By Rob Sherrill, W.I.N. High School Editor

Like all sports, wrestling has evolved over the years.

Thirty years ago, the nation’s top wrestlers were likely to be good in all three positions: top, bottom and neutral. In the past couple of decades, though, the influence of the international styles has been obvious. The biggest effect has been the increased emphasis on takedowns and skill on the feet.

Name a wrestler today and the first question somebody will ask about him when talking about technique, invariably, is this: “How good is he on his feet? Does he have a shot?”

But, as we saw in the NHSCA National High School Seniors Wrestling Championships at Virginia Beach, Va., March 26-30, there’s more to the sport than just takedowns and escapes.

A lot more.

The differences in style were clear as the matches unfolded in the finals. Two of the top wrestlers in the championships, Jordan Oliver (130) of Easton (Pa.) High and Jason Chamberlain (140) of Springville (Utah) High, have become known for their impressive takedown skills. The two combined for 22 takedowns as they dominated their finals opponents, each winning by technical fall.

Not only did Oliver win his third National High School title — the Oklahoma State-recruit also took National Sophomores and National Juniors crowns the past two years — but he was a strong candidate to take home his third straight Outstanding Wrestler award as well. Every one of his six victories was a bonus-point win, as he racked up one pin, four technical falls and a major decision.

For the first two days, Jordan, you had my vote for this year’s tournament, too. That was, before I witnessed the final three matches wrestled by Rockford (Mich.) High-star Ben Bennett, who showed there are other ways to win matches, championships and Outstanding Wrestler awards.

Bennett was clearly a contender, but he wasn’t the pre-meet favorite in a 171-pound weight class that — man-for-man and state title-for-state title — was the toughest in the tournament.

Nearly 30 percent of the 67 wrestlers entered at 171 — 18 in all — were multi-time state champions. That total included 12 with two state titles, six with three, two with four and one — Kyle Cuthbertson of Scottsboro (Ala.) High — who owned five state crowns. And that didn’t include the weight’s top-ranked wrestler, Hunter Collins of Gilroy (Calif.) High, who didn’t win a title until this year in the ultra-competitive California state tournament.

Ten of the top 15 seniors in W.I.N.’s pre-meet rankings were in the field.

And that’s why what Bennett did in the toughest three matches of the tournament — a 5:59 fall against Cuthbertson in the quarterfinals, a 2-0 decision over New Jersey’s Corey Peltier in the semifinals and a 7-2 victory over Collins in the championship match — is so noteworthy.

Two of those matches were tied going into in the third period, and Bennett held a one-point lead in the third match. All three opponents had choice to start that fateful period. All three chose down. And all three wound up regretting that choice.

Some other winners used similar blueprints. The meet’s first three champions — Jesse Meis (103) of Alamosa (Colo.) High, Joey Langel (112) of Farmingdale (N.J.) Howell High and Jordan Keller (119) of Wichita (Kan.) Bishop Carroll High — used their lethal on-top skills to win their titles. And the only pin of the finals — by two-time Oregon state champion Ryland Geiger (189) of Scappoose High — was a defensive pin.

But Bennett trumped them all.

Let’s start with the quarterfinal match against Cuthbertson. The match was tied at 2-2 after two periods, with the Alabama standout having scored the match’s only takedown in the first period. Advantage, Cuthbertson. Right?

Wrong.

Cuthbertson never got up. Bennett threw in the legs, eventually turned Cuthbertson for a two-point near fall to make it 4-2, turned him again and scored a fall with one second remaining in the match.

Next came Blairstown (N.J.) Blair Academy’s Peltier, another highly-ranked wrestler. After a scoreless first period, Peltier used an effective spiral ride to ride Bennett out in the second period. After two scoreless periods, Peltier, from a school where wrestlers normally get off the bottom effectively, confidently followed the Cuthbertson plan, choosing down.

What followed may have been Bennett’s best two minutes of the tournament.

For those two minutes, Peltier looked like a daredevil trying to cross Niagara Falls on a tightrope at midnight, desperately trying to avoid being turned. Literally, there was no escape. Using a crushing leg ride and power half combination, Bennett ground Peltier into sawdust. He finally turned Peltier for a one-count with 40 seconds remaining, and with just over 20 seconds to go, Bennett finally worked his power half for a two-point near fall, the difference in a 2-0 victory which punched his ticket to the finals.

Peltier never was able even to base up in the period and likely wouldn’t have had the period gone 30 minutes. That’s how masterful Bennett’s ride was.

That got Bennett to the finals against Collins, who had been impressive in his semifinal victory as well. Bennett escaped in the second period and Collins, trailing 1-0, had the choice to start the final period. Collins glanced at his coach, clearly unsure of what choice to make. Finally, he, too, chose down.

Collins did get out. He even scored a reversal, but not before he wound up staring at the lights in the ceiling of the Virginia Beach Convention Center three separate times. A pair of three-point near falls gave Bennett a 7-0 stranglehold en route to a 7-2 victory.

Bennett didn’t score a single takedown in any of his final three matches in the tournament. That’s right…zero. But he made three straight nationally-ranked opponents pay the ultimate price for choosing down with the match on the line.

I’m trying to think of a more impressive on-the-mat performance under that kind of pressure against that kind of opposition in 30 years of watching high school wrestling. I’m not coming up with one. If any of you out there in wrestling land can, I’m all ears.

Add it all up and I only need two letters to spell out Ben Bennett’s performance: an O and a W.

Meis, Langel and Keller laid the groundwork for Bennett’s performance. Meis, a two-time state champion, burst onto the scene in the National Juniors tournament last year with his devastating 2-on-1 tilts and didn’t stop this year. He turned Jeremy Gendreau of Bellflower (Calif.) St. John Bosco High five times with that tilt in a 19-5 finals victory.

Langel used punishing leg rides and superior hip position to control two-time Illinois champion B.J. Futrell of Chicago Mount Carmel High, 6-3. Futrell scored the first takedown, but it was all Langel after that. He out-scrambled Futrell twice for takedowns of his own and his cross-body rides wore down Futrell, who was never able to clear his own hips. And a second-period rideout was key for Keller, whose escape early in the final period was the only point in a 1-0 victory over four-time Pennsylvania place-winner Nico Cortese of Greensburg Hempfield High.

Superior takedown ability can — and does — bring “oohs” and “aahs” from the crowd. But it’s the pin that really brings the fans out of their seats. Remember that Coleman Scott moment at the Scottrade Center in St. Louis at the NCAA Nationals?

Fortunately, as Ben Bennett proved, mat wrestling is alive and well. And his future college coach, Central Michigan’s Tom Borrelli, must be grinning from ear to ear.

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(Rob Sherrill is one of the top high school wrestling analysts in the country and a long-time columnist of W.I.N. He also publishes the “American High School Wrestling Yearbook”. To order a copy, e-mail him at centermatpress@hotmail.com.)