Being the president of any club sport is a tremendous task. 

Factor in the many logistics to keep track of, along with a great deal of planning skills and leadership needed for the role, on top of actually playing the sport. 

That is what makes Jonathan Crespo’s accomplishments even more impressive. 

Crespo is the freshman president of the Stony Brook club wrestling team, one of the youngest presidents of any club team. 

What’s more is that unlike a club sport like soccer, club wrestling is the only wrestling team at Stony Brook, leaving Crespo in charge of the face of Stony Brook wrestling.

“Its a lot to learn, but its good because I get to step up and progress through four years of the program,” Crespo said about being the freshman president of the club.

Under his first year of guidance, the Stony Brook wrestling team has had quite the year.

Just this year, Stony Brook wrestling attended 12 different competitions, including the NCWA championships. 

They faced a variety of NCAA wrestling teams, such as Rutgers, University of New Haven, College of Mount Saint Vincents and Cortland, and performed admirably against the competition. 

They traveled all across the country to wrestle, attending competitions in Texas, New Hampshire, Georgia and New Jersey. 

Their highlight of their season came on the first of December.

This is when the team headed to Madison Square Garden to compete in the Grapple at the Garden, facing off against Westchester Community College. 

“It was unreal, being there on the biggest stage on the east coast, coming out with the fireworks and everything, the entrance, it really felt like I was part of a team here,” Crespo said about wrestling at MSG this year.

For many wrestlers, the sport quickly becomes one of the most important things in their life. 

“It’s like the biggest experience so far of my college experience. I got the chance to wrestle in college, which I didn’t think I would get,” Crespo said about what the wrestling program meant to him.

Being such a young leader has its advantages. 

Crespo has four years to develop, both as a collegiate wrestler and a leader of the club. 

“I’ve definitely become accustomed to wrestling in college competition and see myself getting better every step of the way,” Crespo said about how he has improved as a wrestler. “I look forward to becoming an even tighter team and a more recognized program.”

“He’s improved more than anybody else. Crespo’s only wrestled about three years in high school, so the difference between him and everybody else is that the other guys have wrestled for longer and have developed a lot of bad habits, unfortunately, coming from all these different programs,” head coach Shaun Lally said.

“So now we can work with more of, not so much a blank slate, but more of an empty slate that we can paint the picture we want. He’s very receptive, his wrestling I.Q. is very high.” 

Coach Lally was very verbose about his admiration of his president. 

“He means everything, he’s the president of the wrestling club,” Lally said. “His leadership has been  immense. He takes care of all the logistics and paperwork, all the duties the president has to take care of.”

“He’s been a good role model for other guys on the team. He comes to practice on time, only leaves when he as to for school.  He works hard in the room. He’s the model of what you want,” Lally said of his club’s president.