One more local wrestler adds postseason gold
It's been quite the season for York-Adams wrestling. Kennard-Dale 152-pound prodigy Chance Marsteller became -- if only temporarily -- the heaviest freshman to win a PIAA Class AAA championship. New Oxford senior Jordan Conaway might have topped that; he won his own 112-pound state title, then committed this week to newly crowned national champion Penn State. Meanwhile, one other local wrestler was continuing his meteoric progression, albeit with a bit less fan fare. We wrote about Dover native Brooks Black last July, after he won cadet Greco-Roman and Freestyle national titles at the USAW Nationals in Fargo, N.D. The sophomore heavyweight, who wrestles at the renowned Blair Academy in New Jersey, added another honor late last February, when he won a National Prep Wrestling Championship at heavyweight. Black, who finished second in the competition as a freshman, defeated Wyoming Seminary's Terrance Jean Jacques, 3-0 in the final. Black was dominant through the tournament; his other four matches at the championships included two major decisions and two pins. Blair Academy, by the way, rolled to its 31st consecutive national championship. So it seems Black is in the perfect place to build his already impressive resume. "You need to keep your eye on him," said Chris Priar, who has been training Black at the Iron Eagle Wrestling Club in Mechanicsburg, when we talked to him last summer. "It is no long shot that he ends up making the Olympics." Blair Academy coach Jeff Buxton said of Black last summer: "Just imagine when this kid turns 16, 17, 18 and he gets bigger and stronger. ... I'm not going to jump up there and say he's America's future. But right now, he's got a chance to be a high-end Division I prospect."