Another top 25 Senior is off the big board. The coveted Illinois upper weight, Nathan Traxler, will be headed to Stanford. Traxler is the reigning 182 pound Illinois state champion and is currently #24 on the Flo Senior Big Board.  Traxler is ranked 6th at 182 pounds currently. 

Traxler, who attends Marmion Academy outside of Chicago has a build that could project him at either 184 or 197 at the next level. Stanford pulled Blair stud David Showunmi in with the last recruiting haul as a 197 pounder as well. The two will work well together as training partners as well as a potential 1-2 punch in the Stanford lineup. Nathan chose Stanford over Princeton, Northwestern, UVA and Michigan.

Being from the Chicago area, Traxler has been battle tested and with that has knocked off a number of familiar names. He’s beaten the likes of FloNationals Champ Xavier Montalvo as well as Cadet World Team member Owen Webster.

Stylistically Nathan uses his length well to penetrate on single legs. He can shoot to both sides but finishes better shooting to his opponent's right leg. He’ll need to improve his strength to compete with the bruisers at 184 or 197 at the next level. A redshirt year could do wonders for Nathan.

We caught up with Nathan to discuss his decision.

“I chose Stanford because I wanted to find a place where I could excel in academics and in wrestling.” Said Traxler, who recently placed 5th at Fargo. “The academics at Stanford are second to none in what I want to study which is engineering. Also, it’s a great place for me to wrestle. I really like the coaches, I really like the team. They’ve got two Junior World Team Members in Joey McKenna and Nathan Butler as well.”

Traxler opened up about which weight he believes he will compete at as well as if he would prefer to take a redshirt year.

“Right now if I don’t grow at all I’m an 84 pounder.” Said Traxler about his D1 weight class projection. “I think eventually I’ll be a 97 pounder and so do the coaches. I’d like to redshirt. If I redshirt that will give me a year to grow and get ready to wrestle at the d1 level.”

Take a look at some of Traxler’s big wins here:

Traxler takes out FloNationals champ Xavier Montalvo at the Montini Duals.

Traxler avenges an 11-12 earlier loss to Webster for 5th place at Fargo!