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John P. Lozano/Stanford Athletic
Wrestling

The Uncomfortable Truth

Someday, Keaton Subjeck is going to start his own business and wrestling will fade into the past.
 
He'll take his Stanford computer science degree with a concentration of human computer interaction, and mold a company from his fascination in how people think and what they want from their devices.
 
"That's what's so great about computer science and software," Subjeck said. "All you need is your laptop. There's so much you can do with it."
 
But for the next few weeks, Subjeck prefers to suffer. If you're a wrestler worth your weight (174 pounds in Subjeck's case), you long for the kind of pain that comes with fighting for everything you earn.
 
In the first period of a match last week, Oregon State's Myles Terry brought his arms underneath Subjeck's shoulders and gripped his hands together at the base of Subjeck's neck in a two-handed headlock.
 
His arms flailing helplessly, Subjeck crouched and launched his chest upward, loosening Terry's grip while turning his own body and collapsing on top of Terry for a you-have-to-see-it-to-believe-it no-arm takedown.
 


"If you expect to be on the podium as an All-American in March, you have to learn how to deal with discomfort, recognize it and be able to fight through it," Subjeck said. "It's a skill. Toughness is something that you gain every single day, and improve upon every time you go into the wrestling room."
 
Subjeck joins Nathan Butler and Connor Schram as seniors to be honored at their final home meet, Friday night against Nebraska at Maples Pavilion. The Pac-12 Championships is Feb. 25 in Corvallis and the NCAA's are March 15-17 in Cleveland. After that: Have laptop, will travel.
 
When Subject arrived out of Oak Ridge High near Sacramento, he was California's fifth-best in his weight class. Now, he's No. 9 in the country. Eight earn All-America honors through their NCAA placing.
 
In this sport, the battles are not confined to matches and training. When Subjeck thought he could best help the team by dropping to 165 pounds last year, it paid off in the short term. Facing Vincenzo Joseph in an early-season dual at Penn State, Subjeck dominated early and held on to beat the eventual NCAA champ, 18-12.
 
"I wrestled without fear," Subjeck said. "That's always the best way for me, to just go out there and hang loose and not hold anything back."
 
Subjeck was lean and mean and confident. But as the season wore on, and his weight fluctuated to 180, it became an ordeal. The constant worry about weight, food and energy, "messes with your mind," he said. "if your thinking all those things before you step on the mat, it's that much harder."
 
Joseph got his revenge in the first round of the 2017 NCAA tournament and Subjeck was a first-day casualty in the double-elimination event in St. Louis. Now back to his natural 174, Subjeck grinds each day for one last chance.
   
"If I'm in practice and I'm feeling fine, then I'm not working hard enough," he said. "I want to push myself to the point of exhaustion. You have to put yourself in uncomfortable situations because, in a match, you're going to suffer in more ways than you can possibly think of.
 
"Sometimes anxiety gets to you, or maybe the weight cut was a little hard. You're in a match, you're exhausted, your legs aren't working, you can't breathe, and you can barely stand. But you still have to figure out how to stay in that stance, get that takedown, and finish out."
 
At NCAA's, a loss is inevitable for all but the truly elite, but All-America honors remain at stake.
 
"The consolation tournament is where you see the true heart and character of a wrestler," Subjeck said. "You can't change what happened. The only thing you can do is control your attitude and your mind and prepare for the matches you do have."
 
Though a business career awaits, another kind of business is at hand – one filled with pain and discomfort. And Subjeck will savor it for as long as he can.