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    Mark Palmer •

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    NCAA champ Wojciechowski to be welcomed into MAC Hall

    Greg Wojciechowski, University of Toledo wrestler who won an NCAA heavyweight title and a place on the 1980 U.S. Olympic men's freestyle team, will be inducted into the Mid-American Conference Hall of Fame, the Ohio-based school announced Friday.

    Wojciechowski -- along three other non-wrestling athletes from other schools -- will be welcomed in to the conference Hall of Fame at the MAC Honors Dinner at the Cleveland Renaissance Hotel on Wednesday, May 29, 2019.

    Greg Wojciechowski
    A native of Toledo, Wojciechowski won back-to-back Ohio high school state titles at heavyweight for Toledo Whitmer in 1967 and 1968. The 6', 260-pound wrestler affectionately known as "Wojo" continued his academic and athletic career at University of Toledo, where he was a three-time MAC heavyweight champ (1970-1972) and three-time NCAA championships finalist, winning the unlimited title at the 1971 NCAAs at Auburn University in Alabama by defeating Penn State's Dave Joyner, 5-3, in the finals. (Wojo was runner-up at the 1970 NCAAs, losing to Oregon State's Jess Lewis in the title match, 11-2 ... and came in second at the 1972 Nationals, falling to Chris Taylor, Iowa State's "Gentle Giant" who outweighed the defending champ by 150 pounds, 6-1, in the finals.)

    Wojciechowski finished his collegiate career at Toledo with a record of 55-2. (Sadly, the school eliminated its wrestling program 25 years ago.)

    Wojciechowski also made his presence known in wrestling beyond folkstyle. He was runner-up at the Olympic Trials and was named an alternate for the U.S. Olympic teams in Greco-Roman wrestling in 1968, 1972 and 1976, and in freestyle in 1972 and 1976 before earning a place on the freestyle team for the 1980 Olympics. However, the U.S. boycott of the 1980 Moscow Olympics kept Wojciechowski from participating.

    Wojciechowski had a long career as a teacher and wrestling coach at high schools in northwest Ohio ... then was a professional wrestler for a dozen years as "The Great Wojo."

    Prior to being announced as a Class of 2019 honoree into the MAC Hall of Fame, Wojciechowski was inducted into the UT Varsity T Hall of Fame in 1978 and the George Tragos and Lou Thesz Pro National Wrestling Hall of Fame at the National Wrestling Hall of Fame Dan Gable Museum in Waterloo, Iowa in 2015.

    To participate in the 2019 MAC Honors Dinner in downtown Cleveland on Wednesday, May 29 at 6:00 p.m. Eastern, contact Julie Kachner at the Mid-American Conference office at (216) 566-4622. Individual tickets are $100 each; a table for ten is available for $950.

    Want to know how big the best big men of college wrestling were? Check out this InterMat feature: "Size matters: Heights, weights for NCAA heavyweight champs."
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