Okolo earns first All-American honors for PSU DuBois

Okolo earns first All-American honors for PSU DuBois
Posted: Mar 13, 2012

Okolo earns first All-American honors in PSU DuBois wrestling program 

March 12, 2012

Freshman wrestler Chike Okolo became the first Penn State DuBois wrestler to earn NCWA  All-American honors over the weekend at the NCWA Championships in Daytona Beach, FL.  Okolo came to DuBois from Somerset, NJ competes at the 197 weight class finished the tournament in 8th place after going 4-3 on the weekend. Coach Matt Park was elated that Chike wrestled so well and became the first wrestler to become an All-American for the campus.

Chike opened the competition with a 20-4 Technical Fall over Aaron James of Washington CCC, his second round opponent was eventual 197lb champion Aaron Thompson from Liberty University.  Okolo lost to Thompson 9-1 which put him into the consolation wrestle backs. Okolo followed up the loss with three straight wins to earn All-American honors. (11-2 win over Jerad Korte of McKendree College, a fall over Ben Pema of Iowa State Univ., and David Neff of Auburn University).  In Chike's final two bouts he was defeated by Charlie Farr of Mercer Univ. and Alec Pence of University of Maryland Baltimore Cty to finish in 8t place.

The rest of the DuBois contingent that qualified for the NCWA Championships had mixed degree of success.  Sophomore Nick Bogacki from DuBois HS was 2-2 as was 141lb sophomore Garrett Zarecky.   157 lber Shane Alterio was 1-2 and Stephen Terwilliger was 0-2 in competition.  Unfortunately 285lber Chris Minarchick was not 100% entering the tournament and was forced to withdrawal in his first match due to a knee injury.

Coach Park stated " the wrestlers worked hard all season and it was nice to see the payoff at the end of the year with guys wrestling so well against outstanding competition.  Many of the top programs in the NCWA are ahead of us right now, but with continued commitment we will get there in the next few years".

In three short years, this program has already come a long way which is a testament to the coaches, athletes, and the Administration on our campus.  Congratulations on a job well done!