Estimated read time: 4-5 minutes
OREM — Terrell Barraclough knew he could go where he ended up Friday night, after the Utah Valley wrestler finished off a perfect 14-0 dual-meet regular season with a 16-4 win over Northern Colorado in the Wolverines' final meet before the Big 12 championships.
His coach thought that standard was the minimum.
But when the former four-time state champion from Layton High transferred from powerhouse Penn State for his fifth and final season of collegiate wrestling, Utah Valley coach Adam Hall had lofty expectations for the 165-pounder.
In fact, the highest. So far, Barraclough has met them.
"A lot of people might say he's exceeded them in his first year as as starter," the first-year head coach said of his 23-1 Big 12 title favorite. "But I knew how good he was. I know how good he is. He works at it, he believes, and he has all the tangibles — and in my heart, deep down, I believe he's going to be a national champion.
"He puts fear in everyone's eyes, even his former teammate."
Barraclough said he's felt he's always been "the guy" for a long time, but added that he's "never had the shot."
"In my heart, that hurt me a little bit," Barraclough said. "This year, my focus was just on being me. I want to see what I was capable of."
Every competitor wants to win — "it's a given," he said — which is why he was never too concerned with that aspect of wrestling. It was always about the fight.
"I know nobody wants to fight as much as me, shooting as much as me, attack as much as me ... and if I compete as much as I want to compete, I know my coaches will still love me," he said. "But when you don't have objectives to focus on, you don't learn, right? I love every part of it, and I think the winning just comes with being you."
The two-time Big 12 wrestler of the week — the program's first since Tanner Orndorff in the 2018-19 season — was rated the No. 1 wrestler at 165 pounds in the NCAA's first edition of the RPI. He's behind only two wrestlers in the midseason coaches panel rankings: former Penn State teammate Mitchell Mesenbrink and Iowa's Mike Caliendo.
It's possible the Big Ten duo will rise up ahead of Barraclough when the final RPI ratings are released again to determine seeding before next month's NCAA Championships in Philadelphia.
But then again, Barraclough's resume stacks up with any wrestler in the country. He hasn't lost since Dec. 7, when the then-No. 4 wrestler rallied to finish third at the Cliff Keen Las Vegas Invitational. He also has two top-five wins to his name, starting the year with a decision victory over No. 3 Hunter Garvin of Stanford and adding a thrilling last-second overtime win over then-No. 3 Peyton Hall of West Virginia in overtime of a Big 12 dual hosted by Layton High.
That marked Barraclough's 10th ranked win of the season. But perhaps more importantly, it gave him confidence that he'll take into the Big 12 championships March 8-9 in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
"It just gave me confidence in my ability, but a belief in Terrell," he said. "We all have that subconscious person who is always talking to us, and I believe in Terrell. The confidence part is there. I just about doing all my objectives."
But with a chance to clinch a perfect dual-meet record in the regular season, Barraclough admits he was nervous — for his final home match, for his senior night with fellow graduating wrestler Kase Mauger, and for a Northern Colorado team that was receiving votes in last week's coach's poll and ultimately held off a late Utah Valley comeback, 22-21.
"I was listening to song called 'Dinosaur' all day, because it's about being old," Barraclough joked.
"But I hope I can show that these guys can do what Terrell does. They have the same things, the same coach who believes in them. I think it's a really good exposure to that type of wrestling. ... Wrestling is not like soccer or football, where you can just go out and be an athlete and win. You've got to get the absolute snot kicked out of you a couple of times before it clicks.
"But I wish I had another year to see these freshmen and this young group coming up."
Ditto for his coach, he looked out over his team that finished 7-9 in duals in his first year including a 3-6 record in the Big 12 with wins over the ACC's Duke and Pac-12's Oregon State — all with as many as 10 first-time starters like redshirt sophomore Caleb Uhlenhopp from Henderson, Nevada; sophomore Mark Takara from Temecula, California; and Bridger Ricks, the former four-time state champion at Box Elder who improved to 14-11 a year after helping Western Wyoming win back-to-back NJCAA national titles.
"You look across the board, we're making mistakes a lot of times because we just don't know situations," Hall said. "You take ones on the chin, and know that we have a lot of room to grow. That's a good thing to have; it's exciting.
"You want to beat yourself up. But you see how far you've come — and where we're still going."
