Team Player: Andrew Howe

Photo: Jeff Miller

At 165 pounds in NCAA Division I wrestling this season, there’s Andrew Howe x’13 … and then there’s all the rest. The entire weight class will be looking to give the Badger grappler something he didn’t experience last season — a loss.

Unsatisfied with an NCAA Championships runner-up finish as a freshman in 2009, Howe revamped his wrestling style for 2010 to be more aggressive, pursuing attacks to score more points and to keep his opponents tired and on their heels.

It worked. All eyes are now on the number-one-ranked junior wrestler after last season, in which he put together a perfect 37-0 campaign that culminated in a national championship, making him the fourth wrestler in UW history to go undefeated and the first to win a national crown since 2001. A collegiate championship has been the Cedar Lake, Indiana, native’s goal ever since high school, and he achieved the feat through hard work and training. In addition to regularly scheduled team practices, Howe is up each morning before sunrise for a regimented workout that keeps him in top shape.

But this season is no one-man show. Howe leads an impressive Badger squad that finished fourth in last year’s NCAA tournament, which ranks as the UW’s highest finish ever.

“Individually, I want to win another national cham-pionship,” Howe says. “And it should be a great season for our team — maybe one of the best yet. If everything comes together and we put a good [NCAA] tournament together come March, there’s no reason we can’t win it.”

Published in the Winter 2010 issue