After three seasons of wrestling at Michigan State, Ceasar Garza was in need of a fresh start.
He accumulated a 38-34 overall record as a Spartan and competed in the Big Ten Championships twice, but there were moments in his final year where Garza felt lost.
“I was pretty unhappy with the culture and how the coaches were running things,” Garza said. “I felt like I lost my identity with the sport of wrestling. There was a lot of sad times. A lot of down moments.”
Garza entered the transfer portal with two years of eligibility remaining and was recruited by a few other schools, including Pac-12 rival Oregon State. But as soon as he took his visit to Cal Poly, he knew where he wanted to be.
“The coaches were really excited about the possibility of me coming here,” Garza said. “As soon as I got on campus, the guys, the coaches, everybody was so welcoming. I knew it was a great spot for me the moment I stepped on.”
After finding that fresh start he was looking for with Cal Poly Wrestling, Garza has been nationally ranked the majority of the season and has recorded 14 wins to only two losses.
Garza’s hometown is just under a four hour drive from San Luis Obispo, which was another factor in coming back to California.
When he arrived in San Luis Obispo over the summer, Head Coach Jon Sioredas said he knew he got the right guy. At one of their Cal Poly Wrestling camps, Sioredas said Garza was dancing and singing in front of 200 young wrestlers.
“You can feel the camaraderie with him around,” Sioredas said. “He’s fun to work with. And that transitions nicely into him having that deep ingrained confidence.”
After the Cal Poly roster saw a lot of turnover entering the 2025-26 season, Garza slotted in at 184 pounds and carried a preseason national ranking of No. 29 into the first match against Purdue.
After a 10-7 upset win over the Boilermakers’ No. 23 ranked James Rowley, Garza had the crowd at Mott Athletics Center already on its feet.
“Every win is great, but that first win at Mott really sticks out,” Garza said. “Just being in the environment with the crowd was awesome.”
From there, he took off. Garza placed seventh at the Las Vegas Cliff Keen Invitational in December, helping the Mustangs secure ninth place out of 30 teams — the program’s best finish since 2009.
Now, he sits at 14-2 on the year, holding a national ranking of No. 27, according to FloWrestling.
Garza has created a close bond with redshirt junior 125-pounder Koda Holeman, who said the team likes to say they “wrestle a lot alike.”
“I think that’s slowly becoming more and more true,” Holeman said. “More fakes, that’s the style. [Ceasar] walks out there to ‘Suavemente.’ It’s just all fun out there.”
Holeman, a Clovis, California native said he and Garza would see each other at various tournaments. But, they didn’t officially meet until becoming teammates at Cal Poly.
“We’re just trying to have fun with whatever it is, whether it’s lift, practice or cutting weight,” Garza said. “Specifically, I think Koda and I are always smiling and goofing around and it translates to the way we wrestle.”
With Pac-12 Championships around the corner on March 6 — which will be hosted at Mott Athletics Center — Garza has made his mark in his first season representing Cal Poly and will look to represent the school on the national stage.
For Coach Sioredas, he thinks there’s a lot more to come.
“Each week you see a better version of Ceasar,” Sioredas said. “I think he’s one of those guys that you can look back five, ten, fifteen years from now and say ‘Oh, remember Ceasar?’”
This story originally appeared in the February printed edition of Mustang News. Check out more stories from the issue here.