By Gary Lambrecht
 
When a high school sports star lands in the collegiate thicket of Division I competition, the adjustment can be jarring and unpleasant.
 
It is a humbling rite of passage that Navy junior wrestler Tanner Skidgel will not forget. That memory also helps Skidgel to appreciate how much he has grown, while becoming an anchor at 165 pounds for the Midshipmen.
 
When he arrived in Annapolis in the summer of 2017, direct from Cascia Hall High School in Tulsa, Skidgel was a three-time Oklahoma state champ and a four-time state finalist. He had captained his squad as a junior and senior. Skidgel the plebe understandably came in with some swagger, expecting to make big things happen sooner than later.
 
Then Skidgel was introduced to Navy's wrestling room, and cold reality set in. Skidgel soon found himself in a funk.
 
"The first time I got in the room, I was getting whooped up on. You're used to being a state champion. Suddenly, everyone is beating up on you," Skidgel recalls. "It hurt my confidence. My freshman year, I didn't really believe in myself. I didn't think I had what it took [to be a successful college wrestler]."
 
During that eye-opening first year, Skidgel made up his mind that he would accept his role as a Navy backup and commit to improving his game.
 
With the help of such teachers as Lloyd Rogers, the Midshipmen's volunteer assistant coach, and teammates such as Spencer Carey – now Navy's 174-pound starter and senior captain – Skidgel the bruised freshman found his hunger and focus again.
 
And ever since, Skidgel's Division I ride has been locked in an upward swing.
 
Skidgel can look back on a sophomore year in which he made huge strides at 165. He caught fire near mid-season at the Southern Scuffle, where he won four of his first five matches and wound up a respectable eighth – a year after failing to make it to the second day of competition.
 
From there, Skidgel went on to beat 12 of his last 15 opponents and took a major step in March, when he brought home the school's first individual EIWA title since 2015.
 
Skidgel topped it off with a 1-2 showing at his first NCAA Championships. He finished the year 21-10 overall, including 3-4 against ranked opponents.
 
This year, on a squad that has battled inexperience and injury and has strung together four dual-meet victories to move to 8-4 (3-1 EIWA), only a mid-January injury has slowed Skidgel.
 
Once again, he made his mark on New Year's Day at the Southern Scuffle, where he wrestled in a bracket with five opponents who had beaten him in the past. Skidgel won his first five matches. His 3-2 decision over eighth-ranked Thomas Bullard (N.C. State) landed Skidgel in the final, where he lost, 2-1, to seventh-ranked Shane Griffith (Stanford).
 
On Sunday, in Navy's 39-6 rout against Duke in Pittsboro, N.C., Skidgel returned successfully after missing several weeks. He improved to 15-4 with a 5-3 decision over Ben Anderson. Skidgel has won 14 times by decision.
 
Skidgel is ranked No. 9 in the current InterMat poll.
 
"Tanner is one of the most solid kids we have," Navy head coach Joel Sharratt says. "He had some bumps in the road [as a freshman], but there was a big change from year one to year two and he really established his confidence on the mat. He doesn't get shaken or rattled. He's got moxie and charisma."
 
Rogers says those qualities have been evident in Skidgel all along.
 
Two years ago, Rogers, whose weight is close to that of Skidgel's, says as a result he was able to devote lots of one-on-one time to his first-year confidence project.
 
By the start of his sophomore season, Skidgel was improving notably on defense from the bottom and sharpening the good riding skills he brought from high school. His ability to turn his opponents also began to stand out.
 
"Tanner definitely came here as a good wrestler. I sure believed in him," Rogers says. "He got ridden a lot as a freshman when he was on the bottom. He scrambled [too much] as a first line of defense. His defense is really solid now. When he gets on [an opponent's] leg, there is a high percentage chance he's going to score. He transitions very well from the takedown to the turning position.
 
"And [Skidgel] really lives for the big moments when the match is on the line," Rogers adds. "He brings that competitive energy every day."
 
"Back when I was third on the depth chart [as a freshman], I didn't understand why [Rogers] was spending so much time working with me," Skidgel recalls. "He's a great teacher and technician and he cares so much about his wrestlers.
 
"My technical game has changed a lot," Skidgel adds. "Back in elementary school and high school, nobody would say, 'Wow, did you see that sweet move by Tanner?' It was pretty much about out-muscling a guy and getting him turned over [and pinned]."
 
Skidgel's father, Chance, says part of Tanner's growth at Navy can be attributed to all of the years he spent on football and wrestling teams with older boys that included his brother, Scout Skidgel – who also happens to be a junior at the Academy and served as the starting 157-pounder early in the season.
 
Scout received his appointment to the Naval Academy's prep school the same day Tanner committed direct to the academy.
 
"I think it helped Tanner that he was always chasing his brother," says Chance Skidgel, who wrestled at Central Oklahoma and coached his sons for years. "Tanner was always a tough, little grinder and very competitive."
 
Carey, who qualified for the NCAAs a year ago at 174 and is 16-7 this season, credits Tanner Skidgel for part of his success. The pair spends much of practice going against each other.
 
 "Competition in the room drives a team to get better more than anything," Carey says. "When I go up against Tanner, I've got to be crisp and ready to fight."
 
"The idea is to wrestle your heart out, while making sure you don't get yourself into bad positions," Skidgel says. "And you can have the best technique in the world, but if you don't step out there ready for a dogfight, you're not going to do very good. Sometimes, [wrestling] is just two guys clubbing each other. It's just a brawl."