): What types of strengths do you think you have over your opponents? Good luck this season! |
|
|
Matt Pell: Andrew-I think my main strength right now is knowing that if I wrestle as hard as I can for the entire match there is no way that the other guy is going to be less tired than me. Even if I'm down by points, I know in the back of my head that there is always the third period and nobody can keep up with my pace. |
|
|
| Tommy (Cleveland): You looked awesome against Ohio State. How tough is it getting down to 165? |
|
|
Matt Pell: For the Ohio State match it was the first time ever that I ate dinner the night before, breakfast in the morning and then a six inch sub, bars and water for lunch. So, I was feeling great to say the least. |
|
|
|
Matt Pell: Alright....thanks everyone for the questions. Hope to see you out at a dual or two this season. You're all really an important part to the success of the team. Cheesy....yeah, but it's true. It's been fun....
-Matt |
|
|
|
Moderator: Thanks to everyone for your great questions. Next week at 2:30 we'll be having junior All-American Tyler McCormick answer a few of your questions. Have a great Thanksgiving! |
|
|
|
