Cornell’s Kyle Dake won the NCAA title as a true freshman in 2010. Larry Slater photo.

Cornell wrestling coach Rob Koll needs only three words to provide a description of NCAA champion Kyle Dake.

Freak of nature.

The son of a gymnast and an All-American wrestler, Dake possesses all the ingredients you would want in a successful student-athlete. That’s why he won an NCAA title as a true freshman.

“Kyle’s an incredible athlete,” said Koll, an NCAA champion and past U.S. World Team member. “He is very explosive and talented. He’s amazingly fast, flexible and strong.”

Dake’s also motivated, driven and confident.

“While Kyle’s competition gets nervous, he gets excited,” Koll said. “That is a subtle but significant distinction.”

And he’s smart. Dake is the owner of a 3.0 grade-point average at Cornell, an Ivy League school.

Dake and top-ranked senior Mack Lewnes are the leaders on a powerful Cornell team that is ranked No. 1 nationally in the preseason.

The Big Red recorded their highest finish in school history by placing second in the 2010 NCAA Championships in Omaha. Cornell will take aim at winning its first national team title at the 2011 NCAAs, set for March 17-19 in Philadelphia.

“It would be huge for our program to win a national championship,” Dake said. “We are coming off our best season ever and we return most of our team this season. It would be a big accomplishment for a school from the East Coast to win it. It would be amazing.”

The 5-foot-9 Dake moves up a weight class to 149 pounds this season after winning the 2010 NCAA title at 141. He starts the season ranked No. 2 nationally behind 2009 NCAA champion Darrion Caldwell of North Carolina State. Caldwell missed last season with an injury.

Dake made quite an impression this past summer when he participated in a Senior-level freestyle training camp at the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs.

Among the people Dake rolled around with was U.S. National Freestyle Developmental Coach Bill Zadick, a 2006 World champion.

“Kyle is really talented,” Zadick said. “He’s long and lanky, and he’s fast and athletic. He’s a tough guy to match up against. He fought hard when he was out here. He’s a hard worker. He’s an impressive kid.”

During the camp, Zadick walked into the OTC wrestling room one day and Dake immediately sought him out.

“Kyle wanted to wrestle me and drill with me. He asked me a lot of questions,” Zadick said. “He was like a sponge – he wanted to soak up wrestling and learn. He’s a guy who wants to learn everything he can. Those are the guys who become champions.”

Dake’s talents were on full display at the 2010 NCAA tournament.

He fought off his back in a semifinal win over Reece Humphrey of Ohio State. In his finals win over Iowa’s Montell Marion, Dake appeared to be in trouble near the edge of the mat. Marion shot in on a first-period leg attack and briefly caught Dake on his back, but Dake somehow scrambled free and ended up gaining a takedown of his own en route to winning the match.

“Kyle’s the definition of a freak of nature,” Koll said. “Someone who can be body-locked to his back, and get off by just levitating to his feet.”

Dake also is very good when wrestling in the top position. He rode Marion the entire second period in the NCAA finals, turning him for two back points.

Dake finished his freshman season with a 34-2 record, winning his last 24 matches after placing fourth in the Las Vegas Invitational in December.

Bumping up a weight class this season sits well with Dake.

“I’ve gotten a lot stronger, I’m quicker and my technique is sharper,” Dake said. “I’m doing a lot better with my nutrition so I can make sure I’m at my peak performance level. I feel like I am just as big at 149 as I was at 141 halfway through last season. I feel great. It’s going to be a fun year.”

Koll didn’t have to look far to convince Dake to enroll at Cornell. Dake grew up just five miles from the Cornell campus in Ithaca, N.Y., and his parents lived just a mile away from Koll.

“Their house was two, maybe three, stone’s throws from my house,” Koll said.

Dake credits his parents, Doug and Jodi, for much of his success in the sport. His father placed seventh at 177 pounds at the 1985 NCAA Championships for Kent State.

