[00:03:00] WSN: Joining a list of 10 NYU wrestlers to reach 100 career wins, graduate student Trent Furman embodies mental toughness and a strong work ethic. In 2023, he suffered a season-ending injury on the mat. But he bounced back from the injury, finishing with a 24-8 record — winning the Doug Parker Invitational in November and being named UAA Champion in February.
As the wrestling season kicks off, Furman continues his dominance in the middleweight division, remaining undefeated so far — finishing first in both the Racich Rumble and the Ned McGinley Invitational.
While Furman has found immense individual success, maintaining a winning record in three weight divisions, he credits his teammates and coaches for helping further his understanding of the sport. His willingness to learn from those around them has translated into the classroom, as Furman was named to the UAA Presidents Council Scholar-Athlete Team last year as well — an award recognizing 155 UAA athletes for their academic achievements across all sports.
In an interview with WSN, Furman spoke about his wrestling journey, weight training and off-the-mat ambitions.
[00:01:08] WSN: So let’s get into the first question. This weekend, you were honored for your 100th career win at NYU. Can you sort of describe some of the emotions that went into that win?
[00:01:17] Trent: Yeah, we got celebrated this weekend for me and Cooper’s 100th win. Cooper got his the weekend before the first tournament, I got mine at the second tournament. I would say it’s a little different than high school.
High school, you know, you’re there with your friends and family, more so versus college. You guys are on your team, and a bunch of random other people that congratulate you at the tournament. I think college was a lot harder to achieve 100 wins — you know, if you look at NYU’s history, I think only nine or 10, including me and Cooper, have done it. So that just shows right there where you look at a lot of high schoolers and a lot of them have their 100 wins when they come into college. So it just is more special, I would say, getting 100 wins in college than in high school.
[00:01:56] WSN: Were you ever intimidated by the sport coming into it? It’s a very physical sport, there’s a lot of technicalities to it, there’s a lot of maneuvers to do. Was that all making you hesitant or were you just immediately falling in love with this sport?
[00:02:08] Trent: I don’t know. Wrestling’s kind of a weird thing because if you ask a lot of top wrestlers, they’re like, ‘oh, do you love this sport?’
They’re like, ‘yes and no,’ because the practices — they’re hard. Even when you do really well — whether you win a tournament, take second, third — your body still hurts the next day. It’s still a grueling sport. Even if you’re the first string, the starter or the backup, you’re still going through those practices, still grueling.
The emotions after — when you win and all that — it’s great. So I feel like that’s the feeling that keeps people coming back to it, because if you just do the practices with no end goal or end reward, it’s kind of hard. And not many people want to do that. You know, where other sports have a team where you sub in and out, wrestling… it’s just you within the center of the mat. It’s like, if you lose the match, that’s on you. You win the match — that’s on you.
[00:02:56] WSN: An underrated skill of a wrestler is they’re conditioning and in shape. So could you describe what your practice looks like?
[00:03:06] Trent: So, normally get in there about 15 minutes early, start warming up, start stretching on your own. Because when practice starts, we just go right into it. So on any given day, we’ll warm up, then we’ll go into some situations where let’s say we’re on our feet, which is like the neutral position where you have to hand fight, to get into a good position where you can go and attack and take down your opponent.
So we’ll do that for 10, 15 minutes. Then we’ll start drilling our takedowns, whether that’s single legs, double legs — just work on that. And then we’ll go into more live wrestling, where you and your partner are in either situations that you’re going to get in a match or just a live match and that’s just seven minutes, just you and your partner, just wrestling.
No one really keeps score. Sometimes you keep score. Sometimes you do different situations, like you’re down by a point, you have to go after just like in a real match. And then we end with conditioning — either sprints, more wrestling or something called monkey rolls, which are kind of brutal.
[00:04:03] WSN: What keeps you coming back to it year after year — whether it’s a technical thing or whether it’s the thrill of going out there and competing and not knowing what your opponent’s going to do — what draws you into the sport?
[00:04:15] Trent: I would say the feeling of getting your hand raised. It’s easy to say, but there’s no better feeling than coming off the match qualifying for nationals or at the national tournament with your hand raised. And then you look back at that when you’re in the off-season like I wish I could do that again.
Versus when you’re in the middle of the season like ‘oh, this sucks. I can’t wait for it to be done.’ But you look back on your middle school wins, high school wins and those special moments that you shared with your friends and family like ‘I wish I could do that again.’ So that’s what I would say keeps bringing you back.
[00:04:46] WSN: And then, we touched upon this earlier where you said your experience from freshman season to COVID — not having that season was a little different than most. But can you talk about your transition in terms of your weight and your physical size? You went from like 133 your first two years and then 157 and now you’re at 184. So what was the strategy behind that? Was that something the coaches were telling you or is that some initiative you took on yourself maybe strategically to help yourself suit your skills better? Or like, what was the mindset behind that?
[00:05:15] Trent: Yeah, I was cutting a lot of weight freshman year. I would say from the 150 down to 133, that was kind of miserable. I’m really thankful that we had COVID because if we didn’t, I don’t know if I would’ve came back because the weight cut was just brutal and it made it a miserable experience.
By the end of freshman year, I was like, ‘I can’t wait for this to be done.’ COVID — kind of just naturally gained weight, lifted a bunch. And then by the time the season rolled around for junior year, I was weighing like 160-165, and I was like 157 made the most sense. Same thing with senior year, before I got hurt, 157 made the most sense for me to go — wasn’t really cutting too much.
