More NCAA titles than HS titles

[Wrestleknownothing 1,453]

With Spencer Lee going for NCAA title #4 this year after "only" winning 3 HS titles and Nick Lee going for NCAA title #2 after only winning 1 HS title it got me to wondering, who else has a shot this year to surpass their HS title total in the NCAA.

Of course, there are those who can eventually pass their HS total (AJ Ferrari and Carter Starocci could get 5 NCAA vs 2 HS titles, etc.) and those who have already done this (Zain Retherford, I believe). 

Rather than waste days looking this up, I thought I would put it out to the wealth of accumulated knowledge on the board.

So three questions:

1. Can anyone other than the Lees do it this year?

2. Who has a shot to do it for their career?

3. Who has already done it?

Edited December 22, 2021 by Wrestleknownothing

[nhs67 1,988]

Every qualifier who never won their HS States technically has a chance.

[Crotalus 592]

Interesting question. Jordan Burroughs comes to mind. Only one state title and won two NCAA championships, then took it to a whole new level in freestyle.

[Wrestleknownothing 1,453]

3 minutes ago, nhs67 said:

Every qualifier who never won their HS States technically has a chance.

Which raises a fourth question:

4. How many NCAA champs never won a HS title?

[gromit 494]

Bruce Baumgartner comes to mind.

[NJDan 1,070]

Dake did it

[Jimmy Cinnabon 411]

Ed Ruth

[PSUSMC 312]

Stephen Neal

1X CA State 4th place finisher 

4X NCAA AA (2X Champ), World Freestyle Gold

[nhs67 1,988]

Probably rather easy to look up for the past 5-10 years.  Most NCAA D1 programs keep the profiles active for a while.

Gabe Dean won two NCAA titles after only winning one in high school.  Gabe went undefeated as a Junior in High School.  Taylor Massa went up to 171 from 160, which in turn caused Jordan Thomas (the state's #2 wrestler by a decent margin) to go up to 189 from 171 (he was quite undersized).  Too bad Massa and Thomas had massive injury hurdles for the UofM.  It is eerily similar hoe Bo came up from 174 to take the title at 184 his collegiate senior season and Thomas did it in his scholastic senior season from 171 to 189.

Max actually had a more successful scholastic career, winning two titles.  He would have likely won a third, had his junior season not been cut short due to injury.  He also had some equally as impressive opponents to contend with, at least on the scholastic level.

[Idaho 1,325]

I believe Dan St. John was 2nd as a senior in his state tournament and went on to win 2 NCAA titles. 

[Schuteandscore 167]

Ryan Bertin was a 1 X state champ in Ohio in HS, but was a 2 time NCAA Champion

[Antitroll2828 987]

1 hour ago, Crotalus said:

Interesting question. Jordan Burroughs comes to mind. Only one state title and won two NCAA championships, then took it to a whole new level in freestyle.

Burroughs is the only jersey guy to accomplish this in atleast the past 30 years , Valenti won 2 ncaa and state titles each, and Cassar had the unique honor of being a 1 time state champ his only year qualifying and 1 ncaa champ his only year qualifying 

[pawrestler 173]

Keith Gavin 1x NCAA champ 0x state champ think was a runner up

[BigTenFanboy 1,790]

Brock Lesnar never won a state title in hs

[nhs67 1,988]

2 minutes ago, BigTenFanboy said:

Brock Lesnar never won a state title in hs

Steroids are a little more difficult to come by in high school.

[Lunaticfringe 100]

Tony Nelson won 2 titles in college, 4x AA but only won 1 high school title. 

[BadgerMon 226]

4 hours ago, Antitroll2828 said:

Burroughs is the only jersey guy to accomplish this in atleast the past 30 years , Valenti won 2 ncaa and state titles each, and Cassar had the unique honor of being a 1 time state champ his only year qualifying and 1 ncaa champ his only year qualifying 

Darryl Burley was (just) a 1 x State Champ, but became a 2 X NCAA champ with 2 NCAA runner-ups. But yeah...that was 38 years ago (1983).

[BadgerMon 226]

3 hours ago, BigTenFanboy said:

Brock Lesnar never won a state title in hs

Well, South Dakota IS a tougher than you would expect wrestling state.

[cjc007 774]

Keith Gavin 1x NCAA champ 0x state champ think was a runner up

He took third as a senior.



Sent from my moto z3 using Tapatalk

[Lurker 2,034]

Russ Hellickson…never an NCAA all American, 3x Olympic/World medalist. 
(not really the criteria in the title, but..)

[Wrestleknownothing 1,453]

8 minutes ago, Lurker said:

Russ Hellickson…never an NCAA all American, 3x Olympic/World medalist. 
(not really the criteria in the title, but..)

But..still good

[luckysevens 11]

Pretty sure Pat Santoro was never won a state championship while at Bethlehem Catholic, but was a two-time champ, three-time finalist for Pitt.

Edited December 23, 2021 by luckysevens
Typo

[portajohn 437]

Have to mention Mark Schultz (1xCA - 3xNCAA)  Also, I believe Jake Herbert was only a 1x Piaa champ  (2xNCAA), Greg Jones (1xPIAA - 3xNCAA), Carlton Haselrig, (1xPiaa - 3xNCAA)

Edited December 23, 2021 by portajohn

[Bagration44 1]

Phil Davis from PA was a 0 time PA AAA Champ and 1 time NCAA champion for PSU. I believe the highest he placed was 4th as a senior

[nhs67 1,988]

6 hours ago, Wrestleknownothing said:

But..still good

On that note, John William Smith won 2 High School States titles, 2 NCAA D1 titles, 2 Olympic titles, and 4 World titles.