This past weekend in Hershey, Pennsylvania redemption was achieved as Central Cambria’s Max Murin returned to the top spot of the podium winning the 138-pound AA state title. A three-time state finalist, Murin won his first title as a sophomore, but was downed by Brian Courtney in the finals as a junior. With his final opportunity to win a state title on the line Murin came out strong pinning three straight opponents to reach the finals, where he would use a 2-1 decision over Reynolds’ #11 Cole Matthews to win.
“It definitely felt really good,” Murin said on returning to the top, “I beat a really good wrestler in the finals, I feel like I wrestled great, and I am happy to win my second state title. I really don’t get nervous for matches. I just know I have to get ready and go wrestle my style and I felt like I did. I didn’t get to as many leg attacks as I would like to, and the ones I did I didn’t finish, but I still wrestled through that and came out on top.”
Murin’s dominance of his bracket didn’t go unnoticed as the nation’s #5 ranked wrestler was also named the Outstanding Wrestler in AA.
“I definitely wanted to get the Outstanding Wrestler award sometime in my high school career. That was my goal my junior year to get outstanding wrestler and I came up short. It definitely felt good to get it my senior year.”
Murin has signed his letter of intent to wrestle at the University of Iowa next year. Fans that follow college recruiting know that the 126-pound AA state champion Gavin Teasdale, who won his third straight state title as a junior, is also committed to Iowa. I asked if Murin gave his future teammate any friendly ribbing on being selected as the OW instead of him.
“A little bit,” Murin said through a chuckle, “I knew it would be between me and him so we were just messing around. Either way I would have been happy if he would have got it or I got it. I definitely like to beat him at whatever I can so it felt good to win it instead of him.”
After winning the state title Murin was approached about wrestling in the Pittsburgh Wrestling Classic. A dual that annually features the top seniors in the state of Pennsylvania squaring off against the top wrestlers from across the country. The Dual which takes place on March 25th, will be broadcast on Flowrestling.
“Right after I won they let me know that I was wrestling in the Pittsburgh Wrestling Classic, or the Dapper Dan as we like to call it. I will be wrestling Austin Gomez.”
Gomez, who is a three-time state champion is committed to wrestle for Murin’s college rival Iowa State. When asked on his thoughts on his PWC match also being a Cy-Hawk battle Murin said, “I’m excited. I think if I wrestle my style I think I can beat him and I’m excited to go out there and make it a god fight. I hope I can beat him now and start off on a good note and hopefully beat him in the future.”
After the Pittsburgh Wrestling Classic Murin said he is currently planning on competing at NHSCA National Duals and Disney Duals on the Young Guns team, and is unsure on whether he will compete at Fargo. He will move to Iowa City prior to the beginning of the Fall semester in August.