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All research and articles contributed by Dave Ritterpusch
October 2002

The 2002-2003 High School Wrestling Season: What Thrills and Chills Lie Ahead?

The Past Season Took Many By Surprise

After seeing Blair graduate two undefeated, first team all-Americans in 2001, much of the amateur wrestling world probably hoped 2001-2002 would be a rebuilding year. Then Blair opened last season besting nationally-ranked El Reno of Oklahoma 58-3 in a dual meet followed the next week by a dominating performance at the Ohio-based Ironman Tournament (6 champions, 3 seconds and a third). The victorious team effort at the Ironman was a considerable accomplishment as the field of teams included USA #2 Great Bridge, VA, Ohio powerhouses St Edward, St Paris-Graham, and St Vincent & St Mary (SVSM), and an assortment of other nationally-ranked schools, such as Milton, Wisconsin, that state’s eventual dual meet champion.

Blair went on to win team titles at competitive tournaments on three successive weekends in December. After The Ironman came the famous Beast of the East at the University of Delaware, the Eagle Classic at Colonial Forge High School in Stafford, Virginia, and the Bethlehem Holiday Wrestling Classic in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.

The string of victories continued after the New Year, and was highlighted by the feature dual meet of the NHSCA’s Final Four between Blair and nearby rival Easton, Pennsylvania— number 2 in the nation in many polls at the time and the eventual repeat PA AAA state dual-meet and individual tournament champs. There, in the sold-out 25th Street Easton gym, Blair held the renowned Red Rover lightweights to only 2 bonus points and then ran off 8 straight wins that garnered 14 bonus points from three pins, two technical falls, and a major decision. Final score: Blair 38 – Easton 17.

After producing a record-tying 9 champions at National Preps, all from its high school team, Blair finished up the year with its most successful post-season ever. During the first week of April at the NHSCA High School National Championships in Cleveland, Blair’s seniors won two national titles, and also brought home a runner-up and a 5th -place finish. In July, at the Junior and Cadet Nationals in Fargo, Blair placed 9 All-Americans that included 2 national champs, a second, 4 thirds (3 in Juniors, one in Cadets), a fourth and a seventh.

The Upcoming Season

So it is probably the case that the high school wrestling world looks at the coming season with hope that Blair will falter, or at the very least, it will have Blair squarely in its proverbial sights. With the loss of six seniors, including 4 All-Americans, the challenge of repeating last year's successes will be formidable to say the least. On the bright side, Blair returns six 2002 Fargo All-Americans, including a straight flush in Junior Nationals from its rising seniors, who registered a first, a second, a third and a fourth. The Fargo Juniors contingent is supplemented by two Cadet All-Americans from Fargo 2002 and another from Fargo 2001 and by two well-regarded wrestlers who were injured this summer. Moreover, Blair benefited greatly from its ability to give so many of its up-and-coming wrestlers extensive varsity experience the past season, in light of its stocked line up. Access to the Prep schedule and the opportunity to use a full second team in three major tournaments should was invaluable in developing underclass talent.

With all of that said, what lies ahead for Blair in the 2002-2003 season?

Selection of Major Events

Ironman, Walsh Jesuit High School, Cuyahoga Falls, OH, December 13 & 14
Beast of the East, University of Delaware, December 21 & 22
NHSCA Final Four, Easton High School, Easton, PA, January 18
National Preps, Lehigh University, February 20 - 22
Senior Nationals, Cleveland, March 28 - 30
Junior & Cadet Nationals, Fargo, ND, July 23 - 26

The Hurdles

The 2002-2003 season promises to be quite unusual by virtue of the number of times the top national teams will face each other. For example, Great Bridge will be at Ironman, the Beast, and for the first time, the Final Four. St Paris-Graham, the supposed leading Ohio contender for the mythical “national crown,” will be at Ironman and for the first time, the Beast. As has been the case the last few years, St Edward will be at Ironman and the Beast, and will wrestle Blair in the annual home-and-home series that has become a staple of the two programs’ schedules. And lest we forget, folkstyle-oriented Easton, awaits for its annual at-home encounter with Blair in the Final Four, to which a twist is added this year by the visits of Great Bridge and Oklahoma’s Edmond North.

Blair’s Top Early-Season Opponents in 2002-2003

On December 13 and 14, at the Ironman tournament in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio, Blair will again dive into the fray of heated competition early in the season. The competition will be led by last year’s #2 team in the USA, Great Bridge of Virginia, and by up-and-coming St Paris-Graham of Ohio, picked by many wrestling commentators to become the eventual number one team in the land. This year’s Ironman field will also include Ohio powers St Edward, St Vincent & St Mary (SVSM), Massillon Perry and Walsh Jesuit, state dual-meet champs Milton, Wisconsin, solid Pennsylvania programs, such as Waynesburg, North Allegheny and Parkland, Illinois’ Chicago Marist High School, and both Parkersburg South and Parkersburg from West Virginia.

The following weekend Great Bridge, St. Edward and St Paris-Graham will again join Blair in competition this time at the Beast of the East at the University of Delaware. They will be joined there by roughly 58 teams from 11 states, among the most noteworthy of whom will be Wilson and Northampton from Pennsylvania, and Absegami, the best team in New Jersey outside of Blairstown.

