He has been great. He has adapted to the collegiate style of wrestling. He listens, learns and does pretty much what he is told.

I didn't really think I'd be wrestling him (Lucero) in the finals. We are pretty good friends. I was worried he knew too many of my moves and what I would do.

As you get older, your wrestling style matures, and his is starting to mature. He's starting to really refine his stuff and that's nice to see.

I guess I just played into his style of wrestling. He had really good throws and I played into them.

When you have that kind of injury, you have to change your whole style of wrestling. You have to learn how to defend a weakness you've never had before. But the harder it got, Ali just kept working harder.

Pretty much all we do on the ride is talk wrestling. We'll call each other and check our weights when we aren't together.