2019 FALL LYCOMING COLLEGE MAGAZINE

It happened with a quickness that’s antithetical to everything that heavyweight collegiate wrestling is known to be. The referee’s whistle blew. Garrett took two steps back, then dropped, got hold of the top of his opponent’s leg, then he drove to his feet and pushed with all his might. Adarios Jones was flat on his belly. The referee pointed two fingers to the sky. It took just eight seconds. Garrett stood, flexed, and yelled, “Let’s go!” He walked back to the center of the mat, shook the previously undefeated Jones’ hand, let the referee raise his hand in victory, and then he ran to his corner and hugged Roger Crebs ’86 and his assistants Seth Lansberry ’17 and Troy Hembury all at once. Garrett became Lycoming’s 10th national champion wrestler, a story complete with an Iliadic journey from that cold night in 1996 to the mid-March night in Virginia when Garrett ran off the stage to hug Lyle and his mother, Jennifer (Ward) ’95. Garrett indeed grew up to love the sport that his father loved, spending his time training, weight lifting, playing baseball, and doing barn chores in Canton, Pa., just a little more than a half- hour from the gates of Lycoming College, where his parents met. Coached by his father at Canton Area High School, it seemed almost certain that Garrett was going to follow in those footsteps to Lycoming, where his father’s coach, Crebs, had racked up more than 350 wins and coached four national champions. In his senior year, though, Garrett went 42-2 and finished third in the state at 195 pounds. Maryland coach Kerry McCoy reached out and offered a spot. In his first year in College Park, Garrett redshirted, going 27-15 in open tournaments at 197 pounds. In 2016, it looked like Garrett was going to be a key part of the Terrapins lineup for the next four years, but two years later, injuries had taken their toll to the tune of just 12 more wins and 19 losses. He was starting to weigh 230 pounds naturally and cutting weight was getting harder. His grandmother passed away. Maryland’s starting heavyweight, Youssif Hemida, was on his way to becoming an All-American. So Garrett walked into Coach McCoy’s office and told him he wasn’t coming back. “Everything just seemed like I should come home,” Garrett said. “Lycoming was the place. The guys on the team took me in and treated me great right when I got there.” In the fall of 2017, Garrett enrolled at Lycoming. In his first wrestling tournament, he beat a returning All-American. It wasn’t all that easy, though. In his next tournament, he lost via major decision to Jake Evans, who went on to become the national champion in 2018. Still, Garrett was a step ahead of most of his competition, posting a 37-2 record and riding a 22-match winning streak into the NCAA Championships. His first match at the tournament was storybook perfect — a pin just 71 seconds in. His next two matches were not, and a season that began with the return of the native son ended in disappointment, one win shy of All-American honors. “Falling short in the blood round was something that stung for a long time,” he said. “I still remember that match. It was a blessing in disguise, because that drove me. I put my head down and went right back to work.” It was a sunny morning the day after Lycoming’s first wrestling tournament of 2018-19. Garrett had taken his first loss of the year to Evans in the finals of a tournament at Washington & Jefferson. When asked about it, he didn’t flinch. He said he made a couple mistakes, but he wanted another opportunity. Twenty straight wins later, he got it in the finals of the NCAA Southeast Regional in the Keiper Recreation Center. Garrett took down the defending champ twice in the first period, hanging on for a 5-4 win, earning the tournament’s Most Outstanding Wrestler Award. Garrett opened the NCAA Championships with a major decision and added a pin later in the day to become an All- American, reaching the goal his father set for him all those years ago. A one-point win in the semifinals set up the bout with Jones in the championship. Jones got the first takedown, but Garrett controlled much of the rest of the match before Jones tied the score at seven late in the third period, setting up Garrett’s win in sudden-victory overtime. “No one expected me to beat him, but I did,” he said. So ends the legend of Garrett Wesneski, but as so many legends leave out, there is an epilogue. Garrett returned to Williamsport the day after his national championship to find campus cleared out for spring break. He went home to do barn chores, returned to campus a week later, and finished his corporate communication degree while getting the best GPA of his academic career. KIS By Joe Guistina 23 www.lycoming.edu