As the Navy wrestling team prepares to end its regular season by confronting their archrivals on Friday night at 7:30 pm at Alumni Hall, fourth-year head coach Cary Kolat feels the Midshipmen have regained their footing following a January slump that eventually dropped Navy out of the InterMat team rankings after holding down a spot in nine consecutive polls.
 
The Mids started by winning all six of their combined dual meets in November and December, including huge wins at #23 Illinois and at home vs. #16 Pitt.  The Mids were led once again by seniors Andrew Cerniglia (165) and Grady Griess (285) and junior Josh Koderhandt (141). For multiple years, each of them has been a tone-setter for the program.
 
Five straight dual losses, however, including excruciating defeats at Binghamton (18-17) and North Carolina (20-17) in late January, humbled the Mids. They bounced back strongly two weeks ago with easy wins over Lock Haven and Bucknell. They have used a two-week training session to reset their sights on beating Army and producing at least three NCAA tournament qualifiers at next month's EIWA Championship.
 
Nothing gets the Mids' (8-5, 2-2 in the EIWA) competitive juices flowing like seeing Army (5-4, 4-1 in the EIWA) across the mat. On a night when 10 Navy seniors will be honored, the Mids will try to dispatch the Black Knights for the fourth straight year – and for the 53^rd time in 68 matches.
 
"We lost some midseason focus. That has happened before here, for whatever reason. Our schedule probably needs a bit of an adjustment," Kolat says. "But we looked extremely focused against Lock Haven and Bucknell. We had eight to 10 guys firing at the same time. That's exactly what we need individually and as a team going against Army and into the EIWAs."
 
Kolat sees his team capable of matching – or surpassing – last year's conference tournament achievement by the Mids, who sent five wrestlers to the NCAAs. And that mission starts with Cerniglia, Griess and Koderhandt adding more individual accolades to their impressive records.
 
Cerniglia, who has returned to his career form after injuries partly derailed his junior season, enters the Army meet with a 19-3 record this season, having won a career-high 15 straight matches. He is 7-2 against Army, including a victory that clinched the Star Match as a freshman.
 
Cerniglia twice has qualified for the NCAA Championship by finishing third and second, respectively, at the EIWA Championship in 2021 and '22. With a triumph Friday night, he will own at least 20 wins for the second time at Navy. This year, Cerniglia is 4-0 against ranked opponents. He is currently ranked 16^th by InterMat.
 
"I think we can get at least four guys [to the NCAAs] but the Army match is a big chunk of our season," says Cerniglia, who hails from Nazareth, Pa. He won back-to-back state titles as a junior and senior at Notre Dame High School in Easton and closed out his pre-college days by winning 47 of 48 matches.
 
"Wrestling has been such an instrumental part of my life," adds Cerniglia, who in three months will graduate with a degree in general science and will commission as a Marine Ground officer. "You can't drown in your sorrows if you get beat. You get back to work. If your opponent was better conditioned than you, get back on the treadmill. Wrestling has helped me to set my attitude right, going forward. It really has taught me a lot."
 
Matt Veres, the sixth-year Notre Dame High head coach whose first year was the same year Cerniglia transferred from Nazareth High to Notre Dame as a junior, recalls how Cerniglia immediately set a standard as a supportive teammate with the young wrestlers and as a skilled performer who valued meticulous preparation.
 
Cerniglia was pursued by Oklahoma State, Pitt, Rutgers, Penn and George Mason and turned down an offer from N.C. State. He committed to Navy early in his senior year.
 
"When Andrew got here, he could beat every guy in our lineup, he was that good. From minute one, he was a vocal leader who also led by example. Just an extremely humble and driven kid, one of the most intense wrestlers I've ever coached," recalls Veres, who still talks with Cerniglia several times a month.
 
"He didn't just graduate and move on. He left an incredible legacy with his teammates, his school, his coaches and the parents of other kids who wish they had more time with Andrew," Veres adds. "I love my wife and children very much. Andrew [ranks] just a little bit below my children."
 
