Homecoming for a star

It always hurts when a top ranked athlete leaves your program for greener pastures. This summer the UB wrestling team felt the good and the bad of top high profile transfers as they lost junior Mark McKnight while gaining Burt's Ryan Needle from Ohio State University.

"There is a lot of reasons I transferred," said Needle. "I felt like I was pushed aside and I didn't think I was getting any better there."

For head coach Jim Beichner, it's not important why Needle left OSU.

"Obviously he is a home town kid so it started with that," said Beichner about Needle's decision to transfer. "Early on we kind of knew he was looking to go to the Big Ten or one of the bigger conferences and he went off to Ohio State. Things just didn't really work out for him there for a few different reasons and personally it's not important to me what the reasons are. He is a good student, he's a good kid and he's a great wrestler."

As a 2002 Newfane graduate, Needle won three New York State championships and tallied three undefeated seasons. Needle's impressive career record of 240-12 made him one of the nation's top high school recruits.

Following graduation, Needle began his college career at Ohio State, where he red-shirted his freshman year. Last season Needle touted a 9-7 tournament record but saw no dual meet action.

Although Needle hasn't reached the success in his college career that he experienced as a high school grappler, Beichner feels that UB's program will help bring out excellence in an already talented wrestler.

"We've had cases like this in the past and probably one of the things that I am most proud of is every kid that has transferred in here and improved, they've all gotten better," said Beichner. "Ed Pawlak is our latest example."

Above all the talent that Needle brings to the wrestling team, Beichner added that the new transfer's most valuable quality might be his character.

"He brings talent and a level of competition that we want and we need," said Beichner. "He is was a top ten recruit in the country, he has a good work ethic and he is a good student, but maybe most importantly, he is a good citizen. Ryan is the kind of guy you can count on and people are glad to be affiliated with him."

Although Needle will compliment a young and talented squad that sharpened its teeth last year during a season filled with ups and downs, the team will have to replace the void of 125-pounder Mark McKnight.

McKnight finished in the top twelve of his weight class as a true freshman in 2004 and then again as a sophomore in 2005, both years falling just one win shy of All-American status. In his two seasons at UB, McKnight tallied a career record of 65-23 suffering 15 of those losses last season.

This summer the nationally ranked McKnight, who always seemed to be just half a step away from greatness, decided to leave UB and join the Penn State program.

"I'm not shocked, but I don't want to spend a lot of time talking about Mark because Mark isn't here anymore," Beichner said. "Mark was an awesome wrestler and a guy I particularly liked and helped on many occasions. I was there for him when I could be there for him."

Beichner added that even though the loss of McKnight will affect the team, he feels no one is irreplaceable.

"I really can't tell you the reasons he left because I think they are personal issues and he's not here to defend himself and I don't think it's necessary to go into that," said Beichner. "The only thing I can tell you is on the flip side we have not had one guy leave UB and do better than what they were doing here. He may be the exception to the rule because he is an awfully talented wrestler but people that have left here have either gotten worse or plateaued. This is a tremendous place to be. The bottom line is, in this is world everyone is replaceable."

With Needle now here to complement the rest of the squad, the wrestling team will begin regular season competition in the middle of November.