Creating memories on the mat

Abrams amassed an 87-27 record and the three-time All-American secured third place at Nationals held in Topeka, KS.

Not a bad run.

“It was extremely satisfying to be an All-American and it was really great to see my hard work pay off,” Abrams said.

In his red-shirt sophomore and junior seasons, Abrams took home seventh place at Nationals, so with one last chance to win a National Championship, he put all on the line.

“The difference this year was really my mindset at Nationals,” Abrams said. “I had been there before so I wasn’t fazed as much as I was in my previous seasons.”

Entering action, Abrams was ranked No. 10 in the 184-pound weight class because of a few earlier losses to higher ranked wrestlers.

Abrams made a run to the quarterfinals, but wound up on the short end of 3-2 decision to drop into the consolation bracket.

Although championship dreams fell by the wayside, personal pride kicked in.

He had reached this point for the past two seasons, so Abrams had to shrug off the loss and focus on winning four consecutive matches to place third.

“My first consolation match was against an opponent who had beaten me two times this year,” Abrams said. “And on top of that, if I lost this match I was done, forever. No All-American, no more matches. Well I won those four matches to grab third place and three of those wins were against wrestlers who had beaten me before.”

Win or lose, Jacob’s father Barry, who wrestled at Southern Oregon University from 1981 to 1986 with current SOU coach Mike Ritchey, has pride in his son’s accomplishments.

The life lessons of accountability, hard work pays, goal setting and more will be with Jacob his whole life.

“To get third, Jacob had to visit a place mentally that we all knew he had, call it a reserve tank of resolve, but that he had only visited for brief moments,” Barry said. “He dipped into that tank this time for two days (at Nationals). Now he has an experience to draw on when he is up against adversity. He knows his way around that reserve tank better now and can visit it more frequently. “

In looking back at his wrestling highlights, the TDW state runner-up credited his high school coaches Kevin Kramer, Greg Burkart, Paul Beasley, Rich Rolen, Jim Woods and his father Barry and collegiate coach Mike Ritchey for instilling a winning attitude on and off the mat.

“Wrestling is different from any other sport because when you lose, you can’t blame anybody but yourself,” Jacob said. “My coaches at both the high school and college levels reminded me of this constantly and it has taught me accountability more than anything else. I’ve been lucky to have great coaches in both high school and college.”

In college, Jacob worked on mental preparation, so to develop mental attitude and match preparation as a raw freshman gave Jacob an edge on the mat.

College wrestling is another animal altogether and Jacob learned that early on in his first dual meet at 197 pounds.

Jacob was pinned in 20 seconds and gingerly walked off the mat holding his neck, complaining that his opponent was choking him.

Coach Ritchey showed no consolation, but instead asked Jacob if he should call his mommy.

It was then Jacob realized that college wrestling was going to be very different than high school.

“It wasn’t until towards the end of my freshman year that I fully accepted the challenge of competing at this level,” Jacob said. “I started doing the things that I needed to do to be successful like off-season workouts and proper diet.”

It’s an encouraging sign when former coaches can point to an athlete as an example of success and motivation.

Former coach Paul Beasley does not look at Jacob as a wrestler who went 30-8 in his senior season, but as someone who started wrestling from early age and dedicated time and energy to his craft.

He said Jacob embodied what was right with successful athletes.

“Jacob is a remarkable young man,” Beasley said. “He is a sterling example of a highly-gifted high school athlete going on to learn what hard work and sacrifice can mean to his accomplishments. We are so proud to have him as a wrestling alumni and hope he will come back and give back to our program.”

Jacob wraps up his career at Southern Oregon with a pedigree of winning.

He finished as a three-time All-American.

After graduation, he plans to get his Masters in Psychology and/or Counseling.

There is a plan in place to come back home to The Dalles, but he said nothing is set in stone.

Ritchey is going to miss one his student-athletes, but knows that Jacob leaves the program prepared to handle the rigors of life.

“Jacob is a great young man who is a part of our Raider Family,” Ritchey said. “He’s the 26th three-time All American in SOU history. He has been a pleasure to coach and has a bright future in whatever he chooses to pursue. We would like to thank all his supporters in The Dalles for sending Southern Oregon such a fine student-athlete.”