4/22/2020 other sports Edit

JUCO National Champion commits to Rutgers Wrestling

Lex Knapp • TheKnightReport

Wrestling Analyst

Rutgers wrestling has wasted no time filling holes for the 2020 – 21 season. Coach Scott Goodale took to Twitter Wednesday morning, signaling off his infamous “BOOM”. The signature phrase was for the verbal commitment from JUCO standout, Boone McDermott.

McDermott, who wrestles heavyweight, hails from Dubuque, Iowa, where he was the 220 – lb Iowa high school state champion for Dubuque Wahlert High School. McDermott also placed third as a junior at 182-lbs, and capped off his high school career with a 3rd place finish at Fargo.

Not initially a blue-chip recruit, McDermott only began to step into the national spotlight late in his high school career. Rather than attempting to walk on at a division one school, McDermott chose to attend Iowa Central Community College to bolster his stock. Iowa Central was the same junior college former Rutgers wrestler, Richie Lewis, attended prior to joining the Scarlet Knights.

The plan to sharpen his skills at the junior college level paid off, as McDermott won a NJCAA heavyweight national championship in his redshirt freshman year at ICC. The national crown capped off a 36 – 1 season for McDermott, where his only loss on the year was to a division one opponent. Out of McDermott’s 36 wins, 21 of the victories came via pin-fall.

Rutgers wrestling currently has Alex Esposito on the roster as a returning heavyweight, with blue-chip recruit, KeyonteHamilton, coming in 2021. Hamilton, however, is going to play football for Rutgers as well, raising concerns that he may ultimately choose one sport over the other. In addition, Nate Schon, a nationally ranked Pennsylvania state champion, just announced Rutgers is in his top 5 school choices.

McDermott, who has three years of eligibility remaining, provides both an immediate upgrade to the weight class in the starting lineup, along with three years of stability for the weight if Hamilton does choose to focus on football and Schon chooses a different school.