Nationally ranked duo of Neal and Arce leading UNT wrestling

[Skipper]

Being the last competitors to hit the mat for their team, two UNT wrestlers know how to deal with pressure. In nearly every meet this season, the rest of the team looks to them in crunch time when everything is on the line.

But that is no problem for sophomores Ikaika Neal and Joseph Arce.

As the final weight classes to compete at every tournament, both Arce and Neal have been charged with bringing up the back and sealing the team’s fate with their performances. This happened recently with the Southwest Conference Championship when it came down to Neal and Arce to secure not only wins for themselves, but consecutive conference championships for UNT as well.

The duo came through.

When it was all said and done, Neal finished in second place in the 235-pound weight class while Arce took home the gold in the 285-pound division.

“Pressure is how diamonds are made,” head coach Andre Metzger said. “I call these two my magical Chevys that take care of business and continue to push themselves even harder.”

Currently ranked No. 18 and No. 10 in the nation respectively, Neal and Arce are gearing up for the national competition March 9-11 in Allen, Texas. And although the tandem are the leaders on the team, their journey to get to the pinnacle of college wrestling could not be more different.

Wrestling since the age of four, Neal was hand-picked on the side of the road in Portland, Oregon where his first coach convinced his grandmother he needed to wrestle.

“I was a really big kid and when [my coach] saw me he said ‘he looks like someone who can become a champion, you should get him into wrestling,’” Neal said. “I was four so I had no choice.”

A simple decision made by his grandmother and a keen observation from his first coach sparked into a passion for Neal, who stuck with the sport until his family moved.

Before his freshman year of high school, Neal’s family relocated to Mesquite, Texas, where they did not have a wrestling team in the district. As a result, Neal went four years without wrestling. Upon graduating high school, Neal came to UNT where he quickly joined the wrestling club — and got back to what he loves most.

Arce, on the other hand, took a much different route to college wrestling than his fellow heavyweight.

At the Optimist Gym in Denton, head coach Andre Metzger (middle) demonstrates different moves to the wrestling team. The team is heading to nationals this week, March 9, 2017 with 12 competitors (5 women, 7 men). Katie Jenkins

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