Then once I got hurt, I didn’t know if I was going to wrestle, if I was going to come back to grad school, so I just kind of lived life, ate — naturally got up to 185. And then when I decided to come back, 184 was ‘I don’t want to cut any weight.’
I wake up on weight now that there’s no weight cuts. And now just wrestling — versus every practice freshman year was just focused on getting down to weight. And that was brutal. I don’t suggest any wrestler does that.
[00:06:14] WSN: Yeah. I mean, you see the MMA guys, when they have to do those weight cuts and the tax on their body is just insane. And then you said on your bio on the athletics pages how you enjoy cooking as some of your hobbies. Can you kind of talk about your nutrition and the importance of taking care of your body, especially competing year-round?
[00:06:31] Trent: Yeah. I would say that’s the biggest thing that I’ve learned. I would say from coming to college, my freshman year diet was terrible. I admit that. If I go back, the weight cut would be a lot easier. I would make 133 a lot easier.
Now I kind of eat the same foods over and over again, make sure to hit my protein, fats and carbs, as well as my micronutrients, and that has played a big role in putting on muscle, putting on good weight, as well as just feeling better.
A lot of guys don’t eat the best after weigh-ins. They don’t feel good. They feel sluggish or lethargic, or they just try to eat as much as possible because they had a brutal weight cut. I go for the approach where you want to be at a baseline, whether it’s like all year long, or at least in the season where you’re not really fluctuating too high, because if you rollercoaster up or rollercoaster down, it’s just going to make the end of the season worse.
So, the whole goal is do good in February and March, and you can’t really do that if your weight is out of control. In terms of a recovery standpoint or just an overall health standpoint, you want to be eating good foods. If you’re an athlete and you’re doing two to three workouts a day, you want to make sure that you’re adequately fueling your body.
[00:07:41] WSN: Yeah, exactly. And do you think there’s any crossover between what you’re doing now as a graduate student and moreover as a student-athlete? Between some of the skills you picked up on the mat, some lessons from coaches?
[00:07:52] Trent: I would say, as you get older in general, you’re gonna get more mature. You’re gonna think differently. You’re not gonna do the things you used to do. So, let’s just say freshman year, you’re kind of stubborn and like ‘I do my technique a certain way. I know what’s best. I had success in high school, I’m going to have success now.’ Versus now you’re more — or at least I am — open to new technique, newer moves and, you know, see what works.
That’s just coming from maturity, looking at other guys, looking at the Division I guys, the international guys, and just picking their brain — same thing with school. A lot of kids come in thinking that they’re the smartest from high school and not really being open to new ideas. And I would say just as you grow as a person, you’re going to change your ideas and be more open to change.
[00:08:41] WSN: I remember I was watching this game last year that you were in and your nose just got battered early on against the mat. The blood started rushing down your face. They put the gauze up in there and it still kept on bleeding. And then, ultimately, I don’t know how the match went. But regardless of that, can we just talk about what inside of you makes you continuously go out there and perform? Even if your face is covered in blood and you may not be having the best day — what kind of motivation pushes you forward?
[00:09:12] Trent: Yeah, I would just say it’s a strong willpower, strong discipline and desire to win. It’s easy to just say ‘I’m kind of done’ — like give up and just lose the match or stop wrestling. A lot of guys, once they get to the collegiate level, they get into college — especially if it’s a good college like NYU — nothing’s really tying them to continue to play the sport anymore and they’ll leave.
But I would say it’s the discipline that I’ve done it for this long. I’m going to stick it out to the end, and just wanting to end on a good note, being a national champion in March or whatever your goals are as a person or as an athlete, just continuing to prove yourself in a way.
[00:09:57] WSN: What’s something that you’ll look back fondly on, whether it’s a memory or a lesson that was instilled upon you?
[00:10:03] Trent: There’s a good quote by Dan Gable — famous, famous wrestler in Iowa — Hawkeye coach and wrestler for I think 40 plus years. He said once you do wrestling, everything else in life is easy. I think that’s true. Talking to other athletes or other people or even doing other jobs.
I think it’s just, once I’ve done wrestling, done the weight cut, done the hard practices, I go into anything like ‘okay, it’s not going to be as hard as that’ — might be hard, but not as hard as wrestling. So, I think as I move forward and my career ends and I start my professional career, some jobs might be hard, might have long hours or the work might be real tough. The math might be real tough or people might be hard to deal with, but I don’t think anything will be as hard as college wrestling.
So, moving that forward, it taught me a lot of hard work, a lot of discipline where I don’t have motivation to come in and do the practice.
That’s where motivation kind of takes a backseat to discipline where you’re just going to come in and do it regardless if you want to or not. And that’s the biggest thing between great wrestlers and good wrestlers or great athletes and good athletes — the great athletes are going to do it even when they don’t want to. Good athletes are only going to want to do it when a coach is motivating them or something’s motivating them. So I think that’s the biggest thing, just being disciplined, even in all walks of life, even when you don’t want to do something.
[00:11:21] WSN: As your season concludes and your career comes to an end at wrestling for NYU, what are you going to remember and what’s your greatest memory at NYU?
[00:11:31] Trent: I would say my teammates. Wrestling is kind of different in a lot of sports because you do all the practice together with your starter, backup, like I said before. So, being at the hotel with the guys after you just had a hard weight cut, waiting for the day, everyone’s kind of nervous for the next day weigh-ins or a big tournament. I would say there’s no feeling that can replicate that.
Contact Logan Holland at [email protected].
