It’s yet another beautiful California day in San Luis Obispo as Jon Sioredas hops on the phone to discuss his Cal Poly men’s wrestling program.

Having just wrapped up a morning training session with his team, the ninth-year head coach of the Mustangs will be back on the mat soon enough with his 13-year-old son, who, much to his father’s delight, recently took up the sport.

“It’s been really, really cool because I was never dead set on him wrestling and he’s a little bit of a late starter,” said Sioredas, whose wife was actually the one who encouraged their son to go out for the sport in junior high. “And then I think he got the bug. So now he’s really the driving force.”

That self-motivated, all-in attitude is something Sioredas is equally thrilled to see from the 18-22-year-olds he mentors in the Cal Poly wrestling room each day.

And it’s been especially valuable as the 23rd-ranked Mustangs continue to rebound from an admittedly slower start to their 2024-25 season than they anticipated.

A Different Tone

As the saying goes, “Timing in life is everything.”

Fun fact, a quick Google search says it’s attributed to former President of Pepsi, John Sculley,  but whether that’s iron-clad truth or not, in this instance it relays perfectly to the conversation with the Cal Poly head coach.

“I thought we were a little further along out of the gate, and obviously we were not,” Sioredas said of his team’s early season performance, which included home dual losses to Indiana (31-11) and Stanford (33-12).

Words like “rocky” and “inconsistent” come to mind as he looks back on the first few weeks of November, especially for a group that returned all five of its 2024 NCAA qualifiers.

“You just start looking at your lineup and you’re like, ‘Man, we’ve got some talent this year,’” Sioredas said. “And maybe we were protecting a little bit…worried about injury, worried about overtraining. And it kind of showed.

“I think after Indiana and Stanford we’re like, ‘Man, we are not where we need to be.’”

Sioredas credits the turnaround to an uptick in intensity, guys getting rid of fear and trusting that they’ve prepared to wrestle at a high level, which has led to an “outstanding” past few weeks in the room.

“We had some work to do, and we’ve been digging in,” he said. “And I feel like we’re well on our way.

“I think if we had this phone call a couple weeks ago, the tone’s a little different just because of our output (at the time), but our guys have really stepped up. So it feels really good. I’m really proud of our program right now.”

A reflection of that change in tone can be found in the Mustangs’ recent performance last weekend at the loaded Cliff Keen Las Vegas Invitational.

CKLV Shows Arrow Pointing Up

On its surface, a 13th-place finish out of 30 teams in Las Vegas may not scream notable progress, especially for a program that has finished 27th or better at three of the past four NCAA Championships (2021-23).

But for Sioredas, context matters. And he’s bullish on the latest performance from his guys for several reasons.

“We only had one placer — granted Chance Lamer (ranked #8 at 149 pounds) was out (due to injury) — but two Round of 12’ers,” said the Cal Poly head coach. “But we were top 10 in the tournament most of the day just because of sheer bonus points.

“That’s the type of stuff we’re looking for.”

Indeed, the Mustangs won more than 57 percent of their matches (eight of 14 victories) via bonus points at CKLV. And by tournament’s end, they sat above several bigger names in a field that included seven of the top 11 ranked teams in the country.

All five Mustangs who won matches at CKLV scored bonus points in at least one of them. Combined with one of the weekend’s most surprising individual champions, and it was a weekend Sioredas and his squad are ready to build upon.

“Overall, I was happy with our guys, man,” he said. “Scrappy tournament for us…I think we got a lot of necessary data points so we can get back to the drawing board.”

Zeth Romney Makes His Name Known At 133 Pounds

Of all the data points Sioredas mentioned, the most promising one was undoubtedly the performance of redshirt sophomore Zeth Romney.

Ranked 15th nationally at 133 pounds and seeded fifth entering CKLV, Romney surprised many by navigating his bracket to a title. Just don’t include his coach as being one of those people.

“Not surprised at all” is the phrase that immediately comes to mind for Sioredas when asked for his reaction to Romney’s weekend.

Following a pair of bonus-point wins to start things off, the California native prevailed over a trio of opponents from traditional Midwestern powers to stand atop the podium.

