Jordan Oliver ’08
Career Record: 175-5, 4x D11 Champ, 4x Regional Champ, 4x Finalist, 3x State Champ
Tournament Championships: 2x Reno Champ, 4x Manheim Champ
College; Oklahoma State (2x NCAA Champ, 3x Finalist, 4x All American)
2008 – 130 lbs.: District Champ, Regional Champ, State Champ (40-0)
2007 – 119 lbs.: District Champ, Regional Champ, State Champ (45-1)
2006 – 103 lbs.: District Champ, Regional Champ, State Champ (48-0)
2005 – 103 lbs.: District Champ, Regional Champ, State Runner-Up (42-4)
One of the most decorated wrestlers in program history, Jordan Oliver was an electric fan favorite who dominated a national schedule and became a modern day icon for the program.
As a freshman, Oliver was barely 95 pounds, but put together the best freshman season in program history at 103. He opened the year with a championship at the Armando Soto Tournament in Florida then four wins back home before Easton trekked out to Reno. He opened his tournament with a tight win over California state finalist Kellen Aura (Foothill) then knocked off two-time Oklahoma runner-up Tyler Untrauer (Midwest City) and two-time Arizona state champ Johnny Lopez (Sunnyside). However, in the finals Oliver took on California state champion and future NCAA All American Nikko Triggas (Campolindo). In a back and forth match, Oliver fell 10-7, losing the first match of his high school career. Oliver rebounded by rolling through Manheim as one of eight Easton champions. In January Oliver defeated future training partner and two-time state champion Kegan Handlovic (Wilson) and two-time state finalist. Taylor Brown (Emmaus). At the end of the month, Easton returned to The Pit for the first time in over a decade to take on archrival Phillipsburg. And in a building where many bizarre things have happened, the Jordan Oliver-Jon Gregory match has gone down in history. Oliver led 3-2 going in the third period, where Gregory took neutral and took Oliver down to take a 4-3 lead. The rest of the period took nearly ten minutes, as Oliver would get up to his feet, and Gregory would run him out of bounds for a restart. This continued as the clock burned in four second increments until time ran out and Gregory blew the roof off of The Pit with a 4-3 win. That weekend at the NHSCA Final Four, Oliver rebounded to handle Fargo Cadet freestyle All American and Virginia state champion Jayk Cobbs (Great Bridge) 8-3 as one of three wins on the day. His major decision in the District 11 Dual finals helped Easton erase a 25-18 deficit in the final three matches to beat Nazareth for their fifth straight title. At State Duals, Oliver lost in the quarterfinals to future state champion and NCAA All American Walt Peppelman (Central Dauphin) 8-6. He rebounded with a decision to help propel Easton past Upper Perkiomen in semifinals, but his pin in the finals could not overcome a dream dual for Connellsville, who upset the Rovers 34-25. In his first District 11 championship, Oliver dominated his way to finals, where he met state bronze medalist and NCAA Division II All American Bobby Ward (Nazareth), and cautiously joined Malcolm Purdy, Jack Cuvo, Gino Fortebuono, Matt Ciasulli, and Alex Krom as freshmen D11 champions. He repeated the feat at Northeast Regionals, joining Cuvo and Fortebuono as freshmen Regional champions when Ward forfeited out of finals. In his first state tournament, Oliver opened with a 6-2 win over future NCAA qualifier Matt Bonson (Lewistown), then used a late takedown to beat Jon Weibel (Quakertown) in quarters. Oliver wrestled maybe his best match of the season in semifinals, when he took down future state finalist and NCAA All American Nic Bedelyon (Indian Valley) four times in an 8-4 win to become the first Red Rover freshman to make state finals since Malcom Purdy 47 years earlier. He’d meet national #1 and future NCAA All American Matt Kyler (Clearfield), who spent most of the year at 112 and even wrestled at 119. Oliver was able to get to Kyler’s legs, but could not overcome the size advantage as he gave up a pair of counter takedowns in a 5-0 loss. Kyler’s second period takedown was the last one Oliver gave up in high school. It was also his last loss to a Pennsylvania foe.
As a sophomore, Oliver put the pedal on the floor. His only match that went the distance before Reno was an 18-7 major of future state champ Mark Rappo (Council Rock South), where a Rappo reversal were the final offensive points Oliver gave up in his career. He blitzed the field at Reno, going fall, major, tech, major, major, and beating state champs from Nevada, Utah, and California to get to the finals, where he took down future NCAA finalist and California state champion Boris Novachkov (Fremont) four times to claim a Reno title. He was similarly dominant at Manheim, with no matches going the distance, capped by a 20-5 tech of four-time Virginia state champ George Billy (Robinson) in the second period. He majored two-time Delaware state champ Chris Keech (Caesar Rodney), 14-5, at the Easton Invitational. At the NHSCA Final Four, Oliver had one of the marquee bouts of the event, taking on Riley Adamson (Bishop Lynch, TX), who was a youth wrestling legend and in the national top 10 on his way to a National Prep title. He was the first wrestler to take Oliver the distance since Reno, but Oliver handled him 9-5. Between D11 and State Duals, Oliver went 8-0 on Easton’s march to their sixth straight state final, highlighted by a first period pin of future three-time state champ Shane Young (Penn-Trafford). In the D11 tournament, Oliver pinned his way to the finals, then took out Taylor Brown (Emmaus) 2-0 in the finals. He stretched that margin at Regionals, pinning Brown in 2:51, which pinned his way through the tournament. That brought Oliver back to Hershey for a run at a state title. He was barely pushed in his first two bouts, a second period pin and a 25-10 tech fall. He met Matt Snyder (Lewistown) in the semifinal and smoked him in a 13-4 major decision. In his second state final Oliver scored two early takedowns to take control of Nico Cortese (Greensburg Central Catholic) and Oliver rolled to a 6-2 win, joining Rocky Creazzo, Bobby Weaver, Jack Cuvo, and Matt Ciasulli as sophomore champions for the Red Rovers. On the season, Oliver finished with 23 pins and ten technical falls in his 48 wins. All major publications had Oliver ranked #1 in the country following the season.
