Collegiate Times

Virginia Tech sophomore wrestler Jesse Dong did not always take wrestling seriously.

When the 157-pound Atlantic Coast Conference champion began wrestling as a child, it was simply for fun. Dong never knew that his new hobby would turn into a successful college career.

It was not until he was in eighth grade, actually, when he even began to consider wrestling as something he could have a successful future in.

“I started taking wrestling pretty seriously towards the end of middle school,” Dong said. “I always wrestled when I was younger, but obviously I didn’t take it seriously, and after my freshman year of high school, I knew that wrestling was a great sport and that I could really excel at it. So I started working hard and it’s gotten me where I am now.”

This season, Dong is happy he decided to stick with the sport.

Currently ranked third, fourth and fifth in three different national polls, the sophomore is coming off a 30-2 season in which he went undefeated in ACC play and captured his first ACC title two weekends ago with a 7-5 victory over Maryland’s Kyle John.

That’s a lot of success for a sophomore.

Nevertheless, Dong does not let the high rankings get to his head or make him angry.

“The thing about the rankings is that you can’t let them get to your head, no matter how high you are or how low you are,” Dong said. “Last year I let the rankings get to my head. This year I’m not letting them get to my head. So

I can’t let the third, fourth and fifth rankings upset me or allow me to put myself on a pedestal.”

“I think the one guy that stepped it up the most from November to now, number one is Jesse Dong,” Tech wrestling head coach Kevin Dresser said. “You know he’s ranked top four, top five in the nation. We knew Jesse was going to be a highly ranked guy, but he’s right there debatably to be in the top three in the nation by the end of the season.”

Dong had a successful year last year as he went 27-11 overall and 2-2 in the conference competition. However, he did not perform as well as he would have liked in the ACC tournament where he placed second.

The main reason Dong believes he fell short of first place in the tournament was because of his youth.

“Last year I was young, a little naive and obviously a little undersized, so that had a big part in it,” he said. “But you know last year towards the end of the year I took matches for granted and that really started to hurt me, but I did pick it up in the ACC and I got a couple good wins especially in the semis over (Virginia’s) Jedd Moore.

“I feel I have matured overall and have a lot more mat sense now with so much more intensity,” Dong said.

Dong’s self-disappointment carried over to the NCAA tournament in 2009 where he fell in two straight matches to finish his freshman year.

This year, though, Dong said he has what it takes to win it all.

“This year, obviously I’m not going to settle for anything less than the NCAA championship,” he said. So you know sometimes things do go bad, but I’m still going to wrestle my hardest and do the best I can, and I’m not going to settle for anything less than the gold medal.”

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A version of this article appeared in the Mar 17 issue of the Collegiate Times.