Matt Petsinger won countless medals, trophies and championships during his illustrious amateur wrestling career.

Saturday, March 17, 2001

Matt Petsinger won countless medals, trophies and championships during his illustrious amateur wrestling career.

But the big one always eluded him.

Twice he finished second in the Minnesota state high school tournament, and he was a Junior National Greco-Roman runner-up.

Petsinger headed off to college at Minnesota State-Mankato after a sixth-place finish at state in his senior season at New Richland-Hartland-Ellendale-Geneva.

&uot;I went to college figuring I was going to have to prove myself,&uot; said Petsinger.

He did.

In this, his senior season at Minnesota State-Mankato, Petsinger won the Division II national championship at 157 pounds, completing a remarkable run of four consecutive All-American performances. He placed third in the national tournament as a freshman, sophomore and junior without even one red-shirt season.

Petsinger is only the fifth Minnesota State-Mankato wrestler to become a four-time All-American, and his career record of 120-25 is just six wins away from Jack Eustice’s school record. Petsinger’s 81 career falls is a school record, as is his 26-pin senior season. Twice Petsinger received the award for most falls in the least time at the national tournament, and he was a two-time academic All-American.

That followed six-year high school career in which Petsinger went 179-30 with 131 falls and three state tournament appearances. The state championship bout in his junior year – a double-overtime loss to Minnesota Gopher Brad Pike – is considered one of the most memorable matches in state tournament history.

&uot;That’s the one everybody remembers,&uot; said Petsinger.

But it wasn’t his biggest motivating factor in college.

&uot;What probably stands out the most is my senior year,&uot; said Petsinger. &uot;I just did not wrestle very smart (in the state tournament), and that haunts me more than Pike’s match.&uot;

After such a steller and storied career, a lot of wrestlers would be satisfied to rest on their laurels. Not Petsinger. He has even bigger things in mind.

First, though, there’s something a little more urgent: surgery. Both of Petsinger’s shoulders require surgery, one the result of an injury his freshman year and the other deteriorating in the same fashion over time.

&uot;I was told to have surgery after my freshman year, but I would have needed to take a year off from wrestling,&uot; said Petsinger. &uot;I said, ‘No.’ I dealt with the pain.&uot;