When Centennial decided to put the Walsh Ironman wrestling tournament on the schedule, it was for one purpose: to see if Austin Kraisser could compete with the nation's best wrestlers.
It was quite the successful weekend on the national stage for the junior as he went on to place 6th out of 37 wrestlers at 152 pounds on Dec. 12-13 in Ohio.
The five wrestlers that placed ahead of him are all ranked in the top 10 in the country, according to Intermat.
"I felt like I did pretty good, I had some tough matches," Kraisser said. "I felt like I could have maybe won a couple that I lost and wrestled a little better."
Kraisser, who won his first three matches by pin, tech fall and 2-0 decision over an Ohio wrestler ranked 19th ranked in the country, said he got a cold the first day of the tournament and it only got worse on the second day.
"It was tough, I was trying to hold off the cold or fever," he said. "I wish I could've done better, but I'm not like disappointed about what I got."
He lost to Josh Muraca of Pennsylvania, the 4th ranked wrestler, 9-2 in the quarterfinal round before winning his first consolation match 3-2. He then beat 13th-ranked Kyle Lawson of Ohio 5-4 before falling to 10th-ranked Jordan Kutler of New Jersey 4-1, and then again to Maruca, this time 3-1.
"The kids that I wrestled were really tough. Even the kids I beat were still really tough," Kraisser said. "I had a bunch of close matches, a lot of one point, two point matches. ... It was definitely the toughest regular season tournament I've wrestled in."
Kraisser ranked 16th in the country before the tournament, but is now 13th at 152 pounds. Eight of the wrestlers ahead of him are seniors.