Mason Phillips, a Stanwood High School senior wrestler and four-time national champion, two-time state champion and 2017 Cadet World Team member, announced his commitment to continue his wrestling career at the University of North Carolina via his Twitter account on Monday.
Phillips, who is undefeated in his high school career after missing his freshman season with a knee injury, represented the United States at the Cadet World Championships in Athens, Greece this summer in Greco-Roman.
Phillips is the two-time defending Junior Greco-Roman national champion, and the two national titles he won as a youth wrestler give him four in his career.
After defeating Bonney Lake’s Mason Sabin for his second state championship at the Tacoma Dome in February, Phillips withdrew from Stanwood and traveled to Akron, Ohio to live and train with Justin “Harry” Lester, a Team USA veteran and two-time World bronze medalist (2006, 2007).
Phillips spent four months with Lester in Ohio before his summer competition schedule began.
North Carolina finished tied for 41st at the 2017 NCAA Wrestling Championships with 4.5 team points.
UNC did not have an All-American last year, and finished the regular season with an 8-6 dual-meet record and a 2-3 mark in the Atlantic Coast Conference.
Coleman Scott will enter his third season as the Tar Heels’ head coach in 2017-18. He came to Chapel Hill as an assistant in 2014, and was named the program’s sixth head coach the following August.
Scott wrestled collegiately for Oklahoma State, and was the 2008 national champion at 133 pounds and earned All-America honors in each of his four seasons in Stillwater.
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