Aaron Anspach’s decade as a heavyweight took him to some memorable places.
He wrestled on a raised platform in the 2007 NCAA finals. He faced the world’s best during a trip to Belarus last year.
But something seemed amiss. “I just went out there and was kind of wrestling,” said Anspach, a former Penn State standout training with the Nittany Lion Wrestling Club. “I didn’t have that drive for some reason. I needed something to re-kick me with energy and kick me into gear.”
Two months of calculated weight cutting later, Anspach thinks he has found that spark.
Anspach has dropped to 211.5 pounds for this weekend’s World Team Trials in Oklahoma City.
Changing weights wasn’t a whimsical decision made by a 27- year-old who hasn’t competed above heavyweight since ninth grade. Anspach decided to drop after a fifth-place finish during April’s U.S. Open in Cleveland. Earlier in the freestyle season, Anspach fell to 2008 Olympian Steve Mocco in the finals of the Dave Schultz Memorial International.
Anspach consulted with NLWC coaches after returning from Cleveland. The group supported the move.
“It’s not that I was a small heavyweight,” Anspach said. “But all those guys were cutting weight to make heavyweight. That’s my thinking at 211. I’m one of the bigger 211-pounders.”
Anspach weighed 262 pounds when the U.S. Open concluded. He reached 211.5 for the first time two weeks ago, when the NLWC prepared for the trials by simulating the event’s time schedule and weigh-in procedures. The entire 211.5 pound bracket will be contested Friday.
Anspach cut 50 pounds by burning more calories than he consumed. His trips to the director of wrestling operations Matt Dernlan’s office fridge yielded leaner foods and curious glances.
“We were all interested in how he was going to do,” said Dernlan, the NLWC’s chief administrator. “He has never had to do it. We all grew up having to do it on a weekly basis. Hopefully it gives him more of an edge.”
Dernlan, a part of Penn State’s staff since 2004, lauded Anspach’s ability to safely cut 50 pounds in less than two months.
“It’s a huge sacrifice and it’s a testament to his character,” Dernlan said.
Dernlan said the move should benefit Anspach and the NLWC.
Anspach and Les Sigman, a 2010 world team member who is not competing this weekend because of an injury sustained at the U.S. Open, gave the NLWC two of the nation’s top five heavyweights. The deep classes also features Mocco, U.S. Open winner Tervel Dlagnev and former NCAA champion Tommy Rowlands.
The NLWC’s Jake Varner is the U.S. Open champion and reigning world team member at 211.5. Varner’s victory in Cleveland gives him an automatic spot in this weekend’s finals.
“The exciting thing is that we can have both guys in the finals there with Aaron and Jake battling it out,” Dernlan said. “I think that’s what they want. They are training to push each other hard because they want to be the guy and they also want our club to have the top two national team members.”
This weekend’s winners qualify for September’s World Championships in Istanbul. Mark McKnight (121 pounds), Andrew Long (132), Nick Fanthorpe (132), Teyon Ware (145.5), Andrew Alton (145.5), James English (145.5), Quentin Wright (185) and Cael Sanderson (185) are other NLWC athletes eligible for the trials.
Titles by Varner and Ware helped the NLWC finish second at the U.S. Open. Anspach, who coaches the NLWC’s youth program, said the club enters this weekend with the same vibes Penn State had when it captured an NCAA title in March.
“Winning is contagious,” he said, “and it’s around this program right now.”
Former All-American dies
Former Penn State All- American Sam Harry, who finished third at 128 pounds at the 1946 NCAA Championships, died last weekend. Harry was 89.
Harry attended Clearfield High School, where he captured the first PIAA wrestling title at 85 pounds in 1938. Harry won an EIWA title for Penn State in 1942, the same year he enlisted in the U.S. Army Air Corps and became a pilot. He returned to Penn State and won another EIWA title in 1946.
Harry retired from the PA Army National Guard in 1971. He retired as an attorney in 1995.
Guy Cipriano can be reached at 231-4643.
