A senior psychology major, Connor Crinigan competes for RU wrestling.
Here is his story in his own words.
I have moved around a lot in my life, I’ve lived in Chicago, Illinois; Carmel, Indiana; Tampa, Florida; and most recently, Las Vegas, Nevada. Growing up in Florida, I participated in combat sports, including Brazilian jiu-jitsu. I became interested in the sport of wrestling because I was struggling to take anyone down in Brazilian jiu-jitsu.
My high school in Florida was nationally recognized for wrestling and the team had an undefeated season. However, halfway through my high school wrestling career, I moved to the Las Vegas area due to conflicts between teammates.
I first heard of Rochester University while competing in wrestling tournaments across the country with a friend of mine. His dad mentioned we should stop at this college that had a new program, and truthfully I did not want to.
Yet, we came anyway and while I was apprehensive about the campus, Coach Wesley Maskill and his cousin, Kevin Maskill, left me with a great impression of the school and people in the community.
My greatest challenge here as an athlete would be my struggle to stay healthy. However, with the trainers and support from Coach Maskill, I have been able to bounce back from my injuries and continue my dream of wrestling in college.
Looking back on my time here at RU, I feel proud of what I have achieved so far and look forward to finishing both my athletic and academic career before heading off to graduate
school.
Being one of the only seniors this year, using COVID years, I’m one of the only consistent
presences that’s always in the wrestling room, making sure everybody knows that they can make it through this season. I’ll always be there. It now feels like the season is never going to end. But I’m the perfect example of what to do to make it through it every year. Making sure everybody knows that they can make it through this season is really important because we all work so hard.
The wrestling team has evolved so much since I got here. We just used to be a couple of guys who were talented and good but all they needed was that chance. Coach Wesley gave them that chance. And we just continued to build off that, pulling in more talent and evolving everything into a polished style that helped us become one of the best NAIA programs in the nation.
I would say in terms of change in my wrestling career, the biggest part for me would be coming back from injuries. I have been injured pretty severely every year. Each time, I’ve had to come back differently, adjust my wrestling style, adjust my pace in the room to make sure I can always go 100%, and make sure that I’m still helping the team while I am able to wrestle or not.
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