A Brief History of the Canon-McMillan Wrestling Program

In a year that saw Charles Lindbergh fly across the Atlantic Ocean, Ford Motor Company produce its last Model T, and the Yankees sweep the Pirates in the World Series (typical), 1927 also brought the start of a dynasty when R.J. O’Connell journeyed from Penn State University to Canonsburg, PA to teach science. While Penn State was not the power house in wrestling that it is today, O’Connell brought his knowledge from the university’s program to Canonsburg High School when he started an intramural program.

The program started success early for Canonsburg from its first matches in 1933 into the 1959 merger between Canonsburg, Cecil, and North Strabane areas to form Canon-McMillan High School. The CM wrestling program has had over 2,000 wrestlers and 16 head coaches come into the mat room. As this year marks 90 years since R.J. O’Connell first stepped foot in Canonsburg, it’s time to take a look back at some of the history and stats of the whole program.

Wins & Losses

1,060 wins, 242 losses, 15 ties. The record of Canonsburg and Canon-McMillan HS helps the program stand tall as the team with the most dual meet wins in Pennsylvania. At more than 100 matches behind, Waynesburg and Easton come in at second and third most wins. Coaches O’Connell and Mason lead the “Gunners” on an 87 win streak in their first eight official seasons. With his own 45 match win-streak, Coach Chris Mary holds the record for most CM dual meet wins with 214, with notable victories over Erie McDowell and Central Dauphin in the 2012 and 2013 PIAA State Finals. While the wins are great, the program has also suffered many heartbreaking losses to teams that have become certain rivals like Waynesburg, Trinity, North Allegheny, and Latrobe, among others.

Coach Chris Mary gets psyched after a big WPIAL win

Coaches Cardillo and Haynes at the state tournament

Team Titles

8 is the number of times the “Big Macs” have gone a full season without a single team loss. The program boasts other team credits such as 39 Section titles, 20 WPIAL titles, and 8 State titles. Canon Mac has won the last 16 Section titles, dating back to Mary’s second season as a coach in 2002. If he accomplishes nothing else, new Head Coach Jeff Havelka must continue to dominate the Section, as he has big shoes to fill. As for WPIAL? CM won 4 straight WPIAL titles from 2010-2013. However, what most fans don’t know is that the “Gunners” won 6 straight WPIAL titles from 1936-1941, starting by capturing the first ever WPIAL Team Championship. At the state level, CM won 8 straight State titles from 2010-2013, including three team-individual titles.

Canonsburg "Gunners" wrestling team under Coach Phil Ahwesh (1947)

Individual Titles

Jason Dami after winning PIAA quarterfinal (1994)

There is nothing that has made CM Wrestling the program it has been more so than the individuals that have wrestled in it. From 1927-2017, over 220 wrestlers -- including myself -- have brought home Section titles. At the WPIAL level, there have been 150 titles won by “Gunners” and “Big Macs,” with twenty-four of those coming from 4X Champs Andy Puchany (a future head coach), Don Haney, Manuel Pihakis, Mark Angle, Colin Johnston, and Solomon Chishko. While there have been no 4X State Champs from the school, George Custer and Manuel Pihakis have each brought home 3 titles of the program’s 43 total. CM has qualified over 170 wrestlers and claimed 134 state medals.

Accolades

Other than big high school stats, the “Big Macs” have sent 20 wrestlers, 4 coaches, and 3 teams into the Pennsylvania Sports Hall of Fame. 39 wrestlers have also made the prestigious achievement of being a part of the “100 Win Club.” At the collegiate level, the school has been a part in helping twelve individuals win 22 NCAA medals, including 5 NCAA Champions. In the 2017-2018 season, be sure to look out for Dalton Macri (12), Connor Schram (10), and Solomon Chishko (4), as they are all ranked in FloWrestling’s Top 20 and looking for NCAA titles. In other areas, the CM Alumni Wrestling Camp has molded the current generation of CM wrestlers for 3 years, while the Mac Open Golf Scramble brought together past generations of wrestlers and fans in its first year.

