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Altoona junior Luke Sipes has a 4.0 grade point average. When you combine that with his wrestling skills, college coaches have been very interested in Sipes during the recruiting process.
On Friday, Sipes announced that he has verbally committed to wrestle at Ivy League Princeton University in Princeton, N.J.
Asked why he chose Princeton, Sipes said, "Obviously (for) the academic part setting me up for life after wrestling. Wrestling is going to end some day. But the atmosphere on the team and the coaches are outstanding. Everyone wants to be there and is excited.
"I'm hyped. I'm excited. I have two years left of high school and I get to focus on perfecting my craft here and having fun wrestling at PIAAs. But I can't wait to get up there. The school support is amazing. They care about wrestling. They're going to get you to succeed in academics. There's a lot of academic support -- tutoring, libraries in every dorm, five to one student to faculty ratio. It's definitely the place to be for me."
Altoona coach Joel Gilbert said Sipes' commitment to Princeton is an excellent one.
"Princeton is an outstanding academic university," the 2022-23 Mirror Co-Coach of the Year said. "He'll get a great education there. He'll get opportunities to not only wrestle but meet business people out in the world. Princeton is one of the top wrestling programs in the country."
Princeton, which went 4-11 last year, is expecting Sipes to wrestle anywhere from 157 to 174 once he gets to college, but he's predicting he'll wrestle at 165.
Sipes also made recruiting trips to North Carolina State, Brown and Bucknell. He had many other offers, including 16 Division I schools who contacted him on the first day of the official recruiting period.
"The sky is the limit for him," Gilbert said. "If you get into that room, you're definitely going to get better. He has a great opportunity to be an All-American and maybe even a national champion. They produce guys every year that are at that level."
Joe Dubuque is entering his first year as Princeton's coach after serving as an assistant for 10 years. Former coach Chris Ayers helped Patrick Glory win the NCAA title at 125 pounds.
Sipes, who shared the Mirror Wrestler of the Year with teammate Braiden Weaver after last season, has had a stellar first two years of his career. He's won two District 6 titles, two Northwest Regional titles and has placed twice at 152 at the PIAA Championships -- fifth his freshman year and seventh last season.
Sipes went 41-5 last season, which broke D.J. Hollingshead's school record for season wins, and has a 77-8 career record. Among the other highlights last season were being named the Mountaineer Duals Outstanding Wrestler and pinning Mifflin County's Parker Kearns without control in overtime in the Ultimate Warrior finals
Sipes had the mat success even though he had offseason labrum surgery after his freshman season. He was concerned about not even wrestling as a sophomore.
He's certainly looking forward to his junior season. Sipes has had time in the offseason to wrestle and lift weights amid the recruiting visits. Before the season starts, he'll be wrestling in the Super 32 Challenge on Oct. 21-22 in Greensboro, NC and The Surge Preseason Tournament on Nov. 11 in State College.
"I'm so excited," Sipes said. "I finally had an offseason this year, and I think it's about to pay some dividends. So, I'm ready to go."
"We think that injury held him up a little bit last year in his progress," Gilbert said. "I'm real excited to see how he does this year after a full offseason to train and work out and go to some big-time tournaments over the spring and summer."
Sipes was asked what his goal was for his junior season.
"I changed my mindset from looking at a certain spot on the podium at a certain tournament to just trying to score points, have fun and get better every practice," he said. "I truly think if I'm loose and I just keep improving I'm going to be unstoppable. But if I had to choose a goal, I'm looking at two-time PIAA state champ."