After finishing his high school wrestling career with a fifth-place finish in the Division III state meet at 182 pounds, Mount Gilead’s Andy Williamson will work to progress in the sport at Trine University.
Before choosing the Indiana school, he was also considering Otterbein — noting that the decision wasn’t easy to make.
“I took a visit to Otterbein after the season and everything went great, but after I came home, I decided I wanted to go to Indiana,” he said. “The day before, I didn’t know where I was going and the next day, I also didn’t. Then I asked myself where I wanted to go today.”
He added that he found parallels between Trine and Mount Gilead, with both schools having small-town atmospheres and less established wrestling programs.
“It doesn’t have a big wrestling background, but they have such a young team,” he said. “It could be the start of something great. They have great talent coming in and great talent there.”
Williamson, who will major in actuarial science, knows it will take a lot of work for him to be able to help Trine’s wrestling team. He said that building more muscle will be key.
“It’s going to take a lot of hard work,” he said. “I have to get up to really big man structure. You have to be so muscularly strong. On the wrestling part, you have to be in a room with great guys.”
Williamson is looking forward to experiencing college life.
“The traditional college experience,” he said when asked what he’s eager to experience. “Meeting new people and making new friends and living on my own and away from my parents. Developing and getting ready for a job and seeing how successful I can be and the same with sports.”
He’ll take a lot of memories from Mount Gilead. He said that his years with the MG wrestling program provided a lot of memorable moments.
“I’ll remember the big tournaments for sure,” he said. “But also the duals and being next to my friends and whipping on people. After wrestling meets, we’d get a speaker and blare country music the whole way home.”
While wrestling for Mount Gilead, Williamson set a number of program records. Now, his hope is that future athletes coming through the program can knock him down the list.
“It feels really good to put in the work and have so much success,” he said. “I don’t want to be on top forever and I want someone to break my records. That’s how you build a program. I’ve already had a couple kids come up and say they heard I’m the best wrestler.”
