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Dana Gingerich

BUFFALO, NY - Coming into the season, redshirt freshman Dana Gingerich (Spring Grove, PA/DeLone Catholic) already had to shake off the cobwebs from his first year at the University at Buffalo.

He hadn't seen action at a dual meet or a major championship tournament in over a year, a situation he never had to face in high school, starting all four seasons. Now, going into his second year at the Amherst campus, he was penciled in as the Bulls' starter at 141 pounds.

Then Gingerich got sick. Before he even stepped foot on a mat, Gingerich weighed in more than 10 pounds underweight.

"Dana had as tough a beginning to a season as I've ever seen," Buffalo head coach Jim Beichner said. "He came in 10 pounds underweight as result of an unknown virus that he had. For a wrestler, that is the furthest thing from typical as you can get. Usually when they come in, they are big and strong and about as happy as they can be. Dana came in struggling to breath and struggling to workout."

When Gingerich finally went to the doctor, he was told that a tonsillectomy was one way to help stop the infections he was getting. The doctor put him on antibiotics, but also told him that the best solution was surgery, even if it was the middle of the season.

"It was pretty tough," he said. "There were just some matches, I'd just go out and I was having trouble breathing. I just felt awful all the time. I'd feel so much worse when I cut weight. I felt horrible when I wasn't cutting weight and then I'd cut weight and I'd be so sick, I didn't even want to move."

After starting his season 6-7, by mid-December Gingerich was ready to feel better again, even if it meant missing two weeks of wrestling practice. Even knowing that he was going to have surgery over the winter break didn't totally slow the grappler down, though, as Gingerich posted a 4-2 mark at the Beast of the East Classic on Dec. 17, just days before he was set to have the surgery.

"Confidence-wise, I think he struggled a lot because of (his sickness)," Beichner said. "It was scary. He was out there wrestling and he can't get a good breath. That's probably the worst thing you can think of as an athlete that's training to wrestle."

When he came back, he lost his first three matches of 2005 at the Buckeye Duals, including matches against two nationally-ranked opponents. Gingerich said he finally felt like he was back in shape for the Virginia Duals on Jan. 14.

At the Virginia Duals, one of the most prestigious dual meet tournaments in the country, Gingerich provided two sparks for the Buffalo wrestlers, who at that point were struggling with an 0-6 dual meet record.

In Buffalo's first meet of the tournament, it faced Cal State-Bakersfield, a nationally-ranked opponent. After the first two matches of the meet, the Bulls were down, 9-0, when Gingerich stepped on the mat. For the first two rounds of his match with Matt Shumm, it seemed like the hard luck was going to continue, as Gingerich fell behind 7-3.

"It was a close match," he said. "I took him down and then arm-barred him and put him to his back with like 30 seconds left and then pinned him with 15 seconds left."

The come-from-behind win was one of only two matches Buffalo garnered against Bakersfield, but it set the tone for UB's next meet at the Virginia Duals against North Dakota State.

This time, Gingerich was stepping on the mat staked to a 7-0 lead with a chance to bust open the meet and secure the Bulls' desperately-needed first win of the season. However, he was facing two-time Division II All-American Lucas Christianson. Gingerich took the drama out of it quickly, though, pinning Christianson 58 seconds into the match.

With Buffalo starting four freshmen and four sophomores, the North Dakota State match proved a huge confidence boost for the Bulls, who had seen their fair share of growing pains in the first month and a half of the season.

"That was really important," Gingerich said of the win over the Bison. "It really helped with our confidence. We had a really tough schedule (that featured dual meets with six nationally-ranked squads). To finally get a win helped out a lot."

For himself, the wins symbolized Gingerich finally being healthy.

"I felt really good that weekend," he said. "That was the first time, I think, all year, that I felt really good wrestling. I didn't feel tired. I didn't have trouble breathing. My throat didn't hurt. It's been nice."

Also, the two pins were a return to Gingerich's winning ways, where he set a school record at DeLone Catholic with 130 career wins.

Gingerich grew up outside of York, PA, where he said his father got him into wrestling when he was six years old. By the time he got to high school at DeLone Catholic, Gingerich was good enough to start as a freshman for the Squires at 112 pounds. As a sophomore, he moved up to 125 pounds and qualified for the Pennsylvania State Tournament. It was during his junior year, though, that Gingerich started to shine, coming in as a runner-up at the state tournament at 125 pounds.

It was during his senior year that Gingerich was ready to leave his mark, as he moved up to 130 pounds, setting the stage for another state tournament run.

"I went through the year and I had only one loss going through sectionals," Gingerich said. "Then, I got sick and ended up losing at districts in the finals and third in regionals. At regionals, I lost to the kid I ended up wrestling in the finals at the state tournament. I lost to him by a point and came back and beat him by three in the state finals. That was pretty nice."

With the state championship in his pocket, Gingerich came to the University at Buffalo. However, for the first time in four years, he didn't walk in as the No. 1 wrestler at his weight class. Instead, he wrestled behind Mike Trotta, who went 26-14 as a starter, and Mike Sebaaly while redshirting.

Since that January weekend with the two pins, Gingerich has gone 6-5, although that includes a one-point loss to Kent State's Jason McGee and a four-point loss to Ohio's Jim Fowler, something Beichner said he thinks can be turned around on Friday when Buffalo travels to Kent State for the MAC Championships.

"Dana is probably one of our most capable wrestlers," he said. "He's one of our strongest wrestlers. Now that all that stuff is behind him and he's very focused, hopefully, he'll go out there and realize he has a chance to win a MAC title. It's a wide open weight class. It's not dominated by somebody like a four-time All-American."

- Written by Joe Guistina, Athletic Communications Graduate Assistant