Robbinsville High’s Chris Tan raises his arm in victory after defeating a Princeton opponent in January 2014. (Photo by Albert Rende.)
Christopher Tan has had his ups and downs in high school wrestling.
Weight class-wise, that is. Not performance-wise. In that respect, it has mostly been ups.
The Robbinsville High senior became the first Raven to post 100 career victories this year and carried a 111-27 career record into the District 25 Tournament on Feb. 22. He has qualified for the Region 6 Tournament twice and won two Mercer County Tournament championships.
He has done this despite wrestling all across the weight class spectrum.
As a freshman, Tan went 19-11 and finished third in districts at 103 pounds. The weight class changed to 106 as a sophomore and Chris went 26-7, finished third in districts and won the MCT title.
Last year, Tan jumped two weight classes to 120 pounds due to weight certification issues. He had a stellar 33-7 record with 10 pins, but could not advance from districts for the first time and finished fourth in counties.
This season, he is back at a more comfortable weight and was 33-2 with 19 pins entering districts. He won the MCT championship by blowing through the 113-pound weight class with two pins and a technical fall. “He’s more of a 13-pounder,” coach Rich Gildner said. “Twenty was a little too big for him. They were not necessarily better wrestlers, they just had more strength. You can see the difference this year, he’s a lot better at 13.”
“The physicality of 120 was definitely a lot more robust then when I was wrestling kids at 106,” Tan said. “It was kind of a shocker, it was kind of a regret I didn’t get down to 13. It pushed me to get down to that this year. It was a learning experience.”
While some wrestlers might gain confidence from wrestling up for a year and then coming back down, Tan feels his outstanding season comes more from just getting after it.
“I think I get most of my confidence from the training,” he said. “The hard work we do and all the coaches telling us things, and the tough practices. That’s what gives you the confidence.”
Tan is a relative newcomer to wrestling, as he was coaxed into it by teammate Nick Bossi’s father in eighth grade.
“He approached me and said ‘Hey you’re wrestling,’ and I didn’t have a choice,” Tan said with a laugh. “He kind of went up and explained to my parents that this is what wrestling is about and that I should try it.
“I don’t know why he thought I would be good at it, I never asked him. Maybe because Nick and I were friends he wanted me to do it with him. Originally I did martial arts and grappling, so I already had the basic foundation. It was just a different nuances, the different moves and rules… locking hands, all those little things were really what shocked me.”
What made Tan so refreshing to Gildner, is that he came in willing to learn after having just one season at Pond Road Middle School.
“He wasn’t one of those kids that went through a youth program,” the coach said. “But everything you ask him to do, he does it exactly the way you ask him and with 100 percent effort. It’s one of the great things about him. He’s so coachable.”
Tan was named a team captain as a sophomore, which is a reflection of his character. He began wrestling with clubs after his sophomore year and has helped bring positive recognition to Robbinsville.
“He’s our first 100-match winner, that’s always a good milestone to have, so kids can see that work can lead to something good,” Gildner said. “It’s pretty interesting to see how short of a time frame we’ve had and some of the success we’ve had. To have a kid get 100 wins, that’s something the entire community recognizes as a milestone and speaks for Chris and the program.”
The historic win came in the Mercer County Tournament semifinals, when Tan won by technical fall, 8-0, in 4:38 over Hopewell’s Ryan Butcavage.
“That was actually kind of unexpected from when I first started,” Tan said. “I didn’t expect to get to this point. I kind of looked up to the seniors and their hard work and most of it is because of them. I looked up to them and wanted to aspire to work as hard as them, and it feels pretty good to achieve that.”
Tan said the century mark never crossed his mind until the start of this season, when someone mentioned to him he had over 70 wins.
But he couldn’t celebrate the milestone as he had to come right back and take on James Verbyst in the finals. He pinned Verbyst in 4:38, ironically the same time as it took to beat Butcavage.
“It felt different at counties this year,” Tan said. “It’s all about the mindset. My junior year I came in a bit cocky believing I would win. After my sophomore year I just expected to win.
“This year it was all about work and effort and not caring where you go. You’ll end up going to where you want to go if you keep working.”
Tan obviously wants to go to Atlantic City for the states and, provided he got through districts, Gildner felt he had a good chance to be on the podium at regions. He feels the biggest key to Tan’s success is that he has a variety of ways to beat an opponent, and he is relentless.
“He just doesn’t stop,” the coach said. “When you step on a mat against him, for lack of a better word, it’s six minutes of hell. He’ll be in your face, push the pace. If you watch him wrestle and there was no scoreboard you wouldn’t know if he was up by 10 or down by 10.”
For the most part, he’s been up by 10, no matter what weight class he is in.
,