“The genes were there,” said Dake, a developmental sociology major. “When I was little, my mom taught me how to do backflips and handsprings. I enjoyed doing it.”

Dake won two New York state wrestling titles and was a three-time finalist while being coached by his father at Lansing High School. He made a 2008 Junior World Team in Greco-Roman wrestling.

“My dad taught me a lot about the sport,” Kyle Dake said. “Not just the physical aspect, but also the mental and emotional aspect. My mom was always there as well. She was always telling me I could do great things.”

Being close to home is an added bonus for Dake.

“I knew Cornell is a place that’s something special, and I wanted to be a part of it,” he said. “Cornell has a great wrestling program and it’s obviously a great academic school. Who wouldn’t want to go to a great school like that and be just five miles from your family? I have a great support system at home. It’s been a perfect fit for me. It’s awesome.”

Dake started practicing in the Cornell wrestling room as a sixth-grader with the Shamrock Wrestling Club under Coach Scott Green.

Dake said he plans to compete in freestyle wrestling following the college season. He hopes to compete at the University Nationals and the U.S. Senior Open. He doesn’t turn 20 until February, so he also is eligible to try out for the U.S. Junior World Team.

Dake is contemplating taking an Olympic redshirt during the 2011-12 college season.

“The Olympics have been my ultimate goal since I was in seventh grade,” he said. “I was thinking about wrestling Greco-Roman, but now I want to go freestyle. I will make my decision about the Olympic redshirt after the college season is over.”

Koll, who placed fifth in the 1990 World Championships in freestyle, is excited to see what Dake can do internationally.

“Kyle has a chance to be very good in freestyle,” Koll said. “You will see him contending for a spot on the Olympic Team.”

Dake said he and Lewnes, another top freestyle prospect, have set some other goals for this season.

“Mack and I have a little competition going to see who will get the most pins,” Dake said. “And we are both talking about the Hodge Trophy. We have a little battle going on for that.”

Lewnes placed fourth as a freshman at NCAAs before finishing second as a junior last season. He competes at 174 pounds.

“Mack’s a great guy – he’s funny,” Dake said. “He’s a lot of fun to be around. When he gets in the wrestling room, he’s ready to go and it’s all business. He realizes it’s his last year of college and he’s focused on winning a national title.”

When he isn’t training or studying, Dake and his teammates still have time for a little fun.

Dake has been in a number of entertaining video promotions with Redman, the team’s mascot. The videos are displayed on the team’s Facebook page, Cornell Wrestling.

“The commercials are a lot of fun,” he said. “We are trying to promote wrestling. We are trying to broaden our fan base and get people interested in wrestling. We have almost 5,000 fans on our Facebook page.”

Just two wrestlers – Oklahoma State’s Pat Smith and Iowa State’s Cael Sanderson – have won four NCAA titles. Dake was just 11 years old when he watched Sanderson complete a 159-0 career by winning his fourth NCAA title in 2002 in Albany, N.Y.

“It was exciting to see Cael win his fourth title and go undefeated,” Dake said. “I remember it was pretty cool, and I thought I wanted to be able to do that someday.”

Dake said he is trying to keep everything in proper perspective for his sophomore season.

“I’m just trying to win my second national title this season,” Dake said. “After that, we will see where it goes. Winning four titles, I haven’t really thought much about it. It would be amazing if I could accomplish that.”

For now, the focus is on the upcoming season.

“We have a great team,” he said. “We are all pushing each other to get better. Nobody in here has a goal of being an All-American. We all want to win national titles. When we are running sprints, and you see someone ahead of you, you pick it up and try to win the race. We have a really good atmosphere at practice. Everyone is working very hard.”

Dake said he likes the fact that this season’s NCAA tournament is being held in nearby Pennsylvania.

“It’s really exciting,” he said. “Philadelphia is really close, and a lot of us will have a lot of friends and family there. Cornell will have a huge crowd, and hopefully that will help push us to the top.”