Feb. 8, 2007

WASHINGTON - It was early November in the Meltzer wrestling room when AU redshirt freshman Mike Cannon found out, much to his and head coach Mark Cody's surprise, that he was voted as one of the 2006-07 wrestling team captains. Through all the teams and programs Cody had been a part of in more than 25 years, a freshman had never been named team captain. Luckily for AU, the 165 lb. Maryland native has proven his teammates' intuition correct this season, showing little first-season jitters while becoming one of American's most talented wrestlers.

Placing in every tournament of his redshirt campaign, Cannon was named the team's redshirt of the year and made the leap to the starting lineup and a leadership role on the team immediately this season. In his first time in an AU singlet, Cannon grinded out three decisions and a major decision to win the 165 pound division at the Keystone Classic, despite being seeded No. 5 coming into the tournament. "I went there to win and wasn't thinking about who I was wrestling against," Cannon says. "I went out there with the same mentality each match and ended up beating some pretty decent guys."

Cannon's performance there made Cody and the rest of the EIWA conference take notice as he catapulted from being unranked in the conference preseason rankings to second among 165 lb. "I knew he was for real after that," the fifth-year AU head coach said. "He wrestled so tough there. I knew the season would have a few bumps in the road [including an ankle injury that he wrestled through in late November] and he's handled that great."

Over the past three and a half months leading into this week, Cannon has consistently proven that his early success was no fluke. He's amassed a team-high 21 wins and garnered rankings as high as No. 2 in the EIWA and No. 17 in the country in both the Intermat/NWCA and W.I.N. Magazine rankings. In late December, Cannon fought to an eighth-place finish at the prestigious Midlands Tournament, becoming one of just five Eagles to place in the tournament in program history. "In an individual sport like ours, you need to hold yourself accountable for correcting mistakes and getting better and Mike's great at doing that," Cody said.

Cannon and the AU coaching staff knows his path to this year's success was by no means easy. Cannon came to AU in the fall of 2005 with credentials that did not garner any national attention. As a one-time state champion in a sport saturated with high school All-Americans, he knew that hard work was a given if he was going to survive on the Division I level. From day one, Cody was impressed with Cannon's desire to put in the work to improve. "He came here with a great work ethic and really has got it figured out," he says. "Every success starts in the room. All your matches go back to your training. From a coaching standpoint when you have an athlete that motivated on his own, the only thing you have to tell him is to slow down once a while. Mike does everything we ask of him."

Cannon threw himself into his training, working with former AU assistant coach Pat Popilizio and teammate Rudy Rueda, whom he credits for his gains over the past year. "A lot of improving is your environment and coaching," Cannon notes. "Just talking to coach Cody and Pat a few times totally changed my mindset. I started to believe these guys can get me to the national level. In high school I had the work ethic, but I didn't have the coaching staff to take me to the next level. When I came here and had the coaches working with me and telling me what I was doing wrong, I took it to heart. I worked on it everyday." Slowly but surely, Cannon went from getting tech falled by Rueda almost everyday in practice to battling point-for-point with him in workouts by this season.

Though he has a reputation as a hard worker, Cannon thinks the mental side of competing is also an edge he has over opponents. "They say wrestling is 99 percent mental and it's so true," he notes. "If you go out there thinking that `this guy is a senior, this guy is ranked in the country, I'm going to lose this match' then you're not going win. If you go out there with the mindset that `I'm going to take it to this guy, I'm going force my style on him and work my stuff and have him worrying about what I am going to do, then you're going to win most of the time."

Friday night Cannon will square off in a big mental and physical test against his former youth club partner and mentor Jason Kiessling. Before Cannon even dreamed about American University or an NCAA title, Cannon looked up to the No. 11 ranked Terrapin and watched him win a state title in Maryland. Friday's matchup will be a reunion of sorts for the friends, so winning carries extra weight. "It would be a big confidence booster to win and I believe I can beat this guy," Cannon says. "To be on the same level as him after watching him for so long is kind of weird. I'm excited though, it's one of our most-anticipated matchups of the year."

Looking beyond Friday night's match with Maryland, the season's real goals are still a month away and Cody will sell Cannon short on what he can achieve this year. "His main goals are the EIWA Tournament and the NCAA Tournament," he says. "He has a great opportunity to get on the podium in Auburn Hills. There's no limit to what he can do because he wrestles so hard and he fights right to the end of the match. If you do that, you'll always be in a position to win."

Despite the success he's already achieved Cannon is fueled by a need to get to the very top and no less. "Every since I stepped on the mat and started winning, I wanted to be the best at this," Cannon says. "I've never wanted to be just a good wrestler or a mediocre guy that takes third or fourth at different tournaments. I want to dominate everybody. Through high school I took my lumps and came up short a bunch of times. That feeling of defeat where you work so hard for something and all that hard work is taken away when you lose, motivates me even more."