Frank Bodani

fbodani@ydr.com

Chance Marsteller was talking in the middle of a most important journey.

The four-time PIAA champion wrestler, undefeated in high school, was on his way home, so to speak. The Kennard-Dale grad talked on his cell phone Wednesday afternoon while beginning the ride in a Greyhound bus from Stillwater, Okla., to Harrisburg.

That's 1,250 miles and who-knows-how-many hours and time to think.

The college junior-to-be described his homecoming and transfer to Lock Haven University as a hopeful rejuvenation of the most promising wrestling career that suddenly ran off the tracks. Though he said scholarship details are still being worked out, he expects to wrestle this spring and summer in tournaments with Lock Haven club teams.

He said a fresh start is necessary after parts of two mostly unfulfilled years at powerhouse Oklahoma State.

"It's been difficult to deal with. I put a lot of pressure on myself in high school and afterwards, and I haven't proved myself in college," he said. "That's why I feel this transition is great for me ... to take off some of that pressure."

Not only is he returning to the state where he grew up and earned nearly unparalleled success, he will be joining a program with so many familiar faces.

He trained often with Solanco High's Danny Neff, who just wrestled his final season at Lock Haven. He also is good friends with former undefeated Solanco heavyweight Thomas Haines, who recently transferred into Lock Haven from Ohio State.

And Marsteller knows Patrick Duggan well. He's the highly-successful Cumberland Valley wrestler who recently transferred in from West Virginia.

Only three wrestlers on Lock Haven's most recent roster are out-of-state.

Striving to be stellar: Olympic dreams drive Chance Marsteller to wrestling's next stage

"I kind of heard about the vibe. It sounded like the perfect mixture of kids coming back to Pennsylvania," Marsteller said. "We all grew up together and trained together and all left for different places and now we're all basically coming back home."

Marsteller talked about being more comfortable wrestling under Lock Haven head coach Scott Moore — especially being able to wrestle at a weight he believes is more conducive to his success. At Oklahoma State he was pegged as a 157-pound wrestler, his lightest weight since freshman year of high school.

At Lock Haven he expects to wrestle at 165 pounds.

"There was no energy," he said of trying to wrestle down a few weight classes. "My abilities were lackluster because I didn't have that fire in my gut anymore, I was cutting so much weight. The focus was on cutting weight rather than wrestling. It takes over after a while, not just your body but your mind. It's tough after so long ...

"I knew (wrestling at 157 pounds) would be tough for me, that was one thing. But I let the weight-cut beat me. I'm mentally tough and I believe I could do it, but it becomes a weight on your shoulders. It affects your performance."

Marsteller politely declined to talk about other details of his time at Oklahoma State, including his troubles with coach John Smith and his reasoning to transfer. He redshirted his first year in college. This past season, he owned a 6-5 record with one pin and two technical falls before being suspended from the team for an unspecified violation of team rules.

That all came after he originally verbally committed to national champion Penn State and coach Cael Sanderson. However, he switched his pledge to Oklahoma State before graduating from Kennard-Dale.

One of Marsteller's biggest wrestling influences early on was personal trainer and coach Cary Kolat — another undefeated Pennsylvania high school wrestler who transferred into Lock Haven. Kolat won two NCAA titles and nearly a third with the Bald Eagles and Penn State, and was an Olympian in 2000.