Quentin Wright finished last season as an All-American in the 174-pound weight class. But entering this season, he was looking for more -- more weight, that is.
While most people associate the sport of wrestling with cutting weight, many individuals need to gain weight in order to compete in a higher weight class.
In the offseason, Wright went from a lanky 174-pounder on the Penn State wrestling team to nearly 205 pounds. Although he is back to wrestling at 184 pounds this season, getting bigger is something he hopes to continue to do throughout his time on the team.
"Some guys think it's easy to gain weight, but adding functional and beneficial weight takes a lot of discipline, too," assistant coach Matt Dernlan said. "Quentin's got that strength, and you can see already he's gotten significantly bigger. As long as he doesn't go backwards at all, as long as he's keeping his weight maintained and keeping strong, then we can have a long period of time after the season to add more functional weight to him."
While bulking up this summer, Wright said he ate six full meals and drank a gallon of milk a day. He also spent a lot of time in the gym lifting weights to try to put on more muscle mass than fat.
He plans on doing the same thing this upcoming summer to hopefully move up another weight class or two, though he said the heavy eating does sometimes leave him very full or with a stomachache.
"It helped me get my weight up, and what it does is it helps keep your metabolism moving," Wright said. "As long as you're weightlifting, then your body can go in there and build you up bigger and stronger. If you don't put all that food in there, you don't have the resources to build your body up."
Strength and conditioning coach Shawn Contos said that gaining weight is harder than cutting weight, and assistant coach Casey Cunningham agreed. Cunningham, a 1999 Central Michigan graduate, had to move up weight classes in college when the NCAA altered the class system.
Wrestlers can't just go out and eat McDonald's or Burger King, he said. They have to continue eating healthy, but consume eating larger portions more frequently throughout the day.
"Gaining good weight takes time," Cunningham said. "You can't just do it in two weeks; it takes a few months to put on good, solid weight that's going to stay."
