Athlete Spotlight
Wrestling is simply in James Day’s ’26 DNA. The sport has been a family affair for generations as his older brother, dad, uncles and grandpa all competed. Day first took the mat when he was four years old, and from there, he never looked back.
The sport carried him all the way through high school, but in his four years, he shockingly never placed at the state finals in New Jersey. That unachieved goal left him disappointed, which pushed him to think about collegiate wrestling after his senior year.
“I never really thought about wrestling in college until after my senior year in high school,” said Day. “Following that state tournament, I felt underwhelmed with my accomplishments, and I wasn’t satisfied with the things I had done up to that point.”
As he was going throughout the recruitment process, he wanted to explore college options both in New Jersey and further away from home. The first time he heard of Wabash was when he received an email from an admissions counselor saying that Assistant Wrestling Coach Daniel Del Gallo wanted to talk to him. After some conversations, something completely unexpected happened: the program paid for Day’s flight to come visit campus.
“If that never happened, I probably would have never made the visit,” said Day. “I had just such a nice visit, and I felt like this was a place I could really flourish. It being far away from home was scary at first, but I really wanted the opportunity to grow personally and without a safety net of having my parents nearby.”
It’s safe to say that Day grew both personally and athletically, but it took him a bit of time to get acclimated to everything that Wabash had to offer. When it came to getting used to collegiate wrestling, he viewed his entire freshman year as his adjustment period.
“When I first got here, I was incredibly intimidated by not only the recruiting class that we brought in that year but also the guys that were already on the team,” said Day. “The year before I got here, the team took second at nationals. So I came in with no expectations of ever starting, but I really wanted to dedicate that year to just growing as a wrestler.”
Rylan Hendricks ’26 came into Wabash with Day, and he got to see firsthand how Day focused on getting better every practice.
“He was always going about practicing the right way,” said Hendricks. “He told me several times that he would go into practice wanting to work on one specific thing and he held to that for sure.”
One of the more unusual things that Day had to face throughout his career in the scarlet and white was a change in head coach. Brian Anderson stepped down as head coach for the Little Giant wrestling program after Day’s freshman year, but according to Day, the transition was as smooth as could be.
“Coach Anderson did a really nice job of setting that up,” said Day. “My freshman year, Coach Fredricksen and Coach Del Gallo really took the reins on running practices that year so that when Coach Anderson eventually stepped down, the transition wasn’t that difficult.”
Since Jake Fredricksen took over as Head Wrestling Coach in the fall of 2023, he has helped guide Day to a remarkably successful career. The 2023-2024 season saw Day finish in third place at the Division III Wrestling National Championships in the 125 lbs. weight class and earn All-American status. After that season, he moved up a weight class to 133 lbs., but the change didn’t bother him. He finished fourth at nationals in the 2024-2025 campaign, earning All-American honors yet again. In the 2025-2026 season, Day capped off his already amazing career with another outstanding accolade: earning runner-up honors at nationals and becoming an All-American for the third consecutive season. Despite all the accomplishments, his expectations for himself were up in the air.
“My hopeful answer is that I always thought that I could compete for and win a national championship,” said Day. “If you want to do great things in life, even if something is unrealistic, I think you have to have almost an unrealistic mindset. But if I’m going to be completely honest and rational, I did not believe I had a chance of winning a national title until this past year.”
There’s no debate that Day is hanging up the Wabash singlet with an incredible legacy to his name, and those around him would say that he was a centerpiece of the team.
“If you ask anyone who got to be on the team with him, you will hear about how he was a great teammate,” said Hendricks. “He pushed people to be the best they could be. He was one of the kindest people that you could ever know. He was the heart of the team.”
“I really hope that I leave behind a legacy of making people realize that anything is possible,” said Day. “I think at a place like Wabash, we have a proven model that you don’t necessarily have to be the best wrestler coming out of high school. You can certainly develop here and acquire the skills to accomplish your goals.”