After biding time at CMU, Brighton's Mason Shrader is NCAA wrestling qualifier
In an era in which many college athletes rush to the transfer portal when things don’t go their way, Mason Shrader is a breath of fresh air.
Shrader was a state champion wrestler at Brighton High School, but couldn’t crack the starting lineup during his first three seasons at Central Michigan University. A walk-on, he was even footing his entire bill to attend college his first two years on campus.
But look at him now.
Shrader is preparing to compete in the NCAA Division I wrestling championships, which take place Thursday through Saturday in Philadelphia at the Wells Fargo Center, home of the NHL Flyers and NBA 76ers.
Getting to this stage has been Shrader’s dream ever since he committed to CMU, even for his first three years when he was down the depth chart behind nationally ranked wrestlers in his weight class.
“It’s frustrating not being able to go out there and wrestle in dual meets and being in the starting lineup,” said Shrader, a redshirt junior. “My coach has always told me, ‘Keep your eyes on the goal. No matter the outcome, keep striving for what you want to accomplish.’
“I’ve kept my mindset on striving for a national title, so when the time comes, I don’t miss a beat. It can be very easy to go two, three years not hitting the starting lineup and you kind of just want to be done; you didn’t get your opportunity. Sometimes your opportunity doesn’t come until your fourth or fifth year. I’ve kept my eye on my goal. I’m here now.”
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Shrader got here by finishing second at 149 pounds in the Mid-American Conference tournament March 8 in Trenton, N.J.
CMU coach Ben Bennett knew Shrader had the potential to be a national qualifier if he stuck with the process and patiently waited for his opportunity, two concepts that seem foreign in this day and age of college athletics.
“That’s been the most impressive thing about Mason was just his commitment to our team,” Bennett said. “The last couple years, we had really good guys at 149 and 157. Both of those weight classes we had top-20 guys in the country. He hasn’t quite been able to break the starting lineup.
“There’s probably places he could have wrestled. For whatever reason, he liked it here and he stuck with it. This year, he’s had his opportunity and he’s taken advantage of it. It’s cool to see a kid stick around and make the commitment. He was an awesome teammate the last couple years to help get those guys ready. Now he gets his opportunity.”
Shrader grinded away in the CMU wrestling room for two years without receiving a dime of scholarship money. He impressed the coaches enough to earn a partial scholarship going into this third year.
Bennett said CMU has only 9.9 full scholarships for its 30-man roster.
“I wasn’t really striving for scholarship money,” Shrader said. “It was just a cool thing to see my hard work paying off, for sure. I really enjoy the journey that got me where I am right now, coming in as a walk-on. I came here because I wanted to wrestle, not because I was getting the money.”
The Chippewas are fortunate to even have a team. Wrestling is often among the casualties when colleges try balancing their offerings between men’s and women’s sports. Eastern Michigan and Western Michigan don’t have wrestling programs. CMU is one of only five MAC members with programs, so eight other small schools joined the MAC only for wrestling.
CMU doesn’t just have a wrestling team, but one that is highly competitive. The Chippewas finished second out of 13 teams in the MAC tournament and won a dual match against Michigan State. In a dual against Michigan, Shrader won a 4-2 decision against Dylan Gilcher, who was ranked ahead of him nationally and also qualified for NCAAs.
“It does feel good,” Shrader said. “We’re seen as the smaller school. The Big Ten schools are going to get the bigger recruits and the most Instagram and Tik Tok likes. They’re gonna get the social media, which is something we don’t really care too much about at Central. We just focus on wrestling hard. It feels good to get one on them. I still have the utmost respect for every Michigan State and Michigan wrestler. Stepping out on the line takes a lot of guts.”
At Brighton, Shrader was the state Division 1 champion at 140 as a senior in the COVID-shortened 2021 season, going 31-0. He is one of only two unbeaten Livingston County male state champions in the past 12 years, the other being Hartland’s Kyle Kantola in 2019.
Shrader was a four-time all-stater who went 141-23 during his career, but he wasn’t even sure he wanted to continue competing in college until he took a visit to CMU.
“I realized the program up here runs deep,” he said. “We’ve had a national champ. We’ve had over 30 All-Americans. There’s a winning culture at Central. It kind of just drew me here. I came in as a walk-on. I didn’t get any money or scholarship. I knew it was the right place for me. Ever since I got here, I love how hard we work.”
Shrader was surprised to find out he’s the first wrestler from Brighton High School to qualify for an NCAA tournament.
“There’s been a lot of great wrestlers come out of Brighton,” he said. “I just feel like once you hit the college level, especially Division I, it’s a complete reset. What you did in high school, not that it doesn’t matter, but everyone’s really good at any level of college wrestling. You’ve got to put the accomplishments from high school behind you and focus on, ‘All right, what’s my next goal in college?’”
Shrader is seeded 24th out of 33 wrestlers at 149 for nationals with a 24-8 record. He will wrestle ninth-seeded Cross Wasilewski (22-3) of the University of Pennsylvania in the first round Thursday.
“Mason’s been willing every step of the way,” Bennett said. “He’s been bought in. He does the work. He’s extremely coachable.”
Contact Bill Khan at wkhan@gannett.com. Follow him on X @BillKhan
This article originally appeared on Livingston Daily: CMU's Mason Shrader qualifies for NCAA wrestling after biding time
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