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History was made on March 10

3 min read

Saturday, March 10, 2018, may just go down as one of the greatest dates in the Greene County wrestling scene.

Whether it was high school or college, history was made involving local grapplers, both of whom, ironically, sport orange and black. However, when talking about Gavin Teasdale and Jake Evans, it would be hard to find two champions more different than this pair.

Years before Teasdale first stepped on the mat for Jefferson-Morgan as a freshman in 2014, he had already built a reputation that had some making comparisons to Cary Kolat, who at one point seemed to be a once-in-a-lifetime talent for the Rockets. Saturday’s 2-0 win over Josh Jones, of Saucon Valley, seemed to fulfill those lofty expectations by making him just the 13th four-time Pennsylvania state champion.

Heading into the 2015-16 season, the Waynesburg University wrestling team seemed pretty set at heavyweight. The Yellow Jackets boasted then-junior Greg Kumer on their roster, a man who had just won his second-straight Presidents’ Athletic Conference (PAC) title. During the offseason, Evans made his way up to head coach Ron Headlee’s office asking if he could join the wrestling team.

Headlee welcomed him into the fold, but I doubt he could have imagined that he was meeting the first NCAA Division III national champion, not only in program history, but for all 20 Yellow Jacket sports. Not only that, but the Elizabeth, Pa., native has also won more matches than any other Waynesburg wrestler (136-17), is a two-time All-American and has won three PAC crowns.

It should be noted that Evans is the first champion during the school’s time in Division III, which began in 1990. However, Waynesburg wrestling was no stranger to the national stage, already boasting national champions in the NAIA and during the days when the NCAA was just one division. While there is much more research that needs to be done, I’m guessing the list of programs who boast national champs in all three scenarios is a short one.

Speaking of being in good company, Teasdale elevated Jeff-Morgan to the most elite of company. The Rockets are now the only team in the state of Pennsylvania to boast multiple four-time state champions.

Evans’ run through the Division III heavyweight bracket also capped a memorable weekend for the PAC. Just two or three hours before the junior Yellow Jacket had his hand raised in his final match of the season, Geneva’s Nicole Bartoletta won the 60-meter hurdles at the 2018 NCAA Division III Indoor Track & Field National Championships.

With one of the greatest Greene County high school athletic careers now in the books, Teasdale’s next set of challenges lie both in Happy Valley, as a member of the Penn State wrestling team, and on the international stage, upon which he has already performed for several years. Seeing as how the Nittany Lions look to have openings at 125 and 133 pounds next season, there certainly seems to be opportunities for him to jump right into the most competitive and talent-rich landscape in college wrestling, the Big Ten.

Evans goes from the hunter to the hunted next season, with the best big men in Division III looking to knock him from his champion’s perch.

After sending the 2017-18 season off on the highest of high notes, it will certainly be a lot of fun to see what 2018-19 has in store for the golden pair.

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