Life University sophomore Anna Krejsa, left, in a match earlier this season against Hastings College.
Submitted photo
In wrestling, it’s who’s in front of you — not the number left of you — that counts.
Anna Krejsa, whose college career to this point contains breaks both good and not so good, does her best to keep that in mind every time she approaches the mat.
“I don’t think rankings tell the whole story,” said Krejsa, a sophomore competing for the women’s squad at Life University, an NAIA school located in Marietta, Georgia. “I can’t see a number in front of me. Just an opponent.
“At the end of the day, whoever wants to win that match more on that day is going to win.”
Though the former Center Grove wrestler, a girls state champion as a senior at 126 pounds after medaling the previous two seasons, doesn’t immerse herself in numbers, those surrounding her are proving increasingly difficult to ignore.
Life is the top-ranked women’s team in NAIA. Krejsa, off to an 11-3 start as the team’s starting 123-pounder, is ranked sixth nationally in that weight class.
Call it making up for lost time.
A year ago, the Running Eagles finished with a 16-1 record, securing runner-up status out of 34 teams at the inaugural NAIA Championships in Jamestown, North Dakota. They got there minus the services of Krejsa, who sustained a season-ending injury during the national team duals in Louisville last January.
“I missed, honestly, the last third of the season,” Krejsa said. “My collarbone was sprained, and it did not heal in time for conference and the national tournament. We were wrestling Grand View, I had taken a shot in the match, and she counterattacked. And there was a subsequent scramble.”
In those moments that followed, Krejsa had little choice but to redirect her focus pertaining to wrestling.
“It was really hard, I won’t lie,” she said. “Thinking back, I’m glad there was that struggle. I learned a lot about myself. Just that hardships don’t define you, and you having to keep pushing.”
She quickly adds that she looks forward to learning new lessons along her journey, one that continues at the Soldier Salute national duals tournament in Iowa City today and Saturday.
Krejsa, who didn’t begin wrestling competitively until her sophomore year of high school, majors in psychology and maintains a 4.0 grade-point average.
Running Eagles coach Ashley Flavin has accomplished much in her six-plus seasons leading the program, producing four individual national champions. Life has also had 31 All-Americans and four United States Olympic team trials qualifiers in Flavin’s time there.
She said that in all of those aspects, Krejsa blends in.
“Right now, including Anna, I believe we have 10 wrestlers ranked in the top eight,” Flavin said. ‘Anna is young in matches because of her injury, but because she’s so mature as a person, that makes up for it. She really is a student of the sport in that there aren’t a lot of things brand new to her.
“Anna is very resilient. No matter what the adversity, she tries to fight through it. She accepts the hard part and keeps moving forward with positivity and optimism. She takes such joy with being with the team.”
