By J.R. Ogden

Anticipation.                                               

That helped describe the 149-pound final at the NCAA Division I Wrestling Championships in St. Louis, Mo.

            University of Iowa junior Brent Metcalf, the 2008 champion at 149 pounds, talked about the team race the night before the finals. He noted there are no “for sure” things and that “you have to be ready to go every time you step out on the mat, no matter what.”

            Did Caldwell, the only person to beat Metcalf in college, see this coming?

            “I kind of knew before the match, I had it instilled in my head, I was going to be a national champion before the day was over,” the Wolfpack wrestler said.

            Both were right.

            Caldwell, who pinned Metcalf early in the 2007-08 season prior to the start of the Hawkeye star’s 69-match win streak, stunned the Scottrade Center crowd of 17,385, the sport and the wrestling world, with his 11-6 victory.

            “He’s human,” Caldwell said after the victory. “It’s just a wrestling match. It’s not like he has a gun and I have a knife.”

            No, it wasn’t like that. But it was like Caldwell knew everything Metcalf was doing. He took Metcalf down twice in the first period, again in the second and a fourth time in the third. The last three were all counter moves.

             “I can almost feel … I could see it before it comes,” Caldwell said. “I knew when he was going to shoot.

            “I was just trying to anticipate what he was doing and staying two steps ahead of him at all times.”

            Caldwell said he doesn’t watch film, but studies opponents. He knew all about Metcalf, noting after his semifinal victory that even his girlfriend talked about Metcalf.

            “It’s the only wrestler she knows besides me,” he said.

            Caldwell’s relentless countering took a toll on Metcalf, who admitted he got tired in the first period.

            “I felt it a little bit early in the match because he took me down twice and was tough on top,” Metcalf said. “But I fought through it, thought I wrestled smart.”

            But, in the end, he said he didn’t.

            “I didn’t wrestle the way I typically wrestle, and that’s where I failed,” he said.

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