With two state titles under his belt, Centennial junior Austin Kraisser had a big decision looming – which college he will wrestle for in 2016.
The Ellicott City native ranked as the No. 40 overall class of 2016 recruit in the country lifted the weight off his shoulders this week, officially committing to wrestle for Division I Campbell University in North Carolina.
"It's a really big deal for me. My dad and me talked about it before, it's just really special because now I know where I'm going to go. I can focus on keeping my grades up and wrestling," said Kraisser, who is ranked No. 9 at 152 pounds by Intermat. "And now there's no stress in wrestling because I already committed to a school. I can just go out and wrestle the best I can and focus on having fun and enjoy my senior year."
Also considering Virginia Tech, Kraisser said the decision came down to two factors – wrestling with his older brother Nathan, who redshirted this past season at Campbell after transferring from the University of North Carolina, and wrestling for head coach Cary Kolat.
Kolat, who won two NCAA titles at Loch Haven University of Pennsylvania and was a member of the United State Olympic Team in 2000, took the head-coaching job in April 2014 after being an assistant at UNC. Before that, he ran the Kolat Wrestling Club in Cockeysville from 2008-2010 and helped train local wrestlers to compete for the Maryland National Team.
"He's a great coach ... I've known him almost my whole life," said Kraisser, who is 115-8 in three seasons. "He came to coach up here and my dad started taking Nathan and I there, and you could really see that's when we started to improve. And that's when we got to the level we are now. ... We learned a lot of the mental aspects of wrestling."
The Kraisser brothers will get to wrestle together at the school in Buies Creek, about 30 miles south of Raleigh, for one year before Nathan graduates. Austin said wrestling with his brother is something he simply couldn't pass up.
"That's a really big deal for me because him and I are extremely close. We're not just brothers, but we're best friends," Kraisser said. "We tell each other everything. It's really big for me."
Austin is expected to compete at 157 or 165 pounds, while Nathan, who was named Atlantic Coast Conference Freshman of the Year, won the ACC Tournament in 2014 and has qualified for the NCAA Tournament twice at 125 pounds, aims to wrestle at 133 pounds next season.