Team Title Trumps Individual Crown For UCO Champs

Wrestling is often touted as an individual sport, one in which people of all shapes and sizes can participate without worrying about how the team aspect will affect their success.

Try telling that to Dalton Abney and Shawn Streck.

Abney and Streck anchor the end of the lineup for Central Oklahoma, with the junior standouts each capturing individual national titles at the NCAA Division II Wrestling Championships last weekend in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

But, in the eyes of both, that amazing individual highlight pales in comparison to the team title the Bronchos secured. UCO ended a 16-year drought in claiming its 16th championship behind an amazing overall team effort led by its two gold medalists.

"I would trade the individual national title for a team title any day, but just to have this is like the cherry on top," said Streck, who completed a 26-0 season in becoming UCO's first-ever heavyweight champion. "I couldn't picture it being any better.

"I'm just very thankful for my team, my coaches, everybody. This was not just Shawn Streck, this was everybody around me. I give all the credit to them."

Abney took the 197-pound crown for the second straight time to cap a 23-2 season that saw him miss six weeks of second-semester action to injury.

"We won the team title, so it doesn't even compare to last year," Abney said. "It's not even in the same realm how much more important that is to me. Obviously last year was my first and that was a big one, but I couldn't care less. We won the team title, that's the biggest accomplishment you can do."

It was a tough season for Abney. Nagging injuries hampered him all year, including a severe ankle sprain suffered at the NWCA Division II National Duals on Jan. 7 that kept him out of action until the regional tournament on Feb. 26.

"This year was quite a bit harder for me," said Abney, who went 26-0 last season and is now 72-6 for his career. "I had quite a bit of turmoil, quite a bit of adversity, that I had to go through.

"I took two losses and I had about three different injuries in a span of two months. It was rough, but adversity makes you tougher. Adversity shows who real champions are and that's what our coaches preached to me."

Abney became the 12th four-time All-American in school history and the 18th multiple national champion with his title-winning effort. And he still has a season left, thanks to the extra year granted by the NCAA for the COVID-shortened 2020-21 campaign.

The question is, will he return in a bid to become UCO's first – and probably only – five-time All-American?

"It's undecided yet," Abney said. "It kind of depends on schooling and how much I get done because I want to go to PT (physical therapy) school. It kinda depends on how much summer school I get done honestly. And I need to heal up."

Streck had injury issues of his own, missing the first month of 2022-23 recovering from shoulder surgery. He was virtually unstoppable upon his return and gave up only two offense points all season, that coming on a first-period takedown by Lander's Juan Edmond-Holmes in what turned out to be a 7-3 quarterfinal win for Streck.

"Something that really stuck out to me was right before I went out there for the finals, (teammate) Garrett Steidley was like 'hey man, you've been through too much not to get this, so go get it.'" Streck said. "And I went and got it. It's just too surreal."

The championship capped a long journey for Streck.

He was the nation's second-ranked heavyweight after an outstanding prep career at Merrillville (Ind.) High School and started his college career at Purdue. Streck won 30 matches and was a Division I national qualifier in 2017-18 for the Boilermakers, then was out of wrestling for several years.

Streck eventually moved to Oklahoma and came to UCO in January of 2021. He quickly became a dominating force, breezed to the regional title and earned All-America honors with a sixth-place national finish after being forced to default his last two matches with the shoulder injury that required off-season surgery.

"I moved to Oklahoma from Indiana and I've never met anybody as nice as people from Oklahoma," Streck said. "I'll never forget that impression they left on me. I'm an Oklahoman for life.

"When I came to UCO, it took a day for me to feel like I was family. This is a special place and I'm so grateful to everybody here and everything they've done for me."

So much for those who consider wrestling an individual sport.

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Players Mentioned

Dalton Abney: 6' 1"; Junior; 197

Garrett Steidley: 5' 5"; Redshirt Freshman

Shawn Streck: 6' 1"; Junior; 285

Players Mentioned

Dalton Abney
: 6' 1"; Junior; 197

Garrett Steidley
: 5' 5"; Redshirt Freshman

Shawn Streck
: 6' 1"; Junior; 285