Nebraska has been one of the top teams this season after a runner-up finish at NCAAs last year, and one of the most consistent performers for the Huskers has been #10 Camden McDanel at 197 pounds.

McDanel seems to have turned a corner this season after going through a brutal schedule a year ago. McDanel went 22-14 last year with 10 losses to All-Americans and the rest to wrestlers who had at least made the round of 16 at NCAAs.

Then a true freshman, McDanel peaked at NCAAs with an eighth-place podium finish. Coming in as the 20-seed, McDanel lost his first match to All-American Trey Munoz before winning four consecutive matches on the back side to secure All-American honors, beating Indiana’s Gabe Sollars 7-3 in the blood round.

According to McDanel, the difference for him — both at NCAAs and coming into this season —  has been his level of self-belief.

“I wrestled all the best guys last year as a freshman – there was no easing into it. That’s what the best guys are like, so if you want to be a national champion, wrestle like that and beat those guys,” he said. “I took the whole season to figure it out, and at nationals I lost first round, and it was like ‘This is it — fight or you’re done.’ 

“I think that’s where my belief really started. Coming in as the 20-seed, it was just pure belief at that point. It was like you’re either going to fight and make it out or you’re not. It shows how much belief can change things — it can change from 20th-ranked to eighth-ranked.”

Believing in himself has been a focus this year for McDanel, who is currently 14-5 on the year with his losses coming only to Top-10 guys. McDanel says he needs to fall back on his training to gain belief.

“I’m a hard worker in the room, and that’s really what I put a lot of my wrestling and ability into is the hard work that I put in,” McDanel said. “I may not be the most talented guy or have the slickest takedowns, but I’m going to work hard. I have to believe in that because I’ve put all this hard work in, so I need to start utilizing it in my matches.”

A man of faith, McDanel credited his belief in a higher power for his increased sense of belief in himself.

“I’m a very faith-based guy, and the closer I feel like I am to God because believing in yourself is hard,” McDanel said. “I think that having a higher power to look up to and knowing there is somebody pulling the strings, it really makes it a lot easier and a lot more comforting when you get really stressed out and things are scary — just knowing somebody is always there for you.”

Over the past two weeks against three of the top teams in the country in Iowa, Ohio State and Penn State, McDanel has been one of Nebraska’s top performers. After earning a 20-5 technical fall over Iowa’s Brody Sampson, McDanel earned the best win of his young career against #11 Luke Geog of Ohio State. After giving up the opening takedown, McDanel came back with two takedowns of his own for the 9-6 win.

“Even now, I don’t think that I have enough (self-belief),” McDanel said. “Throughout the year, I’ve gained it and I think that Ohio State was a great example of just going out there and not thinking and just doing it. I got taken down first pretty early, but I didn’t worry about it because I knew I was going to get it back.”

For a guy who’s generally pretty mild-mannered on the mat, McDanel was fired up after that win over Geog, flexing and pumping up the home crowd.

“Younger guys sometimes don’t know how to show their emotion, and I think that was really good,” Nebraska coach Mark Manning said. “Cam works his butt off and always puts in extra time, so for him to show that emotion was really good. He’s showing people that ‘This means a lot to me, and I put a lot into it,’ so that’s a big step for him.”

This past weekend, McDanel fell to #1 Josh Barr 21-9 — he scored the first takedown against Barr all season during the third period. After losing to Barr by tech fall twice last year, McDanel and Manning were encouraged by this match, despite it being a loss.

“Not just the takedown, but getting my butt handed to me a little bit and just not getting tech falled (was encouraging) —  it was different from last year during that match,” McDanel said. “I think getting that takedown and just staying in the match — I mean, I felt him crack. He came out like a rocket, and he got a lot of points and was way ahead of me, but I felt him get tired. I think I could have fought longer, and I don’t think that he could have, despite the point differentiation. If I can get a takedown then, I can get more and I can do it earlier.”

“It showed good belief and that he can do it in the first period,” Manning said. “They do a good job of coming out hard in the first period, and Cam was kind of overwhelmed again with Barr, but those are things that we can change. If you can take him down one time, you can take him down three times – that’s what it shows me. You gotta go and do it against tough competition.”

With just over four weeks until the Big Ten Championships, McDanel is focusing now on improving in the areas where he was exposed against Barr in anticipation of a postseason rematch.

“I don’t have any crazy competition the next four weeks up until Big Tens, so I can really crack down and train on what went wrong in that match, what went right, and I can really grow from that in the next five weeks until Big Tens,” McDanel said.

Nebraska’s top recruit in 2023, McDanel took a grayshirt year in 2024 after an incredible 2023 in freestyle at the U20 level. McDanel won his first of two US Open titles that year before making the world team at 97 kg and coming home with a world bronze medal for Team USA. Also a two-time U20 Pan-American champion, McDanel then competed at the Senior level at the 2024 Henri Deglane where he won gold at 92 kg.

Now that he’s no longer U20 eligible, McDanel says he’ll set his sights on making U23 and Senior-level World teams moving forward.

“I’m always going to be trying to make world teams in wrestling — I love competing,” McDanel said. “I’d like to go to the US Open, but we’ll see what the coaches want me to do, but I always liked wrestling at the Open, so I’d wrestle Seniors there. I don’t care, I’ll wrestle anybody.”

Huskers Gave #1 PSU Toughest Dual To Date

After falling to #6 Iowa and nearly knocking off #2 Ohio State at home the weekend before, Nebraska traveled to #1 Penn State this past Friday and kept it closer than anyone else has this year, winning three total matches at 141, 157 and heavyweight.

“I believe in this team, so it’s all about how our team comes through with learning what they have to do to win these big matches,” Manning said. “We have to know how to win close matches. We did a better job against Ohio State and won a lot of close matches. We have some tough individuals on our team, it’s just how much better can they get? We need to be able to force the issue in some of these matches and be more aggressive.”

The most talked about match after the dual was #2 Antrell Taylor’s 2-1 tiebreaker win over #4 PJ Duke at 157 pounds. Taylor put together a full 30-second ride in the second tiebreaker period to earn the win.

“He stays tough in the fight and he didn’t change — that’s what I was really encouraged by,” Manning said. “He didn’t change how he wrestled, and he didn’t panic and stayed the same that whole match. His demeanor was really good that way. He’s a tough man and that showed Friday night when a tremendous amount of pressure was put on him.”

With that win, Taylor is now on a 10-match win streak and has a 16-2 record on the year.