By Mike Finn, W.I.N. Editor

By the time most seniors have completed their college wrestling careers, they are ready to hang up the shoes and singlets and let their minds and bodies recover from years of abuse that take place in wrestling rooms and national competitions from the days they were children.

Not Penn State’s Phil Davis.

“Will I keep wrestling?” responded Davis to such a question after he captured the 197-pound championship in St. Louis’ Scottrade Center. “It’s not something that I want to give up yet. I’m a very competitive person. Whatever that means, whether it’s coaching or shooting for an Olympic team, I’m just not sure.”

Davis said that his 7-2 victory over Central Michigan’s Wynn Michalak was a match that went a lot faster than seven minutes in his mind.

“It felt like there should be another period,” Davis said. “It didn’t seem like it was over. It was that intense. Most times, I know the score in my head, but I could not remember what it was. I knew that I was up by at least two points and don’t do anything stupid.”

If it seems like Davis, who also competed in the 2006 NCAA finals at 197, but lost to former Oklahoma State champion Jake Rosholt, is naïve to the feelings most college seniors have, that’s because the native of Harrisburg, Pa., doesn’t have the background of the 329 other wrestlers who competed in the 2008 national tournament.

Even though Harrisburg is located near Hershey, Pa., the site of the Pennsylvania state tournament every year, Davis did not enjoy the same benefits afforded other high school wrestlers in this recruiting hotbed for college coaches.

“It was definitely different not coming from a place where wrestling is the main sport and where people grow up looking forward to being wrestlers,” Davis said. “It’s a lot different coming from the city. I think it means a lot to have the champion from Harrisburg High.”

In fact Penn State coach Troy Sunderland admits today he stumbled onto the name of Phil Davis, while he was in town for the state tournament when Davis was a high school sophomore.

“We were in an Applebee’s restaurant and its bathroom when I saw an article about the local kid who went to tournaments on his own by jumping on a bus,” Sunderland said. “It struck my attention that this is someone who was a go-getter who really wanted to be good someday.”

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