Of those, a quarterfinal win (6-5) over #8 Nic Bouzakis and championship victory (7-3) over #6 Evan Frost particularly stand out — both for being high-level results and for the year-over-year improvement they demonstrated from Romney.

“I think he (Bouzakis) teched us last year at Cliff Keen. And then the Iowa State kid (Frost), he beat us by gosh, I don’t know, 10 or 12 last year,” recalled Sioredas.

He’s spot-on too. 12 months ago, Bouzakis (24-6 technical fall) and Frost (16-3 major decision) each had their way with Romney, who ultimately finished his year going 0-2 at the NCAA Championships.

“That just shows the growth from Zeth,” Sioredas said. 

Romney now sits at #5 in the latest Flo rankings — a mark his coach views as indicative of great progress, but hardly the ceiling for what the 133-pounder can become this season.

“I think there’s more in the tank too,” Sioredas said. “I thought we saw a really good Zeth in Vegas, but I think there’s a little bit more in there.”

If so, Romney is someone folks will want to keep an eye out for when filling out their brackets in March.

Thinking ‘Long’ Term

Romney may have been the standout performer at CKLV, but he and several of his teammates also stand out for another reason in the world of wrestling:

They’re really darn tall.

Take a look up and down the Cal Poly lineup and in many instances it reads like…well, it still mostly reads like a wrestling lineup.

(These guys aren’t exactly going to be mistaken for the Los Angeles Lakers walking off the team bus.)

But it does read like an unusually tall wrestling lineup. And that’s not by accident according to Sioredas:

“I was short for the weight. I’m 5-foot-7 and-a-half wrestling at 165 pounds and I hated wrestling tall dudes,” said the 2005 All-American, who placed fifth for Chattanooga.

“So yeah, we recruit based on our core values and character, but when all else is equal, we do kind of lean towards the lankier guys.”

Starters Romney (5-foot-9 at 133 pounds), Daschle Lamer (6-foot-1 at 184) and Trevor Tinker (6-foot-7 at heavyweight) are just a few of the Mustangs who fit the bill.

Sioredas points to recent successes Bernie Truax and Evan Wick as examples that resonate both with him and his current roster.

Truax was a three-time All-American for Cal Poly before transferring to Penn State last season. Wick concluded his college career with a third-place NCAA finish for the Mustangs after a successful run at Wisconsin, and now serves as an assistant coach on Sioredas’ staff.

“I think there’s value in guys growing while in college,” he said. “And wrestling like a little guy at some of the upper weights, I think is beneficial.”

‘We’re A Wrestling Team. We’re Going To Wrestle.’ 

Unlike some programs in college wrestling, don’t expect Cal Poly to go on an extended hiatus over the holiday season and into the New Year.

The Mustangs will have a double dual with California Baptist and Northwestern on Dec. 19 before sending a collection of wrestlers to the Reno Tournament of Champions a few days later (Dec. 22). Those events will all be streamed live on Flowrestling. 

Fast forward one week and it’s The Midlands (Dec. 29-30) in the Chicago area.

Eleven days after that, Cal Poly returns to the Midwest for the NWCA National Duals.

Says Sioredas of his approach to scheduling: “We’re a wrestling team. We’re going to wrestle.”

Not all starters will compete in every event, but the Cal Poly coach wants to have the “freedom and flexibility” to get guys matches as needed.

“Given the opportunity, we want to wrestle the best teams, we want to go to the best tournaments and we’re going to continue to do so.”

Among those opportunities are next month’s National Duals. Sioredas anticipates having his full lineup on hand in Cedar Falls, including key starters Chance Lamer (149) and Adam Kemp (174),  both of whom are currently recovering from injury.

Cal Poly’s coach was part of the committee that helped assemble a field of similarly-resourced programs for the D1 portion of the NWCA National Duals. His hope is that it could help spur on a future resumption of the event in its fullest form.

“I know National Duals has kind of been hit or miss, but it’s something we need to do,” Sioredas said. “I feel like that’s a general consensus of the majority of coaches.

“I think, even in the short term, if we could have a true National Duals — that’s what’s best for our sport.”

Watch the Cal Poly Mustangs compete in home duals this season live on Flowrestling.