By Jason Bryant, Special to W.I.N.

One thing the Beast of the East has been known for is cutting down some of the nation’s best high school wrestlers. State champions and national champions have fallen victim to the competition that takes to the mats at the Bob Carpenter Center at the University of Delaware each December.

            In the 15th annual event, undefeated two-time New Jersey state champion Scott Winston of Jackson Memorial was the entrée the two-day Beast had its eye on to chew up.

            Instead, it was Winston that feasted on the competition, Dec. 16, as the Rutgers-bound senior improved to 106-0 with a 5-3 victory over Great Bridge (Va.) senior Jared King in the finals at 160 pounds.

            Right away, Winston acknowledged the importance of not just competing at the Beast, but winning it.

            “I’ve been getting a lot digs saying that I haven’t competed in the toughest tournaments during the season like the Beast, stuff like that,” said Winston. “My finals didn’t go the way I wanted it. He’s a good wrestler, kinda scrambly. I don’t really like that.

            “This is pretty neat,” added Winston, looking around at the fans watching the finals in “The Bob.”

            “Fargo’s big like this, but you don’t have the big crowd that’s right on top of you like this.”

            Doubters want to challenge Winston’s record or will pop off with comments like: “Oh, he wouldn’t have won four titles anyway,” or “if he wouldn’t have gotten hurt, he still wouldn’t have won state,” or even “he doesn’t wrestle anyone.”

            Those folks need to wake up and eye what Winston has accomplished.

            In his first victory at the Beast, a fall over Caravel Academy (Del.) wrestler Kyle James, Winston broke the New Jersey state record for consecutive wins in a high school career.

            The previous record-holder was someone most wrestling fans should recognize – two-time NCAA champion and Lakewood graduate Damion Hahn.

            But does Winston feel the pressure on staying undefeated from an unforgiving wrestling public in a deep wrestling state like New Jersey?

            “I don’t really take it as pressure,” said Winston. “I just like going out there and working. I want to be the best.

            “I don’t go out there and go, ‘Oh, I’m going to kill this kid,’ that’s not how I train,” he said. “I go out there and do my own thing.”

            While Winston is undefeated during the regular season, he does take notice of when he is beaten — whether it be freestyle or in the off-season.

            “I take them as losses,” he said. “I have to train harder in the off-season to be able to wrestle them guys. I train, but I don’t have a purpose when I’m training. I don’t have that set.”

            “During the season, it’s more of a regiment and I wrestle better when I’m regimented,” said Winston. “I don’t like to be late or anything. That has a lot to do with it.”

Most recently, Winston was upended by Pemberville Eastwood (Ohio) senior Eric Cubberly at the Super 32 in North Carolina in October. And as a result, things have changed.

            “I’ve been going two times a day,” explained Winston. “It kind of opened my eyes a little bit. I was kind of stale, I wasn’t as offensive when I got to the finals. I need to be more explosive like I was when I was younger. I can’t be passive.”

            Winston’s on pace to win a third state title, but he does sometimes look back and wonder “What if,” if an ankle injury sustained while playing around with family members the week before the team state championships didn’t end his freshman season, when he was unbeaten at 22-0 at the time and preventing a career that might have included the possibility of a fourth state title; a feat that’s only happened once in New Jersey wrestling history.

            “I hear a lot of that,” said Winston. “I had to have thought back on it with all the questions I get about it. I think I would have made the finals that year, I don’t know if I would have beaten (Dan) Vallimont, he’s one heck of a competitor.”

            “At the time, I probably would have thought I could have beaten him, but looking back on it, I don’t know, he was pretty tough,” Winston said of the current 157-pound starter at Penn State and two-time New Jersey champ.

       (You can read the rest of this article by subscribing to W.I.N. Magazine. Either contact our office at 1-888-305-0606 or subscribe through this website by selecting the “Subscribe” section on our front page.)