CHAMPAIGN — Before this season, it wasn’t enough for Isaiah White to go undefeated.
The Oak Park-River Forest junior went searching for a different sort of perfection.
Last year, he won the Class 3A state championship at 138 pounds to finish 37-4. This season at 152, White aimed for more than winning every match — he didn’t want to allow a takedown or a reversal.
He accomplished his primary goal Saturday at the State Farm Center in Champaign. He became the fourth OPRF wrestler to win back-to-back individual state championships, dominating Willowbrook junior Matt Rowland 9-3 in the final.
It capped an unbeaten season for White (36-0), who also beat Rowland (47-3) to win regionals and sectionals.
Amazingly, White nearly accomplished his other preseason goals. He gave up his initial takedown of the season at the Leyden Regional, when he dropped Rowland 6-4. The first opponent to score a reversal was Highland Park sophomore Dondi Penick in White’s 16-4 victory in the state quarterfinals.
“I wrestle hard,” White said. “I always set goals. I pretty much set goals and aim pretty high on the mat.
OPRF coach Paul Collins became aware of White’s high expectations for this season after he won a Junior National title in July. White beat Vincenzo Joseph of Pennsylvania 9-3 to capture the freestyle division at 145. They met again Dec.13 at the Ironman Invitational in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio, and White edged Joseph 3-1 in overtime for the championship.
“This year it all started up in the summer when he won the national title in Fargo. He busted his butt to do it,” Collins said. “It’s been crazy. He knew he was good, but he didn’t believe it 100 percent.”
White was named in the preseason the No. 1-ranked wrestler in the country at 152 by intermatwrestle.com.
He’s in position to become OPRF’s first three-time state champion next season. He joined Terry Isaacson (1959-60), Tim Obrochta (1983-84) and Nick Dardanes (2009-10) as repeat champs for the Huskies.
Already a three-time medalist who took third at 126 as a freshman, he can join senior teammate Larry Early III as OPRF’s only four-time medal winner.
White has emerged as the most successful wrestler among the Huskies’ Fab Five freshman who entered OPRF in 2012. Others in that group were Kamal Bey, who won a state championship in 2014, Roberto Campos, Allen Stallings and Gabe Townsell.
White admitted that as a freshman he hoped to win four state titles. That dream ended when he lost his 2013 semifinal match to Harlem’s Jordan Northrup 3-1.
“I couldn’t get that,” he said.
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.White attributed his second title to his middleweight workout partners at OPRF: Early, Rundell, Bey and Max Metzger.
“Those are the best four people you can have there,” White said. “They will make you train and go harder.”
Name game
There are two Isaiah Whites at OPRF, but only one of them has won two state wrestling championships.
White’s second state title might help clear up some confusion. Isaiah White, the wrestler, was christened Walter White Jr., but goes by his middle name. It’s his birth name that the IHSA used on White’s bracket board for his Class 3A 152 championship.
But he prefers to be called Isaiah and that’s how he’s known in his family.
However, he is not the same Isaiah White that was a backup running back for OPRF’s football team in the fall. That Isaiah White is 5-foot-8, 165-pounds.
Isaiah White, the football player, is a senior; Isaiah White, the wrestler, is a junior.
The issue even has the IHSA confused.
At IHSA.org, Isaiah White is listed as a third-place finisher for OPRF in 2013, while Walter White Jr. is posted as the state champion in 2014.
Stay tuned for 2015..
Twitter @geomwilcox