Interestingly, Blair will face Great Bridge yet one more time during the 2002-2003 season, in Easton on Saturday, January 18 at "The Final Four Duals," where the rest of the field will be top-five Easton and top-ten Edmond North from Oklahoma.

Since St Paris-Graham and Great Bridge are going to figure prominently from the very outset in high school wrestling this year, we present brief profiles of each, below.

St Paris-Graham High School, Ohio

The public school that is often mistaken for a parochial school because of the "saint" in its name, St Paris-Graham is one of the rising national powers. After winning the Ohio AA state championship last year, St Paris-Graham had an excellent showing in Fargo, especially at the Cadet level.

St Paris-Graham is coached by Jeff Jordan, a member of one of Ohio’s most famous wrestling families. Jeff’s brother, Jim, was the nemesis of the great six-time World Champion John Smith, which fact the Jordan’s mom brought to your author’s attention in the stands of Ironman last year.

The 2002-2003 St Paris-Graham line up features three returning nationally-ranked Ironman champs, sophomore Dustin Schlatter, who won at 112 last year, senior C.P. Schlatter, who won at 135, and junior Joe Dennis, who won at 171. This summer Dustin Schlatter was the Cadet OW in freestyle in Fargo, and dominated both freestyle and Greco at 125 lbs. Joe Dennis, though only 16 years old, finished 2nd in Fargo in Juniors (not Cadets) Freestyle at 215 lbs! (In conversations in Fargo, reliable sources indicated that Joe might be back at 171 lbs. for the 2002-2003 high school season.)

Two other St Paris-Graham Ironman placewinners from last year are nationally ranked in pre-season polls, namely, sophomore Cameron Doggett, who finished 3rd at 119 last year and won Cadet freestyle at 119 this past summer, and senior Kalin Knull, who placed 4th at 140 in last year’s Ironman. In addition, sophomore Jason Marshall placed 4th in Fargo in Cadet freestyle at 215 lbs.

As with many top programs, St Paris-Graham will benefit from a number of transfers, the most prominent of whom apparently are two wrestlers formerly from West Virginia, one, Jacob Frerichs, moved to St Paris-Graham in the off-season and finished 3rd at 135 lbs. for Ohio in Cadet Greco in Fargo.

In addition to having a boatload of homegrown young talent and a handful of solid transfers, St Paris-Graham seems to have lost only one top wrestler from its 2001-2002 team, namely 145 lb. AA state champ, Bryce Markley. As an aside, Markley’s only loss last year came in the finals of Ironman, to Blair’s Mark Perry, who pinned him in 50 seconds.

Great Bridge High School, Chesapeake, Virginia

Although Great Bridge has been a nationally ranked wrestling program for the last decade or so, its 2001-2002 team made the breakout that catapulted Great Bridge into the tight shot group of programs now regarded as the very best in the land. Not only did Great Bridge finish #2 in most national polls last year, but it showed its mettle at Senior Nationals, where it registered two champions and a 5th.

Of course, such success in the 2002 Senior Nationals means that Great Bridge has lost a number of top wrestlers through graduation. In its case, the attrition starts with four-time VA AAA State Champ, middleweight Michael Martin, whose memorable finals victory in Cleveland over fellow four-time state champ, Todd Meneely of Nebraska, brought the State of Virginia its first Senior Nationals crown. Great Bridge’s other two departing All-Americans are 215 lb. Senior Nationals Champ David Dashiell and Cleveland and Fargo 119 lb. placewinner Christian Staylor.

Clearly, one of Great Bridge’s top returning wrestlers is Reno and Cadets 189 lb. champ, rising sophomore Pat Bond, who is as smooth as silk on his feet, as he showed in the Cadet finals, beating the Fargo Greco champ, Pennsylvania’s Phil Bomberger, 7 to 1. Bond, who looks like a power forward, is still growing and the word is, could go at 215 lbs. this season. Daniel Frishkorn is Great Bridge’s other national-caliber returning wrestler and is ranked as high as #2 in the nation in pre-season polls. Last year, wrestling at 130 lbs. at Ironman, Frishkorn pinned current Junior Nationals Champ Ryan Lang of St Edward in the semi-finals, but was beaten 8 to 7 by Blair’s Max Meltzer in the finals. Frishkorn’s younger brother, Jordan, finished 5th at 105 lbs. in Cadet freestyle in Fargo, and is expected to go at 112 for Great Bridge this season.

Other returning wrestlers of note include junior Justin Staylor, who won Ironman last year at 103 and may go as high as 119 this year, Hunter Davenport, the returning state 140 lb. champ, and senior Ajay Foremen, a 2-time state champ, ranked as high as 25th at 160 lbs. in pre-season polls.

Beyond the wrestlers above, Great Bridge will benefit from a handful of transfers into the program that include senior Donnie Ooten, a two-time VA state champ, who is projected at either 135 or 140, and middleweight sophomore Chris Brown, who placed sixth in VA last year.