HOUSTON — Former Middletown High School sports star Steve Franklin is about to add another line to his wrestling resume ? All-American.
Franklin, a junior at San Francisco State University, won two of his three matches Friday during the opening rounds of the NCAA Division II Wrestling Championships in Houston, guaranteeing himself no worse than an eighth-place finish when the tournament wraps up today. Finishing in the top eight also carries automatic All-American status.
Franklin can finish as high as third in the heavyweight division depending on how he fares today in the consolation bracket.
A 2006 Middletown graduate, Franklin won his first match Friday by 10-4 decision and then was pinned by Cy Wainright of Newberry College in his next match. Wainright is ranked No. 1 in the nation. Franklin bounced back by pinning his first opponent in the consolation bracket.
At Middletown, Franklin qualifier for the CIF State Championships his junior and senior years. In 2006, he placed second in the North Coast Section Championships at 215 pounds, then won a fourth-place medal at the state tournament.
“I”m pretty jazzed about the whole thing,” said Troy Brierly, Franklin”s coach at Middletown. “You”d like to think you had a tiny part in all of this.”
Brierly said that Franklin may be the first college wrestler from the area to earn All-American honors.
