CARBONDALE — Carbondale’s Luke Daly made it his goal to become a Division One college wrestler, a difficult task in normal circumstances.

The past 14 months have been anything but normal.

Late last February, Daly finished fifth at state in the 2A 170 pound weight class. Less than a month later, schools were shut down and sports paused due to COVID-19. Pandemic related restrictions continued into the summer, then into the start of Daly’s senior year. Being considered a “high risk” sport, wrestling was one of the last sports to get the green light to go, but the season was moved and shortened, including no postseason.

“It’s difficult,” Daly said. “I wasn’t expecting last year’s state to be the last. I was expecting one more and maybe get a state title in, but you just have to roll with the punches when it comes to this and take the best out of a bad situation.”

With no control over his state title hopes being dashed, the Terrier standout took his goal of being a D-I wrestler into his own hands, along with the help of his family. While wrestling was not allowed in Illinois for several months, it was in other states. So Daly took his show on the road, competing in several national tournaments.

“Finding tournaments all over the country was a difficult task,” Daly said. “I gotta thank my parents for getting me to these tournaments and allowing me to prove myself to all these coaches.”

“He figured out ways to get the competition, keep practicing, and keep getting better,” said Carbondale head wrestling coach Jerry Richards. “Instead of going up against the best in the state, he went up against the best in the country.”

While Daly was facing the best in the country, he was doing so at a competitive disadvantage.

“To get good at wrestling, typically you need somebody else to compete with and certainly the pandemic made that very, very difficult,” Richards said. “He had to observe the rules for the state as he went about doing it (training). When you go and compete outside of this state, you’re wrestling kids that don’t have those restrictions, so it’s a tremendous challenge.”

Monday, Daly reaped the rewards of his efforts, when he signed with Michigan State–not only fulfilling his goal of wrestling at the D-I level, but doing so at the highest level.

“It means a lot,” Daly said. “It means all my hard work has paid off.”

At Michigan State, he will rejoin forces with another Terrier, Cameron Caffey, who is one of the top wrestlers in the Big 10.

“It played a huge factor,” Daly said. “I think Cameron did a really good job of getting a word in for me. I’m pretty close with him. Having that leadership when I get into the room is going to be a big deal.”

“We’re really proud,” Richards said. “I watch the Big Ten Network every year, and that’s the highest level of wrestling. There are incredible teams. To see your kids actually competing on those teams is incredible. Watching them at the Big 10 Tournament then watching them at the NCAAs–it’s just awesome.”

Daly says now that he’s signed, it takes the pressure off for his senior season, which is set to begin at home April 30th.