Kelvin Griffin, right, a redshirt freshman at Lehigh University from Berwick, earned his first trip to the NCAA Division I wrestling championship by placing third at last weekend’s Eastern Intercollegiate Wrestling Association Championships. Lehigh Athletics/Hannah Ally
Before Berwick’s Kelvin Griffin could even think about qualifying for the NCAA Division I wrestling championship he first had to prove he was Lehigh University’s top option among a crowded group of 149-pound wrestlers.
“It wasn’t a sure thing from the beginning of the year,” said Griffin, a redshirt freshman who went to Berwick schools through eighth grade before attending private schools in high school.
“I probably made the coaches’ jobs harder than it needed to be. I’d beat a couple of the (Lehigh) guys, they’d beat each other, then I lost to one and we were all beating each other.”
Griffin was not the Lehigh coaching staff’s top pick for early-season dual meets against nationally-ranked Pittsburgh, No. 1 Penn State and Oklahoma State. But by season’s end he’d put a firm hold on the varsity 149-pound position and it paid off – for Griffin and Lehigh.
“We had three pretty good guys, all kind of even, and we kept alternating them,” said Lehigh Coach Pat Santoro. “Every time Kelvin got out there he looked a little more comfortable. And, he also has the ability to pin people, which is huge.”
Last weekend Griffin finished third at the Eastern Intercollegiate Wrestling Association championship to earn a spot to the NCAA Division I championship on March 21-22, in Kansas City, Missouri. Griffin cinched his bid with a pin in the consolation semifinal. He is one of eight wrestlers who will represent Lehigh, ranked No. 17 in the national coaches poll. There are 10 weight classes in college wrestling.
Kelvin Griffin, Lehigh wrestler Courtesy Lehigh University athletics
Qualifying for the Division I wrestling championship is a rarity for wrestlers who grew up in Maine.
Cody Hughes, who won four Maine Principals’ Association Class A titles while at Marshwood High, qualified as a senior in 2020 while at Virginia Tech. A few weeks later the NCAA championship was canceled because of the coronavirus pandemic.
“It hasn’t happened often. A couple of guys in the 1980s and early ’90s might have qualified back when (New Hampshire) and UMaine had programs,” said Noble High Coach Kevin Gray, who wrestled at Duquesne when it was a Division I program. “I was a match away, lost in the finals of our qualifier tournament.”
Griffin said he understands the uniqueness of coming from Maine and being successful at the Division I level, but notes his high school experience gave him a competitive advantage. He attended The Brooks School in North Andover, Massachusetts, as a freshman then transferred to The Hill School, a private preparatory school in Pottstown, Pennsylvania. All four years he was a National Prep All-American.
“It’s pretty cool being one of the few but, I don’t know, I don’t think about it much just because I have gotten out of state and spent a lot of time wrestling in Pennsylvania,” Griffin said.
SHARES NCAA LEAD IN PINS
This season Griffin has an overall record of 26-9. His win total is tied for the team lead. Griffin’s 15 pins not only leads Lehigh by a large margin but are tied for the most among Division I wrestlers with Wyatt Hendrickson of Air Force, who wrestles at 285 pounds and is a four-time NCAA qualifier.
“It’s always my goal to put an opponent to their back and pin them,” Griffin said.
Griffin’s early start with wrestling began with Berwick Youth Wrestling. He also trained with the Lebanon-based Die-Hard Wrestling program.
“But the majority of my training was at Smitty’s Wrestling Barn in New Hampshire,” Griffin said. Smitty’s, located in Kingston, is regarded as one of the premier wrestling outfits in New England. “From about third grade … I wrestled a majority of tournaments under their name. I was a Smitty’s guy.”
Gray said Griffin’s skill on the mat was apparent at a young age – and well-known among the local wrestling community. Griffin won six youth New England championships.
“He was definitely one we wish we could have kept (at Noble) but it didn’t work out,” Gray said.
Even though Griffin opted for private school he keeps tabs on the Noble High program and often stops in to the wrestling room while home in Berwick on holiday and summer breaks.
“He wears his old Berwick Youth Wrestling hat and it’s cool for our kids to see this is a high-level Division I wrestler,” Gray said. “He shows stuff he’s learned at the college level and also the stuff we as coaches are teaching, which shows those moves can still work at a high level.”
When Griffin arrived at Lehigh, in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, he planned to take a redshirt year as a freshman. A torn brachialis muscle, located between the biceps area and elbow, made that decision a formality. Griffin wasn’t able to begin training with Lehigh’s team until the second semester.
“He didn’t have much development time like you’d want to see freshmen have,” Santoro said. “By the time he was in shape our season was almost over. He was behind the 8-ball and he was catching up to start this year and he caught up quickly.”
Griffin said the time away from wrestling was, “a good piece of adversity for me to have to fight through. It changed the way I go after wrestling. I’m a lot more grateful that I’m able to do it every day.”
Griffin now has a chance to be an NCAA All-American if he places in the top eight. He believes it is a reasonable goal. Santoro expects Griffin to be seeded in the 26th to 30th range in the 33-wrestler bracket.
“Qualifying for the NCAA championship is a great accomplishment as a freshman and he’s been getting better and more confident this past month. He’s not going to be a good draw for somebody in that first round,” Santoro said.
For Griffin, being a low seed – or being left off a recent top 33 ranking of 149-pounders in a college coaching poll – just adds fuel to the fire.
“I have beat multiple people who are ranked,” Griffin said. “All of these rankings – and I’ve been told this since I was a little kid – they are just somebody’s opinion. Sometimes those somebodies are right, sometimes they’re wrong. It’s my job to prove them wrong come match time.”
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