NJ guy here. As a contemporary to look across the mat and see on the other bench, definitely Damion Logan. 3x State Champ. Followed closely by Donnie Pritzlaff.
Wrestler You Were Most in Awe of in High School
- Thread starter mcpat
- Start date
I took the OP to mean when we were in HS, and for me that guy was CD Mock from Council Rock. He would just destroy people.
Well it was less hard with your wingspan. You made Jax Forrest look like Luke Pletcher.
You and me. Lol The way you described your high school program is about the way I would describe mine.
Haha, holy sh1t!!
Here's my Tell Us More About Yourself post from 2021: https://pennstate.forums.rivals.com/threads/tell-us-a-little-about-yourself.301071/post-5657811
Did you make a post in that thread?
Meyersdale dude won the lightweight class like 3 times in the late 80's, I forget his name though. North Star and Bedford had a bunch of high place winners like Mark Miller and Joel Easter.
The Meyersdale kid was Dave Warnick. He won states twice. His younger brother Michael took 3rd and won it one time as well. Good call mentioning them. Another set of brothers was the Alts from Ferndale. The older one Charlie I believe won a state title. North Star had tough kids. I knew them all and partied with most of them. Went to a neighboring school but we all hung out together on weekends. The Lepleys were a scrappy bunch.
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Gene Mills. Back when the Merkle was called the Schalles.
Allen Andrews had a kid who wrestled for Jtown that was either state champ or runner-up. Pretty darn good. Mid 90s maybe.
There was a kid in Jersey in the late 80s, Jamie Wicks. Undefeated Jr and sr years and simply mauled people. I believe was ranked #1 in the country at 171 or whatever the weight was then. Now..... Jamie graduated in '88, and believe Kwortnik was 89,but always wanted to see a Wicks/Kwortnik match. Would have been a war.
There was Anthony Andrews. 3 time state Placer. Highest finish was 2nd his senior year.
Lol
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lol. I think I did and then later deleted it. But we weren’t teammates. Same district though!
You just gave me a bad flashback. Hopefully your in person Wildasin experience wasn't the Section 5 sectional finals...I was his victim. Actually got to know him well the following summer at Millersville wrestling camp, a few of us got into a heap of trouble with Shorty Hitchcock thanks mostly to Joey, then a bunch of us drank beers and chased girls on a few occasions after. The following year a bunch of schools would get together in the postseason to practice at Hanover high school. They had a great wrestling room (mostly because it had a very low ceiling and they could make it hot as hell...us mortals cut lots of weight back then). We would rotate round robin groups between the mat and running laps around the halls. Our group had Joey, a teammate of mine who only knew how to go all out all the time and a teammate of Joey's. Joey was "disinterested" that day, running so slow that if he tried to go any slower he'd have been in reverse, and just going through the motions from neutral...until my teammate decided to go and take him down. So what had been a fairly low key practice to get the heart rate up and knock off some weight quickly became not so fun.
Interesting trivia about David Warnick; He's the only wrestler ever to finish 3rd at the District 5 tournament (smallest wrestling district in PA) and win a state title the same year. He was upset in the semis by Shawn Husick who was an outstanding freshman from Tussey Mountain. I believe it was Warnicks senior season. Rumors were he had the flu!😁
Yep. He was definitely not right. I was there....remember watching it like it was yesterday.
BTW - speaking of HS wrestlers, there is one more HS age wrestler that really left an impression on me. I might be bending the original intent of this thread a little bit, but I got to see Sergei Beloglazov wrestle when he was 17 - 18 years old. I am certain that at that point, he was already good enough to win the NCAA title at his weight.
Dan Gable, I didn’t really follow wrestling then but I knew of Gable from his Olympic days and coaching.
JTS’s uncle. I’m still afraid of basements.
For me it was Nate Carr and Kevin Darkus. Wrestled on the same HS team as Kevin, while Nate wrestled for a different Erie HS ("Tech Memorial" at the time - most of Nate's brothers wrestled for "East High" another Erie HS at the time). Both would go on to become highly decorated Folkstyle and Freestyle wrestlers including both wrestling for the US National Mens Team.
My high school team was in a tournament with Easton and Cuvo in 83/84. I remember our 105 pounder was actually leading Cuvo early in the 2nd period, ended up losing by a superior decision. Never saw anything like it, takedown and release, over and over. He was a machine. At the time, you rarely saw the takedown and release strategy, quite impressive.
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This thread turned out to be a gem. Thanks guys..
That match was the world record for blood time. Wildasin wrestled like he was angry Bobby Boucher from the Waterboy.
Gary Kaltenbaugh was State Champ in 83. Randy Miller took 3rd in 88. Mark Miller took 2nd in 89 and 90.
Jimmy Martin, wrestled him twice in HS. Of course lost both times. He was an incredible technician, had your ankle before you knew what happened. Heck of a nice guy too. Of course he ended up in blue and white!
The question in the thread commented about being in awe of a wrestler. As noted Cuvo was who came to my mind initially.
I have thought about a few others with Bobby Crawford of Milton probably another unique wrestler. I would see him in Regionals and States. As the Spinners sang, he was "The Rubberband Man". He was almost impossible to score on when he was on bottom. His flexibility and lack of mass made it impossible for someone to try to turn him. He was fundamentally sound and just slick. After losing the first match of his career he had a 130+ win streak before a loss in Regionals his Senior year. He avenged the loss the following week to win his 4th State title.
I have thought about a few others with Bobby Crawford of Milton probably another unique wrestler. I would see him in Regionals and States. As the Spinners sang, he was "The Rubberband Man". He was almost impossible to score on when he was on bottom. His flexibility and lack of mass made it impossible for someone to try to turn him. He was fundamentally sound and just slick. After losing the first match of his career he had a 130+ win streak before a loss in Regionals his Senior year. He avenged the loss the following week to win his 4th State title.
Didn’t brother Dennis win a state HWT title c.1981 then play NT for Pitt?
Dennis only had one loss his senior year. BECA 185 pound State Champ Bernie Brown went up weight and beat Dennis that year .
Dennis did play for Pitt and had a good freshman year. If I recall he suffered a few injuries after his freshman year .
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Thought you were going with a different Damion. Hahn was the most dominant I remember in high school. He would just toy with guys until his Dad would give him the signal from the stands to pin him by twisting his beard.
Yep. Had an older brother who won an Olympic medal for a country other than the US.
Two great wrestlers from Lycoming County that I was in awe of back in the day were Ed Ott from Muncy and Dan Muthler from Jersey Shore. Ed finished in 2nd place his senior year. He was a phenomenal 3 sport athlete and excelled in Football, Wrestling and Baseball. Many remember Ed as a hard nose catcher for the Pirates, who was an 8 year starter in Pittsburgh and played on their 1979 World Series team. Dan Muthler won two PIAA titles and was an NCAA Champion at the Naval academy. Great memories for sure.
Ed wrestled in the states his senior year with a separated shoulder.
My PSU roommate drew Dickson in the first round at states. Dave went 220 something.
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