"I kicked off that season by going to the athletic scholarship banquet. I said, ‘My name’s Quentin Wright, I’m getting a business management degree, and I represent the 2011 National Champion wrestling team.’ It was just such a foreshadowing of what ended up happening that year. I personally had a rough year. I busted my shoulder, and I came back and lost three matches in a row before going to the Big Ten Tournament. But I found a way to come back and win Big Tens. After I won the semifinal match [at NCAAs], that’s whenever we won the national title before even wrestling the final day. That was wild. It was very somber that final day because two of our stars, our biggest leaders [David Taylor ’13 H&HD and Ed Ruth ’14 Lib] had just lost in the finals. I was against Lehigh’s Robert Hamlin, who had been my first loss of the year. The first time I wrestled him, I was a lost soul. I was trying to be a mini Cael Sanderson in my wrestling style. Through that year, he told me God has created you to wrestle your own style. After busting my shoulder and looking deep within myself and praying about it, I developed that. I love the throws, I love the double-legs. And when I got back to doing that, that was the difference in the match. Every NCAA title is wonderful, but the fans had been waiting for so long, and to win it that first time is the focal point of that program. I tell people that I thought I was good, but being Cael’s first national champion is the only stat in the book I have left. Everyone who has come since has broken all the stats. No matter how successful people are in the future, I can always claim that I was Cael’s first national champ at Penn State.”
 

Quentin Wright ’13 Bus, ’13, ’15 MA Lib, a two-time NCAA champion, is a human resource generalist at CenClear and the head wrestling coach at Tyrone Area High School.