Western Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic League

 
Whether he is swinging and missing while playing backyard baseball with his dad as a toddler, or if he is simply in the house playing video games, Franklin Regional High School’s Nico Megaludis hates to lose. So, after he lost in the PIAA wrestling semifinals as a freshman in 2008, he stopped losing. After that lone defeat as a freshman lowered his 2007-2008 record to 37-1, he was victorious in all 133 matches as a sophomore, junior, and senior. Included on that list were four WPIAL and three PIAA State Championships. At Penn State University in 2016, Nico became the first WPIAL Champion in seven years to win an NCAA title after finishing second in 2012 and 2013 and third in 2014. To win the title, he scored a takedown in each of the first two periods against the University of Iowa’s Thomas Gilman. That led to a 6-3 victory in front of a sellout crowd of 19,270 at Madison Square Garden in New York. Megaludis said he “brainwashed” himself to victory after putting up signs in his bathroom, the PSU wrestling room, and even on the steering wheel of his car that read, “I am 2016 National Champion.”