Mercury All-Area: Commitment to step-by-step growth lands Owen J. Roberts’ Dillon Bechtold a spot atop PIAA podium

Dillon Bechtold was born into a wrestling family. That didn’t automatically make him born for greatness, though.

He was matside from an early age with his father Dan serving as an assistant coach at Elizabethtown College, his alma mater. But Dillon Bechtold’s wrestling career didn’t begin until years later. Dan Bechtold had witnessed young wrestlers start in the sport early and experience burn out by high school and didn’t want the same fate for his oldest son.

So Dillon’s wrestling career started when he was in third grade and, as Bechtold reflects, he was not a natural.

“I remember my first tournament ever. It was a takedown tournament. My dad took me to it,” Dillon recalled. “My first match I got thrown really hard and pinned; and my second match I got thrown really hard and pinned. And then my third match, I think it was also the kid’s first year and I lost to him, so I was 0-3 in my first tournament.”

What he had was the desire to be great, step by step.

“I was born into a wrestling family, I think I have gifts where if I worked hard, they would show progress over the years,” Bechtold said. “I just built upon it and I always knew I wanted to be really good.”

Bechtold was better than really good in his senior season for Owen J. Roberts.

Owen J. Roberts senior Dillon Bechtold smiles on top of the podium after winning the Class 3A 215-pound final. (Nate Heckenberger – For MediaNews Group)

There was little room to climb after a junior year in which he went 46-3 and reached the 215-pound final of the PIAA 3A Championships, yet Bechtold found a way to squeeze every bit out of his final season.

The Bucknell commit was a one-man wrecking crew this winter, racking up a 42-0 record that included titles at the King of the Mountain, Escape the Rock, Pioneer Athletic Conference, District 1 North and Southeast 3A Regional tournaments. Finally, and most importantly, he won 215-pound gold at the PIAA Class 3A Championships, taking the next step on his climb and earning himself Mercury All-Area Wrestler of the Year honors.

His dominance was unmatched in Pennsylvania. With 36 pins in 42 matches, he had the second-most pins by a state champion (37 by Huntingdon’s Andrew McMonagle in 2A) and a state-best pin rate of 86 percent.

“Obviously it’s go, go, go usually, but I definitely took some time after the season to look back and think, ‘That’s pretty cool,’” Bechtold said. “Pretty much dominated everybody. Didn’t really have any close matches.

“I just wanted to be the best. I just didn’t want to lose ever. I’m so competitive, no matter what it is.”

Owen J. Roberts’ Dillon Bechtold flexes after winning the 215-pound final. (Nate Heckenberger – For MediaNews Group)

Bechtold has a unique way of looking at things. His self-evaluation is precise, his goals highly specific.

His list of aspirations entering his senior season included winning titles at King of the Mountain, Escape the Rock and Trojans Wars. But it also included specific wrestlers he wanted another crack at after past defeats on the way to those wins. While those matchups didn’t come to fruition due to weight-class separation and injury, it still speaks to the way Bechtold visualizes his goals.

That started from an early age, even if those goals weren’t so feasible then.

“Ever since I was really little, I wanted to be a state champ. I used to tell myself back then, ‘four-time undefeated state champ,’” Bechtold. “As I got older, I realized that wasn’t super realistic. It was definitely just growing every year.”

There’s a cliche that ‘champions are born, not made,’ that highest achievers have a special, unteachable quality about them. While there may be some truth to that, Owen J. Roberts head coach Steve DeRafelo has seen Bechtold make incremental growth for the better part of a decade.

“I used to think that. But with Dillon, I’ve watched him since fourth grade and seen him build and improve incrementally into who he’s become,” DeRafelo said. “He’s committed completely to doing everything it takes to be a champion: the strength training, technique, flexibility, the diet, sleep, everything. All those things add up into what he’s been able to achieve.”

Even with a PIAA silver medal around his neck last March, Bechtold still wasn’t at the level of another one of his goals: a top 20 national ranking by FloWrestling.

