World finalist wrestler Luke Stanich takes down a gold medal

Luke Stanich stood on top of the podium in Samokov, Bulgaria, gold medal hanging heavily around his neck. As the national anthem played, he looked around the crowd feeling a strong sense of patriotism and hard-earned pride. 

He soaked in the moment he spent all summer tirelessly training for — the U20 Wrestling World Championship.

Stanich, a rising star for Lehigh’s wrestling team, isn’t short of awards. He’s an EIWA champion, NCAA All-American and has multiple open tournament titles under his belt. In high school, he was a New Jersey state champion and Fargo finalist. 

But the leap from college standout to world champion didn’t happen overnight. 

Stanich redshirted his sophomore year, which deferred his eligibility. He said he spent that year training to move up in weight classes. 

Behind Stanich’s victory at the U20 World Championship was a long summer of sacrifices, relentless training, preparation and discipline. 

While the wrestling team went home for the summer after finishing their season, Stanich said he stayed and dedicated what could’ve been his break to training. He said it was tough to not be able to spend his summer doing things he loves outside of the sport, like spending time at the Jersey Shore, fishing with his dad or going camping. 

“Definitely mentally challenging, but I tried to stay focused on what I wanted to get done,” Stanich said. “I still had to stay locked in.”

Stanich said his coaching staff played a major role in his preparation. He said Coach Zach Rey was his go-to throughout the process, traveling with him to every tournament and staying in his corner.

”If I needed a different partner for the day, he would set it up for me, and he would push me — after practice, getting extra reps in, a little extra conditioning,” Stanich said. “We also scouted some of the guys I was going to wrestle at Worlds.” 

Stanich also said Rey helped him break down the styles of his international opponents.

Rey was on two U.S. World Teams, one in 2010 and the other in 2015. He continued competing internationally for several years until 2018. 

Rey said with his experience, he understood Stanich’s position and would use his knowledge to guide him.

“Just being around high-level athletes and high-level competitions, you just know how to go about them and what to expect, (and) mentally preparing them for types of adversities that they can run into at these tournaments,” he said. 

Rey said his goal is to build athletes’ confidence as competitors and help them develop the right mindset to win, even in tough moments. 

Stanich’s first match at the U20s was against Abdullah Toprak, a wrestler from Turkey who already medaled at three different age-level World Championships and a four-time world medalist. 

Stanich knew he was facing one of the toughest wrestlers in the bracket. 

Around 30 seconds into the match, Stanich gave up a few points, falling behind 8-0. He was just one move away from a technical fall, which would have ended the match and left him with a loss. 

With his family watching in the stands, Stanich remembered the hard work he put in all summer. 

He regrouped, refocused and mounted a comeback. 

With a complete momentum shift, he came back to defeat Toprak 18-8. 

Stanich credited his comeback and win to the mental toughness he’s built over the years, thriving in high pressure moments and loving the grittiness of a tough fight. 

“I know I didn’t just work my butt off for an entire summer, or more like my entire life, just to go out there at the World Championships and get rolled up like that,” Stanich said. “For me, it is about getting tough at all times, and I know most people probably would have given up in that moment, but I had too many people invested in me this summer.”

Rey admitted it was nerve-wracking when Stanich fell behind 8-0, thinking there was a chance the tournament could be over. 

But the moment Stanich scored his first two points, he said his confidence was restored. Toprak had a reputation for burning out and getting exhausted, while conditioning and tiring opponents out is one of Stanich’s strengths. 

After winning the first match, Stanich took control of the rest of the tournament. 

In the semifinals, Stanich faced Amal Dzhandubaev, a Russian standout who had never lost an international match. 

Rey said the most memorable moment of the tournament outside of his win was Stanich’s match against Dzhandubaev. Stanich and Rey spent months preparing specifically for him. 

“Me and Luke had been scouting the Russian guy for months, watching him and preparing for him,” Rey said. 

When the match finally happened, everything they had worked on played out. 

“The game plan that he stuck to just worked,” Rey said. “That was the guy to beat. That was the number one guy that everybody would circle to win.”

Rey said watching Stanich grind through the match and have his hand raised after knocking off the crowd favorite made the win even more special.  

Stanich said his mindset was everything in the process of claiming victory. Even when he fell behind early on in his first match, he never gave up.

“My attitude and my effort didn’t get misconstrued at all, and I just got back up and ended up getting the dub,” Stanich said.

His summer practice partner, junior Griffin Gonzalez, said he learned a lot from wrestling against him. 

“My hand fight is a lot better because of him,” Gonzalez said.

Gonzalez said wrestling with Stanich is a different feel from wrestling with anyone else and that he’s improved by wrestling against him. 

Rey said Stanich has an unmatched work ethic and great physical conditioning, both lending to his success. 

He said it is rare to find someone who is both incredibly strong and in great condition in wrestling. Stanich, however, is the exception, and it makes it tough for everybody that he has to wrestle. 

“Luke has the best motor in the world,” Rey said. “Luke has the ability to work harder and longer than any athlete I’ve ever worked with. He’s literally just an animal.”