Griess, who enters the Army battle with a No. 19 ranking and is one of two current Navy wrestlers with more than 70 career victories – Koderhandt is the other – knows plenty about setbacks.
 
Before putting together his best season last year by winning a team-high 32 times and taking home the heavyweight title at the EIWA Championship that delivered him to his first NCAA tournament, Griess had to overcome a rough start to his time in Annapolis.
 
In September of his plebe year, Griess learned the knee pain he had been feeling during his senior year at Northwest High in Grand Island, Nebraska had progressed to an agonizing stage. A floating cartilage lesion had formed at the bottom of his knee. The fix would require surgery, but not until a cadaver cartilage arrived to be grafted. Griess waited, and waited for nearly six months before the surgery happened.
 
The ordeal of waiting, healing and rehabilitating took a full year, before Griess could get back on the mat. He went 19-6 as a sophomore, mostly by wrestling in six tournaments and just two dual matches.
 
"I was in physical therapy all summer before my sophomore year. I didn't have the best year, but that injury pushed me to become the best wrestler I could be. It built my journey," Griess says. "I love what a grind this sport is, how tough it is. Last year was awesome. I got to prove a lot of people wrong about who I am as a wrestler."
 
As a result of that proof and how he handled the huge challenges he walked into at the Naval Academy, Griess was voted team captain before his final season.
 
Griess has bested five ranked wrestlers this season. He will graduate with a degree in quantitative economics and be commissioned as a Naval Aviator.
 
"There was no doubt in my mind that [Grady] was going to get through it. The kid is one of the most determined people I've ever met," says Jake Griess, Grady's older brother by 10 years. "It was easy to see before he was in high school that he was going to do something special, not just as an athlete but as a person. I believe I am the proudest big brother on this planet."
 
Among Navy's "Big Three," Koderhardt has had the smoothest, healthiest ride by avoiding a significant injury. Currently ranked 14^th by InterMat, Koderhandt has ridden an impressive wave of success since setting foot in Annapolis.
 
Koderhandt, 17-6 overall with six wins over ranked wrestlers, is a two-time NCAA qualifier who leads Navy in career dual wins (27) and is tied with Griess as the team leader in career victories with 71. He placed second and third, respectively, in his first two EIWA Championships. He defeated then-No. 7 Cole Matthews in November to help the Mids top Pitt. It was his first win over a top-10 opponent.
 
Koderhandt also is 11-1 in dual matches. With a win over Army, he would become the first Navy wrestler to win 12 dual matches in a season since Casey Caldwell and Bryce Saddoris won 14 and 12, respectively, during the 2008-09 season.
 
"I remember when I pinned my first opponent [at Navy] with a move I used in high school all of the time. I was thinking, 'Wow, this still works in college?' It was a huge boost to my confidence early," recalls Koderhandt, a Belleville, Illinois native who wound up as state runner-up as a sophomore at Belleville Township High, before capping a 49-0 season by winning it all the following year.
 
The COVID crisis turned his senior season into a shortened one, with no postseason.
 
"I've always been a pretty confident person. I feel like if I'm wrestling at my best, I am the best," he adds. "Army at Alumni Hall is the coolest dual ever. You do not want to be the guy who doesn't wrestle to the best of his ability or gets embarrassed."
 
Kolat sees the Mids giving another strong effort against their biggest rivals. He also thinks in the coming weeks, wrestlers such as sophomore Brendan Ferretti (133) and senior David Key (184) could nail down return trips to the NCAA tournament. And there is the "Big Three" contingent.
 
"All three of those guys [Griess, Cerniglia, Koderhandt] could have been captains," Kolat says. "They have all brought great leadership to us. If there is an issue with a plebe who doesn't get something, any one of those three jumps in to take ownership. The practice room wouldn't be the same without them. They know – we all know – we've got to keep getting better and go out on a high note, starting with Army."
 
"Beating Army is a hard feeling to describe," Cerniglia says. "You know so many people are counting on you to get a job done. When you go out and do it under pressure, and teammates are cheering for you and slapping you, that feeling really is unmatched."