Owen J. Roberts’ Dillon Bechtold gets in on a shot against Abington Heights’ Caleb Marzolino. (Nate Heckenberger – For MediaNews Group)

That changed at the Junior National Championships in Fargo, N.D., last July. Dillon became a Fargo Junior National double All-American, placing seventh in freestyle and Greco-Roman in the Junior Division. Brother Dean, a shining sophomore, also placed in both disciplines, finishing fourth in freestyle and seventh in Greco-Roman in 16U.

“Fargo was just a breakout performance, a lot of fun, a lot of good kids, a lot of good wins,” Dillon said. “I think after that, I realized I’m getting there, I’m close. And then I just kept turning it up.”

Bechtold broke into the national top 20 and after his PIAA title win he concluded the high school season ranked No. 15 by FloWrestling.

Owen J. Roberts brothers Dean Bechtold, left, and Dillon Bechtold, right, pose with their trophies after placing at the 2023 U.S. Marine Corps 16U and Junior Nationals at the FargoDome in Fargo, N.D. (Courtesy OJR Athletics)

Arguably his toughest opponent of the season wasn’t part of his 42 wins. It was the daily practice room battles with Dean, who achieved his own breakout by going 41-4, winning his second Southeast Regional title and finishing as PIAA 3A runner-up at 285 pounds.

“There’s not a room in the state, maybe not a room in the country, where there’s a 215 and heavyweight of their caliber battling with each other every single day,” DeRafelo said.

“Practices were competitive, really competitive,” Dillon said. “There were definitely some punches being thrown every once in a while. We try to keep that to a minimum but it could get a little heated at practice, just because we both don’t like to lose, even if it’s in practice. It made us a lot better.”

Between OJR practice battles with Dean, strength training crafted by OJR assistant coach Mike Brilla and club practice with Steller Trained wrestling club, run by Pa. legend and recent U.S Olympic Trials fifth-place finisher (86 kg) Chance Marsteller, the table was set for Bechtold.

“Strength and mobility were a big focus,” Bechtold said. “My sophomore and junior years, I tore up my knees right before states and then wrestled through it. … That influenced me to do more for recovery to avoid those injuries, stay healthy and win the state title I wanted to win. I just bought into what my coaches were telling me and just trusted them.”

Bechtold was the clear favorite at 215 pounds when the state tournament rolled around but he never viewed winning the state championship as do-or-die.

Considering he’s been process-driven since elementary school, one match or tournament wasn’t going to derail his steady upward trajectory.

“Seeing guys who have such great mindsets, you realize it’s not everything in life,” Bechtold said, citing the examples of U.S. Olympic gold medalist David Taylor and 2023 World Champion Vito Arujau. “Yeah, I want to win a state title. I want to win it really bad. I’m going to do everything I can to win. But at the end of the day, it’s not everything.

“I wasn’t really doubting myself in any way, but at the same time, if I don’t win it, then I don’t win it. I can’t control everything that happens. But I can control how I wrestle.”

When the whistle blew, there was no stopping Bechtold. He registered two pins in his four state matches, including a second-period fall in the final against Abington Heights’ Caleb Marzolino.

He capped his Owen J. Roberts career with a 129-12 record, two regional titles and two state final appearances essentially in three years with his freshman year lost due to COVID-19.

His career will continue at Bucknell two days after he graduates from Owen J. Roberts.

He’s enrolled in a summer class at Bucknell, where he’ll major in Finance, so he can be involved in any team activities and training right away, unable to wait to begin his next chapter.

As Bechtold sees it, there’s no time to waste when there’s more steps to climb.

“Especially in college, everybody’s in great shape, great conditioning, everybody’s really strong,” he said. “That little half-inch difference (in technical detail) is what separates the guys that are good from the guys that are great.

“I have a bunch of things I need to fix, those little things that I don’t really fully understand, but I’m just going to keep working and keep growing.”