As a junior, Oliver moved up to 119 pounds and opened the season with four pins and a 12-2 major over Florida state runner up Kyle Keller (Brandon) at the NHSCA Sunshine Invitational. He similarly breezed to the Reno final, but met up with nemesis Nikko Triggas (Campolindo) for the second time in three years. This time, the California state champ dug himself an early hole when Oliver took him down twice. But a but a stall and a fleeing the mat tied the match at 4. In the third period, Triggas hit a cross wrist tilt in the final seconds to escape with a 7-4 victory and hand Oliver the first loss since 2005. He took it out on the field at Manheim, winning his third title Ciasulli brothers Matt and Seth and Mike Rogers as Easton’s three-time champs. At the NHSCA Final Four, Oliver pinned Oregon state finalist Dylan Olsen (Hermiston) and majored National Prep finalist Garrett Frey (Blair Academy). At District Duals, Oliver locked horns for the first time with future college teammate, two-time state champ, and NCAA finalist Josh Kindig (Blue Mountain), and he beat the precocious freshman 8-3. In District Dual finals, Oliver majored Colin Fischl (Nazareth) to help spring Easton’s 29-26 upset of the undefeated and favored Blue Eagles to win their sixth D11 dual of the 2000s. At State Duals, Oliver got a huge match up in the semifinals with fellow state champion Chris Sheetz (Upper Perkiomen). In the tightest match since his freshman season, Sheetz took Oliver all the way to rideout, but Oliver got away to literally escape with a 3-2 win. He majored Fischl again in the state finals, but it was not enough to overcome Nazareth and Easton finished second for the third straight year. At the District 11 tournament, Oliver’s went pin, pin, tech to get to finals, where he’d see Kindig for the second time. Kindig was able to slow Oliver down, but did not stop him from becoming the 10th Easton wrestler with three D11 titles and keeping him on pace to match Jack Cuvo as a four-time champ. He joined even more rarified air the following weekend when he used two techs and a pin to become the fifth Easton wrestler to win three Northeast Regional titles, again with a shot to match Cuvo’s four in his final season. At states, because Sheetz won his title in 2005, but did not repeat in 2006, there was no provision to separate Sheetz and Oliver in the bracket, and the two were slated to meet in semifinals. First, Oliver had to major future state champ Joe Waltko (North Allegheny) in quarters to set up the presumptive finals match with the Upper Perkiomen star (who had bested Nikko Triggas when the two met in January). But in their Hershey match up, Oliver was able to open up more and took Sheetz down twice in a 5-3 win to punch a ticket to his third state final. In the finals, he met old foe Nic Bedelyon (Indian Valley) in a rematch of their 2005 quarterfinal. Once again, Oliver had all of the offense in a 4-1 win for his second state championship. That summer, Jordan would go to Fargo and win the Junior Freestyle national championship.
As a senior, Oliver moved up to 130 pounds for his final go-round in an Easton uniform. He turned heads at Reno by scoring 30 points in a period-and-a-half in a 30-14 tech of Oregon runner-up Dylan Olsen (Hermiston). He also pinned four-time Nevada state champ Nick Wooden (Spring Creek) and made short work of Jimmy Eggmeyer (Bethel Regional, AK) in the finals for his second Reno title. He became the first Easton wrestler to win Manheim four times when he blew through the tournament the following weekend, scoring 30, 28, and 17 points to break Jamarr BIllman’s single tournament record for takedowns. Oliver ripped through the rest of his schedule, majoring two-time state champ Eric Hess (Benton) at the NHSCA Final Four, teching state finalist Kyle DeHaut (Bethlehem Catholic), and teching Phillipsburg career wins leader Luke Grassi (Phillipsburg), 21-6, finished with a leg cradle to a standing ovation from the crowd. He joined Cuvo as the second Easton wrestler to win four D11 crowns when he bonuses his way through the tournament, capped by an 11-3 major decision of Kindig, who explicitly stayed at 130 for a shot at dethroning Oliver. Those two met again in the Northeast Regional final, where Oliver won 8-4 to join Jack Cuvo for the second straight weekend as the only Easton wrestlers with four titles. At the state tournament, Oliver teched his first three opponents, outsourcing the field 62-17 in three matches to become the first Easton wrestler to make four state finals. That set up a third and final meeting with Kindig in the finals of the state series. This time, Kindig really slowed the match down, and Oliver battled for a pair of takedowns to win his third title. Once again, Oliver finished the season ranked first in the country at his weight class, and he put an exclamation point on that ranking with a Dapper Dan win over future NCAA finalist Tyler Graff (Loveland, CO) and an incredible major decision over future two-time NCAA champ Matt McDonough (Linn-Mar, IA) while representing Team USA in Iowa.
Oliver signed with Oklahoma State, where he set the program record in pins on his way to two national championships, three finals appearances, and four All American honors. He competed internationally following his college career, including winning the 2020 Olympic Trials.
History of Easton Wrestling 