Wrestlers CC Tsutomu Takasu

The Chambersburg, Pennsylvania Trojans took home a championship trophy Saturday, but their greatest victory of the day may be in a bout they intentionally lost.

A wrestler for another high school, Lucas Ortiz, was forced to sit out his senior year because of an injury, at a time when he had 99 wins in his last three years.

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The Chambersburg coach and many of his wrestlers knew Ortiz from off-season matches and didn’t like seeing his record end one win short of 100. The coach let his team decide what to do, if anything, and they came up with a plan.

They asked Ortiz to represent his school, Conestoga Valley High, in one bout — even though he was injured. When he reached the mat, Chambersburg senior Matt Strunk walked out and announced he was forfeiting the match.

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“Some of our guys know Lucas pretty well and said he’s a really good guy,” Strunk told USA Today. “So we wanted to do something for him.”

Ortiz says it meant a lot to be starting his college career with 100 wins behind him. It meant even more to him that his opponents were “great guys.”

Photo: Tsutomu Takasu, CC

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