Many moons ago, before Chance Marsteller, Jimmy Gulibon, Cody Wiercoch and other great wrestlers even knew how to lace up their shoes, the toughest preseason wrestling tournament in the nation was being born and just beginning to grow into the monster of a tournament it is today. This tournament, the Super 32 Challenge, is well-known to many wrestlers.
The tournament started out at Morehead High School in Eden, North Carolina to help raise money for the wrestling team. David Barker and Sara Koenig were and still are the tournament directors to this day. They have been the growing force behind the Super 32 since its birth in the mid 1990s.
Super 32 did not always have such a treacherous field of wrestlers though. In 1999, only 107 wrestlers competed in the preseason tournament, but by 2007 the number of competitors exploded to 1063 wrestlers from 34 different states including 175 state champions, 7 Dapper Dan participants, and there were 40 college coaches on hand to do some serious recruiting.
This year’s tournament, as in years past, has only gotten tougher with age. This continuously growing tournament attracted a multitude of outstanding wrestlers again this year. Wrestlers like, junior world team member, Chance Marsteller (170lbs), National Prep Champion, Zach Kelly (152lbs), 2X Pennsylvania State Champion, Jason Nolf (138lbs), Flonational Champions, Luke Pletcher (120lbs), and Sam Krivus (132lbs) are just some of the many astounding grapplers that come from all over the nation to compete in what is only considered a preseason tournament.
Once again proving its dominance in the wrestling community, Pennsylvania had 24 place winners, 13 finalists and 8 champions at the 2013 Super 32. The WPIAL alone, also know as District 7, had a staggering 14 finalists and 8 wrestlers capture the highly coveted Super 32 Championship belt.
The 132-pound matchup that took place between Sam Krivus (Hempfield, PA) and Michael Kemerer (Franklin Regional, PA) is a bout you may see in March at the WPIAL Championships as these two nationally ranked atheletes wrestle AAA in District 7. Sam Krivus ended up taking this preseason battle by a score of 2-1 in a highly competitive match.
One of the bigger storylines that followed the Super 32 tournament was Spencer Lee (Franklin Regional, PA) avenging his loss from Nick Suriano (Bergen Catholic, NJ) who beat Lee in the 2012 Super 32 Finals in a action-packed match. This year, Spencer Lee took his revenge and beat Suriano by regular decision 3-1, in a well wrestled match by both competitors. In an interview after his match with Flowrestling, Spencer Lee said, “I wanted it more,” as he was still trying to catch his breath from his heart-pounding finals victory.
If you know anything about high school wrestling, you know that Chance Marsteller (Kennard Dale, PA) has been dominating every single opponent since he was acclimated to the high school wrestling scene. This weekend was no different as nobody came close to beating Chance as he completely steam-rolled his way through the 170-pound division. He posted a 6-0 record at this year’s tournament with one fall, two tech falls, two major decisions and one regular decision, which came in the finals when he defeated Taylor Lujan (GA) by a score of 9-3.
Luke Pletcher (Latrobe, PA), a freshman phenom, 106-pound AAA State Champion, Flonational Champion and Micky Phillipi (Derry, PA), rookie sensation, 113 pound AA Pennsylvania State Champion met in the 2013 Super 32 Finals at 120-pounds in a battle of sophomores, AAA vs. AA, Champion vs. Champion. The match sure did not disappoint either, the match had multiple lead changes and great scrambles. Pletcher ended up coming out on top due to a late takedown and ride in the last thirty seconds of the championship bout.
This wraps up another great year at the Greensboro Coliseum in North Carolina; wrestling fans everywhere can’t wait until this ”preseason” tournament rolls around again next year. This years hard fought bouts at the Super 32 can be found at flowrestling.org for your viewing enjoyment.
