Jaydin Eierman is a serious man.
It’s something that his demeanor radiates, and it makes sense at Missouri; the redshirt freshman is part of a program poised to be one of the best in the nation.
Mizzou wrestling is more than practice and dual meets on the mat. It’s a way of life — #TigerStyle which is the team’s motto.
It’s clear that Eierman has completely bought into #TigerStyle.
“That’s what I base my philosophy off of,” he said. “You can’t do something wrong and expect to succeed. Just seeing everyone live their life right and excel in the long run is good to see.”
While a lot of focus is on Olympic bronze medalist J’den Cox, Eierman headed to Mizzou with a better high school wrestling record and the same number of high school state championships as Cox. At Father Tolton High School in Columbia, Eierman went 158-0 and won four Missouri State Championships.
Despite all his high school accolades, Eierman was redshirted his freshman year at Mizzou. Coach Brian Smith said the adjustment to college wrestling is difficult, leading to his decision to redshirt Eierman.
“It was a good year for him,” Smith said. “He was frustrated last year in the beginning when I told him I’m going to redshirt him. But now he is really thankful we did. I know he is.”
In the tournaments he was eligible to wrestle in his redshirt year, Eierman went 22-2 wrestling at 133 pounds in various tournaments. He won three open tournaments that year, most notably the Roger Denker Open.
“It helped me a lot,” Eierman said. “I got to get a full year of competition, test out the water with different nutrition plans. So this year I worked on my nutrition a lot. I got to mature more mentally. So I’m ready to go out there.”
After four years without a loss, finally losing had no impact on the psyche of Eierman.
“There really was no change,” Eierman said. “I wanted to go out there to win and learn. But when I lost it was no big deal. It was fine with me because it’s the sport of wrestling. It’s going to happen, no one is going to be perfect forever. But to learn from that and move on was really big for me.”
This year Eierman is the No. 1 ranked 133-pound wrestler in the Mid-American Conference and Mizzou is in the driver’s seat to win the MAC championship, with a legitimate chance to win an NCAA Championship. Eierman doesn’t feel any of the pressure, and he said he is mentally locked in.
“I don’t go out,” Eierman said. “I don’t party. I stay home. I just do everything right and I expect to succeed in the long run.”
It’s apparent that Eierman has set very clear expectations for himself and will do anything to win.
“We are going to set goals every single day to achieve that national title standard at the end of the season,” Eierman said. “I feel like every one of our guys is title contenders. People may not see it like that, but going in every single day over summer, working with each other, battling hard in the practice room; and seeing everybody take it to a whole ‘nother level is going to be unreal in March.”
_Edited by Peter Baugh | pbaugh@themaneater.com_
