Storley shines after injury setback

After a short delay, Gophers freshman wrestler Logan Storley has hit his stride.

Storley suffered a right ankle sprain during the Bison Open on Nov. 12 — the Gophers’ first competition of the season. The injury kept the freshman out of the team’s first five duals, and he didn’t return to the team until an early-December dual against Iowa State.

“I went to the [Nov. 4 Daktronics] Open, and I beat the No. 1 Division II guy in the nation 9-4, and things were going great,” Storley said. “I had all tech [falls] going into the finals of the Bison, and I messed my ankle up, and I’m out for a month.”

Storley lost his first two matches after his injury to Iowa State’s Chris Spangler and Penn State’s Mathew Brown and then won his next 11 matches. His season record is 18-3, with the third match coming when he withdrew at the Bison Open because of his injury.

Storley, who is currently ranked No. 7 at 174 pounds, said it was hard for him to sit out with the ankle injury while the team traveled to face top teams like Penn State, Cornell and Oklahoma State. But it made him that much hungrier to get back on the mat.

“They wrestled NDSU at home, and I had to sit on the bench. ‘Never again,’ I said.”

Storley added: “I want to wrestle every single time, so I’m excited to wrestle [now].”

The Roslyn, S.D., native is no stranger to winning.

Storley was a six-time SouthDakota state tournament champion at Webster High School.

When it came time to be recruited, Storley drew the most attention from the Gophers and Nebraska. Like many other wrestlers, Storley said he was drawn to Minnesota by its coaching staff.

“Nebraska really recruited me hard. I talked to some other schools here and there like Arizona State and Iowa for a little bit, but it was really between Minnesota or Nebraska,” Storley said. “Minnesota’s got great fan support. Joel Maturi gives us great support, too — when you have a whole school behind you it’s a big difference.

“It was an easy decision for me,” he added. “The coaches are great, and the teammates are great.”

Storley took summer classes at Minnesota last summer — something he said helped his transition into being a college athlete.

“I got to go to summer school down here and got to get used to lifting and working out,” Storley said. “The ankle kind of put me back a little bit, but now I’m catching back up, and I’ve just been wrestling good lately and going to keep on a roll.”

Once Storley finally got on the mat for dual meets, he became an instant asset to the Gophers’ lineup. In Friday’s dual, his last-second takedown and eventual overtime win sparked Minnesota’s comeback win against Michigan.

“Storley wrestled a great match,” head coach J Robinson said. “Great intensity and the ability to do something at the end to find a way to win.

“We used it as an example and said, ‘Hey, there’s four seconds left, how many people had given up?’”Robinson added. “That’s the beauty — he tied it up, and then he won.”

Robinson added that Storley was figuring out how to “force his will on other people,” which will make him better with time.

Storley is the only true freshman in the Gophers’ lineup but is joined by redshirt freshmen Chris Dardanes, Nick Dardanes and Dylan Ness. After Sunday’s loss at Iowa, Robinson said he is not concerned with the wrestlers’ lack of experience going into the postseason.

“If you look at the Dardaneses, those guys come to wrestle. Dylan’s figuring it out, and Storley this weekend has beaten the fifth and sixth [ranked] guys,” Robinson said. “Our freshmen are doing good, they’ve got the right attitude, and they’ve got the right amount of heart that we need. We just need to keep them on track, and they know what they need to do to win.”