ASU senior Matt Kraus is experiencing the most success he's ever had at No. 24 ASU, and he is ready to take it to the next level.
Kraus just wrapped up a regular season that saw him finish with a 26-5 record. That included him going 14-0 in duals, 4-0 in the Pac-12 and winning the Edinboro Open at the 149-pound weight class.
He also earned Pac-12 Wrestler of the Week honors in January and was the runner-up at the Pac-12 Championships.
Kraus vastly improved this year and qualified for the NCAA tournament for the second straight season after coming off a 20-12 junior season. All eyes are on the reticent leader of the ASU wrestling squad.
“Matt’s been a leader of the team and nobody works as hard or competes as well or (is) as diligent in his preparation as Matt,” head coach Zeke Jones said. “He’s really turned it into a place now where he can get on the podium at the NCAA tournament. He’s a tough guy to beat.”
Much like his teammate, roommate and close friend Blake Stauffer, Kraus grew up in a small town in Missouri called Imperial, which is 23 miles south of St. Louis, and family values are a big aspect of the Kraus family.
“I grew up in a house where my grandma was in a house on my right and my aunt and uncle were in a house on my left,” Kraus said. “I was surrounded by a lot of people who helped me, and my parents are the main reason why I’m here.”
He lived a normal childhood, growing up playing baseball and football, water-skiing and riding boats at his family’s lake house during the summer.
He enjoyed playing the other sports, but he felt wrestling was his true calling. He graduated with academic honors from Seckman High School and had a decorated career there, obtaining a record of 170-26 and winning the state title in his junior and senior seasons.
Being that successful didn't happened overnight. It took Kraus years of work and sacrifice to become the wrestler that he wanted to become.
When asked why he decided to commit everything he had to wrestling, Kraus said when he started wrestling in the first grade, the “sheer competitiveness of the sport” was the reason he has stuck with it for so long.
“When I was younger, I struggled," Kraus said. "I couldn’t stop, I had to become good.”
Senior Josh DaSilveira had high praise for his teammate and friend, as he has been with him through many ups and downs.
“Matty-Light? He’s a trooper. … When we need that last match in a dual meet, I know that I’d put all my eggs in the basket with him,” DaSilveira said. “He’s one of the few guys that can take a devastating loss in the first period, 4-0, 6-0, and really grind his way back into the match and maybe major the guy.”
DaSilveira isn’t wrong to trust “Matty-Light” late in a dual meet. In a Jan. 15 matchup against Iowa State, Kraus was the last wrestler standing, and the Sun Devils were riding on Kraus’ back to give them the upset win. He pulled off the win, and ASU got the walk-off victory against the then No. 20 team in the country.
One of the things that makes Kraus admirable is his selflessness. Last year when he was at the National Championships, he didn’t place, but Stauffer, his close friend, did. Kraus said his fondest memory at ASU was being at the NCAA tournament and seeing Stauffer place fourth to become an all-American.
“I’d love to get on the podium this year," he said.
ASU was the obvious choice for Kraus. It was something different, but he knew that it was the right place for him, saying that he “fell in love with the environment."
Kraus graduates this May with a degree in business law, and after the NCAA tournament, his career as a Sun Devil wrestler will be over. Despite that, this probably won’t be the last time we see him.
“I have a couple of options; I think I’m going to stick around the program and be a graduate assistant (coach),” Kraus said.
Kraus has made an impact at ASU wrestling this season, and even though there is no replacing him, one has to wonder — who is going to be the next Matty-Light?
Reach the reporter at benjamin.a.flores@asu.edu or follow @benflores21 on Twitter.
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