93 pins over a collegiate career: a new Division III record.
Cementing his name in the record books, Jake Deguire does things his own way. Despite the criticism and doubt placed on him by outsiders throughout his entire wrestling career due to an “unorthodox style of wrestling,” Deguire trusted himself. He knew the work it takes to be special.
“The way I’ve been wrestling my whole life, I’ve always kind of been talked down on,” Deguire said. “Everyone would always tell me that it’ll never work at the next level. I have a weird wrestling style, so the things I do, I shouldn’t.”
A wrestling style of pinning everyone isn’t typically taught or encouraged by coaches throughout the sport, but for Deguire, it works. Through countless hours of training, lifting, and more, the senior has reached new heights never seen before.
On Saturday, Jan. 31, Deguire picked up career pins 91, 92 and 93 in a Springfield quad meet win over Bridgeport and Hunter, passing previous owner of the record, James Bethel, from SUNY Oneonta. Having faced skepticism on his style his entire career, breaking the career pins record was satisfying for the dominant wrestler.
“It means a lot just to show everyone that [my wrestling style] does work,” Deguire said. “I proved everyone wrong.”
Getting into the sport in elementary school after his aggressiveness was recognized by a coach in a physical education class, Deguire started wrestling early, and quickly separated himself from the pack. Today, Deguire acknowledges that he would not be where he is without his teammates throughout the years, and especially at Springfield, helping him to fine tune his style and become a dominant force on the mat.
“Myles [Leonard] is someone I look at that has helped me a ton,” Deguire noted. “My sophomore year, I had 30 pins, and he had 27, good for number one and two in the country. Since we’ve both been here, we’ve pretty much pinned everyone, so going into a match, everyone knows it’ll be hard to wrestle us. So it’s awesome going back-to-back with him.”
For his coaches at Springfield, Deguire could not be more thankful.
“My coaches have given a lot of support to me,” Deguire said. “It’s not very easy to coach me, but they just give me a lot of their trust.”
Looking ahead in the season, Deguire has high hopes for a Springfield team currently ranked at No. 21 in Division III. Knowing the talent and hard work everyone puts in, Deguire wants his team to succeed at a level that hasn’t been achieved yet since he came to Springfield.
“Hopefully, as a team, we can win regionals,” Deguire said. “We haven’t done that since I’ve been here, so winning would be huge. Hopefully bringing five or six guys to nationals would be great as well.”
On top of the team’s success, Deguire believes he has what it takes to win it all this season individually, looking to add a national champion trophy to his collection that already includes two All-American honors and a third place finish nationally last season.
Only wrestling half of this year, Deguire knows the most important part of his season is still to come. Ranked third nationally in the 174-pound weight class according to the NWCA (National Wrestling Coaching Association), the phenom is 16-0 so far this season, with 15 of those victories coming via pin. With all of these wins and pins, Deguire’s focus is unmatched to getting what he ultimately wants.
“For me personally, hopefully I can win Nationals,” Deguire said. “That’s always the main goal.”