Reliving Carl DeStefanis' dominant senior year for PSU Wrestling.

Continuing our on-going series of reliving some of the most dominant individual seasons for Penn State Wrestling.

This is now the third installment as we previously highlighted Andy Matter’s brilliance in 1972 and Jim Martin’s amazing run in 1988 for the Nittany Lions.

And this time we turn the page back a handful of years to shine a light on Penn State Wrestling standout Carl DeStefanis.

Looking back at DeStefanis’ career, it’s hard to believe that a wrestler of his caliber “only” finished the season as an All-American one time. But I think the focus should be shifted more from “How did he not finish AA more times?” to “Holy cow is it incredibly difficult to win a single match in the NCAAs?”

Carl DeStefanis Freshman – Junior Years for Penn State Wrestling

Carl’s first full season on the mat ended when he lost back-to-back matches in the 1981 EWL Championships. Outside of the disappointing losses to end the year, DeStefanis’ freshman campaign was very successful as he compiled a record of 15-6 with six of his wins earning bonus points.

Things were going well for DeStefanis his sophomore year, however, between December and early January, he picked up four losses in a ten-match span. Which wasn’t exactly surprising when they came at the hands of Michigan’s Joe McFarland (fall and 4-1 loss), Oklahoma State’s Randy Willingham (6-2 loss), and Iowa’s Barry Davis (13-3 loss).

But these would be the last losses Carl would suffer until he won his first EWL title and made the road trip to Iowa State for the 1982 NCAA Championships.

1982 NCAA Championships

And at the 1982 NCAA’s, DeStefanis rolled through his first two matches by winning 10-6 and 11-5. Cruising into the quarterfinals, Carl knew no matter who he face,d it would be a tough test. But in this case, it ended up being Joe McFarland … again.

McFarland ended up getting the best of DeStefanis for the third time that season 8-3 and it was onto the wrestlebacks for Carl.

I would love to say DeStefanis steamrolled through the consolation bracket, however this isn’t what happened. Instead, in his first match he was locked up in an offensive explosion with Tennessee-Chattanooga’s Charlie Heard. Carl fell to Charlie 15-10 and after two opening wins, his tournament and season were over with the two straight losses.

DeStefanis came out like a buzz saw his junior year. Outside of a lone loss to Iowa State’s Kevin Darkus (11-7), Carl was 22-1 going into the 1983 EWL’s and 17 of those wins were either by major decision or by fall. He was simply wrestling at a different level than anyone at that point.

And after blowing out his first opponent and then taking down Clarion’s Jamie Kasser 6-4, DeStefanis had claimed his second EWL Conference title.

1983 NCAA Championships

In the 1983 NCAA Championships, Carl had a warmup match in the pigtails where he won a 14-3 major decision over Luther’s Greg Lonning. DeStefanis was the No. 2 seed in the 118 bracket and including his match in the pigtail rounds, he probably wouldn’t really be tested until the quarterfinals or semifinals.

Just don’t tell that to his first-round foe, Wisconsin’s Robin Morris.

Early in the first period of their match, DeStefanis was caught by Morris. And it wasn’t good. Carl tried to work himself free, but just one minute and 18 seconds into his first round match of the 1983 NCAA Championships, the referee slapped the mat, signaling a fall for Morris, and DeStefanis’ statistically great season was over.

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Carl DeStefanis Senior Year for Penn State Wrestling

Penn State Wrestling, Carl DeStefanis — Penn State Wrestling’s Carl DeStefanis – 1984 NCAA Champion 118 lbs

However, this is where the redemption story begins.

Furthermore, this is where DeStefanis’ true grit and dominance materialize.

Carl started out his senior campaign by going on an 11 match winning streak before falling 10-8 to the 1983 NCAA runner-up Charlie Heard. The reason this loss was so important is because it’s where DeStefanis drew a line in the sand. On one side of the sand was Carl’s collegiate career up until that point. And the other side of the sand was the remaining portion of his career at Penn State. Where he would not lose a single match again.

From that point until the end of the 1984 EWL Championships, Carl took part in 19 total matches. And in those matches he won nine of them with bonus points and five of them by pin. He then claimed his third straight EWL title in 1984 by demolishing Ricky Bonomo in the finals 12-4.

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1984 NCAA Championships

DeStefanis kept the pain train rolling in the 1984 NCAA Championships by clobbering his first two foes 23-11 and 19-7. He then won his quarterfinals match by default and punched his ticket to his first ever finals after upending Oklahoma State’s Mark Perry 7-2 in the semis.

And in the finals, DeStefanis knew exactly what he had to do. Which was simply to beat the guy standing on the other side of the mat.

Northern Iowa’s Bob Hallman was an unlikely grappler to make the finals that year, however he flipped a switch and completely outperformed his No. 8 seeding.

But it didn’t matter if Hallman was riding a heater, he wasn’t going to beat DeStefanis. Because this was his last shot and he wasn’t going to lose to anyone.

To Hallman’s credit, he never backed down in the match. However DeStefanis was a man on a mission that year.

Carl downed his foe in the finals 6-4 and after all of the long hours in the wrestling room, after all of the sleepless nights thinking about the past, after battling through injuries and pain, Carl DeStefanis had finally reached the majestic summit of collegiate wrestling by being an NCAA Champion in 1984.

Senior Year Recap

In the 1983-1984 season for Penn State Wrestling, Carl DeStefanis took part in 41 total matches.

And in those 41 matches, DeStefanis suffered only a single defeat while racking up a staggering 28 bonus point wins.

This includes 12 sudden decisions (equivalent to today’s technical fall) and six pins.

That’s not just “winning”, that’s “sheer dominance”.

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Chris Snyder

Penn State Wrestling Beat Reporter at NittanyCentral

Expertise: College Wrestling, College Football, Lays Chips
Education: Penn State University
Location: State College, PA

Even though he had no prior journalism experience, Chris has now covered Penn State Wrestling and Penn State Football for the past three years, including as the Penn State Wrestling Beat Writer for VictoryBellRings.com, part of the FanSided network.

And it's clear he also likes constant torture as he's been a PSU Basketball fan for way too long.

Several years back, Chris made the seamless transition from PGA Professional to computer programmer and thoroughly enjoys following and writing about all things related to Penn State sports during his spare time.

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