Toms River South Alum Theobold Earns NCAA Wrestling All-America Status

TOMS RIVER, NJ — Five years ago, Ken Theobold and B.J. Clagon were wrestling together in Atlantic City, a pair of Toms River South Indians making their marks on the NJSIAA championships.

This weekend, the two were at it again, this time in St. Louis, Missouri. This time, the two were wrestling for different schools — Theobold at Rutgers, Clagon at Rider University — but with similar goals: to make their marks on the NCAA wrestling championships.

Just as he had at Boardwalk Hall in 2012, Theobold pulled off a huge upset in St. Louis and went on to medal in his final year of wrestling for the Scarlet Knights. Theobold finished his career by earning All-America status by medaling in the 149-pound weight class.

Theobold upset second-seeded Anthony Collica of Oklahoma State to reach the quarterfinals of the 149-pound weight class, beating Collica, who had just three losses all season, 9-3 in sudden victory overtime (double overtime). Theobold then got knocked into the consolation bracket, losing a 5-1 decision in the quarterfinals to Max Thomsen of the University of Northern Iowa. From there, however, Theobold won his next bout, defeating Andrew Crone of Wisconsin in a 7-3 decision to reach the medal round and secure his All-America status. Theobold fell to Solomon Chishko of Vermont in a 7-5 decision but pinned Alex Kocer of South Dakota State at the 1:37 mark to secure the seventh-place medal.

"I pin a lot of guys that way and I’m happy I can end my career that way with my signature pin," Theobold told Rutgers' sports information department. "I’m really proud and excited, so I’m just going to enjoy this moment and embrace it."

As a senior wrestling for the Indians in 2012, Theobold stunned top-seeded T.J. Miller of Camden Catholic in the semifinals at 145 pounds in the NJSIAA championships. He wound up with the silver medal that year.

Clagon, a redshirt junior who won fifth place in the 149-pound class in 2015, according to a report in the Asbury Park Press, was wrestling in the 157-pound class this year. He reached the quarterfinals with a 4-2 decision over Jake Short of Minnesota in the preliminaries and a 6-5 decision over Joshua Shields of Arizona State. But in the quarterfinals Clagon ran into the favorite, undefeated Jason Nolf of Penn State, who was the runner-up in 2016. Nolf pinned Clagon at 4:07, en route to winning his national championship at 157.

Clagon, who won two NJSIAA championships at Toms River South, got knocked out in the wrestlebacks on Saturday and will have another shot in 2018.

Watch Ken Theobold's seventh-place pin:

Wrestling, by Tsutomu Takasu, via Flickr under Creative Commons license