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By Wayne Catan
February 2005

Blair Wrestlers to Compete for 25th National Prep Title at Lehigh University This Friday and Saturday (February 25 and 26)

Wrestling, Alumni Dinner to Follow Match. Dinner to Feature Highlight Reel Produced by Herb Taylor

On Friday and Saturday February 25 and 26th the Blair Academy wrestling team will attempt to win its 25th National Prep Championship title in-a-row—a record-breaking feat.  If they win their 25th title they will again, for the fifth time in five years, be named national champions. That is correct….the “strive for five” is on the line this weekend.

Can you imagine winning five national titles in a row? This has the makings of the 1970’s Pittsburgh Steelers, the 1960’s Green Bay Packers, and the 1990’s Dallas Cowboys.

Today, Jeff Buxton is the Vince Lombardi of wrestling.

Leading the way in Bethlehem for the Bucs are seniors Adam Frey (ranked #1 nationally), Hudson Taylor (ranked #4 nationally) at #189 lbs. and junior Travis Blasco (135 lbs.). Blasco is ranked as high as fourth in some national polls. Mario Mason, just a freshman, wants to win his first of a possible four national prep titles. “Super Mario” has had a great season and this would be his coupe de grace in 2005.  Ross Gitomer is ready for a knock-out finish, too, as he has been training extremely hard. Eric Medina, Rollie Peterkin will vie for titles too. Can Blair and the individuals meet their goals? Can they make it 25 in-a-row and five national crowns? Show up to Lehigh University next Friday and Saturday to watch the nation’s premier prep wrestling team perform. It’s poetry in motion!

This year, 2005, wasn’t about individuals, so we’ll stick to the task at hand, and that’s the National Prep Championships.

“We had some really close matches this year. We sneaked by St. Edward’s of Ohio 27-23 and won the Ironman by 1. 5 points; so this is a special year. I am proud of the way this year’s team worked together to be one unit,” said Jeff Buxton, Blair Head Coach.  “Nothing is a given so we have been working on a lot of individual tactics heading into the meet—we will be ready.” 

After the tournament, Cindy Frey and Suzanne Gitomer have put together a celebratory dinner for the athletes and their families. The dinner will take place on Saturday, February 26th from 4-7 p.m. at The Meadows in Hellertown, Penn., just down the road from Lehigh’s Stabler Arena (the site of the tournament).  Alumni have been invited and are expected to show up in droves. In addition, there will be a video highlight reel, which Herb Taylor produced, and knowing Herb it will be a good one. Deadline to RSVP to the dinner is Tuesday, February 22 @ 3:00 pm. You can email Ms. Frey at pawrcoa@aol.com or call her at 412-327-7593. The Meadows is located at 1770 Meadows Road in Hellertown.