Ohio State has been an active participant in the transfer portal over the years, attracting successful wrestlers from other schools; two-time Big Ten champ Joey McKenna came from Stanford, and current starting heavyweight Tate Orndorff joined the team this season from Utah Valley. Another traveler of The Portal announced his intentions to wrestle for the Buckeyes on Wednesday night as 2020 PIAA high school champion Will Betancourt declared his commitment to Ohio State via Twitter. Betancourt is a freshman at Lock Haven University, having committed to the Bald Eagles during the early signing period back in November 2019. At the time he was ranked 15th in the country at 126 pounds by FloWrestling, who also listed him as one of the top 130 prospects in the country at any weight.
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March 12, 2021
The core message that came from the six locals who placed at the East Super Regional tournament, last Saturday, was just getting to the state podium was not enough.
Finishing top four from the super regional locked in their trips to the podium, last week.
Saturday, in the Class 3A PIAA Championships at the Giant Center in Hershey, climbing the podium is the objective. All eight contestants in each bracket have guaranteed medals, meaning someone in each bracket will go 0-3 and still walk away with an eighth-place finish.
For Downingtown East’s Keanu Manuel (120 pounds) and Matt Romanelli (172), Downingtown West’s Dom Findora (126), Coatesville’s Nate Lucier (132), Kennett’s Trent Kochersperger (138) and West Chester Henderson’s Sammy McMonagle (145), getting to Hershey was no easy task, but finding wins there will be much tougher, with the lion’s share of the talent coming from the West super regional.
Individually, though, stars have developed, and senior Nate Lucier is the latest.
Coming off a sixth-place finish at the Class 3A PIAA tournament, Lucier has had to wait an extra month to begin his quest to climb all the way to the top of the podium.
The COVID-19 pandemic has delayed the start, and threatened the feasibility of actually finishing the wrestling season, but the social distancing, restrictions and isolation hardly phase Lucier, who’s made a career out of finding ways to improve without marquee help in the practice room.
“Wrestling is a unique sport, where, if you set your work ethic and goals and priorities high enough, you can attain the same thing as anyone else,” Coatesville coach Jeff Bowyer said. “It’s not as convenient to find different partners and extra work, but if you’re driven and focused, it’s attainable, and he’s done that.”