Desire drives Chartiers Valley wrestler
Dylan Evans did not want to compete in the Greco-Roman competition during the 2022 USA Wrestling Junior and 16U National Championships held July 16-22 in Fargo.
He had just experienced disappointment in the freestyle competition. In his preferred discipline, the Chartiers Valley rising senior lost in the blood round and failed to make the podium.
“Dylan was miserable,” said his dad, Bill, who also serves as CV’s head coach.
No matter how unhappy Evans was, he could not justify leaving North Dakota without completing his tournament.
“I knew I would regret it,” he said. “Even if I didn’t place, I should at least make a run at it.
“It’s not like Greco is a foreign language to me. It’s the younger brother of freestyle and folkstyle. Some do it. A select few enjoy it.”
Evans relished it. In fact, he finished runner-up in the national competition.
“It’s interesting what a human can accomplish when he puts his mind to it,” said Evans.
Once Evans decided to compete in Greco-Roman, he embraced the challenge of a style of wrestling that negates his strength. In Greco-Roman, a wrestler cannot use his legs as offensive or defensive weapons or to attack.
Evans opened the competition with four straight technical falls — 8-0 wins against Nebraska’s Caden Eggleston, Illinois’ Taythan Silva and Minnesota’s Lane Fink as well as a 10-0 decision against Washington’s Francisco Ayala.
He dispatched Colorado’s Javani Major, 5-3, and New Jersey’s Tyler Sagi, 10-4, to reach the national finals. Evans dropped a 7-5 decision to Braden Stauffenberg of Illinois in the 152-pound championship match.
Stauffenberg was the gold medalist in both freestyle and Greco-Roman in the Pan-American U-15 championships and will represented the U.S. at the 2021 Cadet World Championships.
“It’s not the worst thing in the world to lose to a kid that’s on the World Team,” Evans said.
“It was a good experience. I’m not the biggest thrower so I learned things about positioning and wrestling smart. Once you get to this level, you are facing guys who have been around the circuit for awhile,” continued Evans, who has been in the finals twice in his career. “There’s constant pressure and you have to wrestle as smart as you possibly can.”
As he did during the Greco-Roman competition, Evans found a way to win a bunch of matches under the freestyle format and finished among the top 12 wrestlers in the country in the 152-pound weight class.
After a first-round bye, Evans pinned Arizona’s Cooper French. After he lost to Maryland’s Paul Ognissanti, 11-8, Evans strung together four victories — two technical falls, 11-0 and 10-0, against Wisconsin’s Karsen Otis and Montana’s Israel Moreno; an injury default by Trenton Dow from Wisconsin and a 9-8 decision against Carter Martinson from Iowa.
“This is literally the hardest tournament in the country,” said Coach Evans. “Dylan knocked off some D1 recruits and he lost to two very good kids. He got himself into trouble and got pinned during the blood round.”
During the blood round, where a win puts a wrestler in a position to earn a spot on the podium, Ethan Stiles felled Evans.
“It was a huge disappointment,” Evans said, “but there is a lot that I can learn from (the loss). Make a small mistake and you fall short.
“There is a reason why it is the toughest bracket in the whole tournament,” he said. “The weight class is no joke. You get beat by some kids who are going on to a lot of good places.”
Pitt commitAfter his senior season this winter, Evans is off to one of those better wrestling places. He has committed to the University of Pittsburgh.
In 2021, the Panthers finished 11th at the NCAA Championships. Their 2022 recruiting class is heralded as the best in program history.
Pitt should also rise in the rankings because they return Bethel Park’s Nino Bonaccorsi and Greenville’s Cole Matthews. Both were U.S. U23 freestyle champions. Bonaccorsi even represented the nation at the U23 World Championships.
“Pitt has an amazing program,” Evans said.
Evans picked Pitt for several reasons, proximity, academics, facilities, coaching and success, current and in the future.
“There are a lot of perks to staying close to home,” Evans said. “There’s access to great technology, hospitals and education.”
Regarding the wrestling program he added, “They are building a new facility. Their coaching is impressive. There’s a reason why they are a top-15 program. You can see they are forming something special.”
A high honors student with a 4-plus GPA, Evans knows there are a lot of fields of academics he can pursue at Pitt, too. Though he loves math, he says he is not cut out for the medical profession and engineering is not his style. He is contemplating taking the finance route.
“But I don’t want to be one of those greedy people. I want to help people. There are various occupations, like teachers, doctors, car mechanics, electrical engineers, that help people in some sort of way that are not detrimental to other person’s lives. Whatever I pick, I want it to be something that doesn’t ruin someone’s life and I can sleep easy.”
Evans rests easy knowing he enters his senior season at the top of the mountain. He is a defending PIAA champion and he wants to close out his career that way.
His experiences, especially the recent one in Fargo, will go a long way in determining his success on the mats this winter and beyond.
“I’ve seen some things I need to work on. My defense was lackluster in some matches. I need to spend time on that. There were some holes so they needed to be fixed so that doesn’t happen again. But the gas tank and the hustle. Well there’s nothing wrong there.”