Canon-McMillan Wrestling has built up a tradition of continued excellence carried on from the “Gunners” to the “Big Macs.” These statistics show that CM started strong and has been a team to reckon with for nine decades, and that will continue into the future with the support of fans, families, and previous generations of wrestlers. As this upcoming season starts up, the Alumni Association will be taking a closer look back at the history of the program with analysis, history lessons, and interviews, so be sure to come back often for new articles. Check out the Infographic below, and look forward to an eventful season!

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*All outside information is referenced from http://www.cmwrestlingalumni.com/ or “A History of Canonsburg Canon-McMillan High School Wrestling” by Paul Amic.

Which State has the Most NCAA Championship Titles?

One of the biggest -- and most fun -- arguments in the wrestling community is debating which state has the best wrestlers. Whether it be at the high school, collegiate, or world level, fans like to remind their friends - and especially their rivals - where their favorite wrestler grew up. Up until this point there has not been an ultimate list of DI NCAA wrestling champions sorted out by state, but that changes today.

Inspired by Flo Wrestling’s Which State Did The Best At The 2017 NCAAs?, this list takes a look at every NCAA wrestling champion by weight, year, college, high school, hometown, and state. This data analysis dives into each wrestler’s hometown to determine which states and high schools breed the most individual NCAA champions by quantity.  Feel free to review the raw data used in this analysis of NCAA champs.

NCAA Wrestling Championships by State

Since the college weight class change enacted in 1999, there have been 190 champions at the ten respective weight classes. In those years, there have been 28 states represented by a championship title; furthermore, just 5 of those states have accounted for 52.6% of the titles earned. Those states are Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Ohio, California, Oklahoma. PA is known in the wrestling community as a wrestling powerhouse, and these charts show that PA has been the winningest state in the past 18 years with approximately 15% of all titles per state. New Jersey and Ohio aren’t far behind, with a one champ difference between the two. So according to this data, no Donald Trump, Iowa is not the “home of the greatest wrestlers in the world;” but, the state does have the 6th most NCAA titles.

NCAA Wrestling Champions by State (US Map)

The map above shows off the most individual D1 wrestling titles per state. The scale ranges from light blue to dark blue, with more titles for the darker the color. States shown in white do not have any championships since 1999. Fun fact: Hawaii is represented by 2X champion Travis Lee of Honolulu, HI from his wins in 2003 and 2004. This chart displays the same concepts in the graphs above, but it is a neat way to look at a country-wide view of the data.

NCAA Wrestling Championship Titles by HS

Now that the top state has been determined, let’s take a look at the top high schools in the country. Out of the 190 titles since 1999, there have been 40 high schools winning 56% of all championships. Blair Academy has been responsible for almost 4% of them, which is nearly double the next 7 best schools that account for 2% each. Blair Academy, a private school located in New Jersey, has had notable champions including Steve Mocco (‘03, ‘05), Zack Esposito (‘05), Mark Perry (‘07-’08), and Kellen Russell (‘11, ‘12).

Interestingly enough, three out of the seven schools that have 4 total titles have had only one champion from their schools. Cael Sanderson from Wasatch HS (‘99-’02), Kyle Dake from Lansing HS (‘10-’13), and Logan Stieber from Monroeville HS (‘12-’15) are all 4X NCAA Champions -- the only 4X champions since the weight change.

In addition, while it might come as a surprise to some, only two out of the top eight schools are prep/private schools - Blair Academy and St. Edward HS.

NCAA Wrestling Championship Titles by HS (US Map)

The map above is another look at the same data in the previous charts, but it displays the high schools by location in the US. Out of the top forty high schools with NCAA Champions, seven are located in New Jersey, the most out of any state. As previously mentioned, NJ is home to Blair Academy. Falling close behind are Pennsylvania with six of the top high schools (incl. Greensburg Salem, Easton) and Ohio with five (incl. St. Edward, Wheeling Jesuit).

With all of this data analysis done now, it should be noted that this is only the past 18 years worth of data out of the total 89 years since 1928. However, even with this small portion of data since the collegiate weight change, the data shows where the sport is currently. States such as Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Ohio are dominating at the state and D1 collegiate level, while other states like California, Iowa, and Oklahoma are trying to keep up with the top dogs. Please feel free to critique and analyze any of the data above, and let us know your thoughts!

*Cover Photo Credit: Hunter Martin/Getty Images