MINNEAPOLIS -- If a college team gets a No. 1 ranking and nobody notices, is it really a No. 1 ranking?

	Minnesota senior Brad Pike is ranked third at 165 pounds.

Of course. After Oklahoma State lost its top spot to Minnesota last week in the National Wrestling Coaches Association poll, don't think the Cowboys didn't notice. But it's also safe to say the Golden Gophers' recent rise to first hasn't created much of a stir in the state.

The team realizes that. And the Gophers don't sit around fretting that the support for and popularity of wrestling pales next to that of the so-called "revenue sports" of football, basketball and hockey.

"There's six of us coaches here, and they all work," said J Robinson, whose 15 seasons as head coach at Minnesota have produced 46 All-Americans and eight top-10 NCAA Tournament finishes. "Our guys are selling advertising, our guys are developing a game program, our guys are running a booster club. We're doing a lot of things to make the thing grow. We don't want just the average. Instead of relying on other people and taking the crumbs, we're going to go and make it work ourselves."

The Gophers take the same approach to the mat as they take to marketing themselves. The result is a lot of wins and pins. Since losing to Oklahoma State earlier this month, the Gophers (13-1) have won eight straight. Nine of their 10 starters are ranked in the nation's top 10 in their individual weight classes. And Minnesota avenged its defeat by beating the Cowboys last week and taking their top spot in the poll. But the Gophers aren't exactly giddy about it.

"It doesn't mean anything until the end of the year," said Brad Pike, a senior who wrestles at 165 pounds. "We're not invincible by any means."

Pike, ranked third nationally by two publications, is himself an example of that.

He was Big Ten Wrestler of the Week after going 4-0 at the National Duals in State College, Pa., Jan. 20-21 and helping the Gophers to the tournament title. But Pike's first loss in a dual meet against Purdue last Saturday showed him the danger of complacency.

"I couldn't get my head into it," he said. "I just didn't have a whole lot of motivation. Stuff like that happens."

Thanks to the performances of returning All-Americans Pike, Leroy Vega, Jared Lawrence and Luke Becker, the Gophers have cemented themselves in the company of traditional powers Iowa, Iowa State, Oklahoma and Oklahoma State. Pike is convinced Minnesota has achieved elite status.

"It's so hard to get out of that mentality, that Iowa is so good," Pike said. "Then you wrestle scared. Once you get out of that, you wrestle so much better. What it comes down to is you can't respect them.

"We've developed this aggressive, dominating style. People see that, and you get on them right away, and then they break."

One hallmark of a dominant college sports program is its ability to consistently lure top in-state recruits. The Gophers do that. Half the starting lineup and two-thirds of their roster are Minnesotans. And two of the most dominant high schoolers in state history -- Marcus LeVesseur of Bloomington Kennedy and Matt Nagel of Frazee -- will join the team next year.

"I saw these guys wrestle when I was in seventh grade, and I was like, yeah, I'm ready to go there right now," said Jacob Volkmann, the Gophers' 174-pounder from Henning.

Robinson's impressive résumé doesn't include a national title. So would another runner-up finish in the NCAA Tournament dampen the Gophers' success this season?

"I won't be satisfied," Pike said. "I have two months left of doing what I love. This is not an easy sport. It's so grueling. But the relationship between wrestlers is so strong. They know what each other is going through."