Incoming freshmen Kaleb Romero (Mechanicsburg HS, Ohio) and Chase Singletary (Blair Academy, New Jersey) each earned their respective state's highest high school wrestling honor as the pair were named the 2017 Dave Schultz High School Excellence Award winners for Ohio and New Jersey, respectively.
The Schultz award is roughly the wrestling equivalent to the Mr. Football or Mr. Basketball awards given out yearly to each state's standout performer.
Romero became the 29th wrestler in the state of Ohio to earn four individual state titles and lead Mechanicsburg to the first team state title in school history. Romero was named the Most Outstanding Wrestler of the Meet at the 2017 Division III tournament.
An outstanding offensive wrestler, Romero went undefeated in his senior season without yielding an offensive point to his opponents. Romero capped off the undefeated season with a pin in the Division III 170 lb final in just 52 seconds. Romero projects to wrestle at either 165 or 174 in college and could step into the lineup as a true freshman at 165.
Chase Singletary joined Romero as Schultz award winners, winning the award for the outstanding wrestling state of New Jersey. Singletary made his mark for the prestigious Blair Academy, which managed to earn the NHSCA/ USA Today national title. Singletary is a two-time Walsh Ironman champion, a Beast of the East champion, and ended his career as the top recruit in the country at 195 lbs.
Singletary projects as a heavyweight in college, and stands to be the next in a long line of undersized Buckeye heavyweights to attain a great deal of success on the mats. In order to be more competitive at heavyweight, Singletary is likely to redshirt and soak up as much as he can from Kyle Snyder before succeeding Snyder in 2018.
