No rest for the best: Teasdale back at work
Gavin Teasdale won his second Class AA PIAA Championship on a Saturday, took a day off on a Sunday, and was back in the gym Monday.
That kind of dedication is what the undefeated Jefferson-Morgan wrestler hopes will bring him two more state championships and the opportunity to wrestle at any top-tier university after he wraps up his high school career.
“I have to decide what tournaments I want to wrestle this summer, but I knew I had to get back at it after winning in Hershey,” Teasdale said. “I have been practicing at Young Guns, and those practices are some of the toughest practices I’ve been to with some of the toughest wrestlers.
“I was watching all the guys that worked at Young Guns at the national championships and it really motivates me to keep working hard. You look at guys like Jimmy Gulibon, Jason Nolf, Evan Henderson and Nico Megaludis. Nico just won a national title. It is exciting to work at the same club where those guys wrestled at.”
Teasdale breezed through the 113-pound competition at the state tournament to cap off his season at 36-0. Teasdale, who was 46-0 as a freshman, has a career record of 82-0.
The Rocket won all four matches by technical fall. He topped Bishop McDevitt’s Luke Pipa, 21-5, in the first round, with the match being stopped at 4:07. In the quarterfinals, he dominated Lewisburg’s Brian Friery, 24-9, with the technical fall coming at 4:54.
Upper Dauphin’s Bronson Garber suffered the same fate as the earlier opponents in the semifinals, with Teasdale earning a 28-13 victory at 5:24. Teasdale scored seven takedowns in the first period en route to a 23-8 technical fall at 3:30 of Boling Springs’ Kollin Myers in the final.
Teasdale accumulated 96 points in all four bouts, and most of his matches consisted of taking down his opponent, letting him up and taking him down again.
The standout sophomore didn’t win the Outstanding Wrestling award but admits that is something he is looking to gain his next two years in high school. The award is subjective, and Teasdale is determined to keep up the hard work to sway the voters in his favor.
“My goal coming into the state tournament was to score as many points as possible,” Teasdale said.
“I had a goal to win the Outstanding Wrestling award but I hope to be able to win it during my next two years.”
Teasdale didn’t compete in the TriCADA tournament due to an illness and the Rockets had fewer dual meets this year, which took away some matches but he is planning to make that up this summer with Freestyle tournaments.
“I had wrestled some Greco-Roman but I am focused just on freestyle this summer,” Teasdale said. “I will definitely compete at Fargo. It really just comes down to getting back in the gym and working with the best practice partners.”
Teasdale breezed through the early part of his season, and was not taken down until the finals of the Powerade Christmas Tournament, when Patrick Glory of Delbarton, New Jersey, scored a takedown on him with 37 seconds remaining in the second period to lead 3-2. Teasdale scored two takedowns in the third, and allowed two escape points to eek out a 6-5 victory.
“That match really woke me up and I focused even more,” Teasdale said. “I started to work on bottom because he rode me in that match. I didn’t do enough in that match to score and I started to really open up my offense after that match.”
Teasdale has been compared to Cary Kolat, due to the fact that both are championship-caliber wrestlers from Jefferson-Morgan who have never lost in high school, even though Teasdale is just halfway there.
Kolat was 137-0 as a high school wrestler for the Rockets, where he won four state championships and was named Outstanding Wrestling all four years. Kolat is now the head coach at Campbell University. However, Teasdale states there is only one Cary Kolat and he wants to be remembered for his legacy.
“It would be cool to have two four-time state champions from the same school, but I want to build my own pathway,” Teasdale said. “I do look up to Cary a great deal but I know there can only be one Cary Kolat.”
Teasdale’s schedule mirrors that of a professional, which can be overwhelming for most high school students, but he does not have any issues staying focused at the task at hand.
“I am pretty focused, but if I got to a point where everything became overwhelming I would talk to my coaches and the guys I practice with,” Teasdale said. “I just have to keep working and getting better every day.”