Hall of Fame
From 2001 through 2006, Thad Benton’s efforts on the Pitt-Johnstown wrestling mat established him as one of the all-time greats in Mountain Cat history. Mr. Benton, a three-time All-American, became Pitt-Johnstown’s eighth individual wrestler to win a NCAA Division II National Championship in 2005, before becoming the third to win multiple titles when he duplicated the feat again the following season.
Mr. Benton, a former Pennsylvania State Champion Runner-up at Claysburg-Kimmel High School, joined the Mountain Cats for the 2001-02 season and took a red-shirt.
As a red-shirt freshman in 2002-03, Mr. Benton won the starting job at 133 lbs. and posted a 25-9 overall record on his way to securing his first All-America honor with a fifth-place finish and earning the Most Falls in the Least Amount of Time Award at the National Tournament.
A year later, the Claysburg, Pa. native, was 16-2 before an injury ended his season.
Mr. Benton returned to the mat in 2004-05 at 141 lbs. and went 30-5 with a team-leading 16 falls. He claimed his first of two NCAA East Regional crowns, before defeating Nebraska-Omaha’s Eli Dominguez, 9-4, in the National Title bout at 141 lbs. to become Pitt-Johnstown’s eighth individual champion and help lead the Mountain Cats to a fourth-place finish. That season, Wrestling Report.com named him Pennsylvania’s Collegiate Wrestler of the Year.
Mr. Benton continued to dominate in his final year by going 41-6 with 17 more falls, winning the title at 141 pounds at the Slippery Rock Open, and placing eighth at the Division I-dominated Midlands Open. After winning his second consecutive East Region Championship, Mr. Benton led Pitt-Johnstown to a sixth-place national finish and became the Mountain Cats’ third wrestler to win multiple national titles with his win over Central Oklahoma’s Kyle Evans.
His 17 falls in 2005-06 are still a Pitt-Johnstown record for the 141-lb. weight class, while is 121 career wins rank 16th on the Mountain Cat Wins List, and his .842 winning percentage is ninth on the Win Percentage List.
Mr. Benton graduated from Pitt-Johnstown in 2006 with a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Geography and began his professional career working for former Pitt-Johnstown Wrestling National Runner-up Sean Isgan at CME Engineering in Somerset, Pa. In 2020, he moved to EVC (Enterprise Venture Corporation) where he was employed as a Quality Control Laboratory Technician.
In Sept. 2024, Mr. Benton joined LTC Energy in Johnstown and is currently employed as a surveyor with the company.
He currently coaches his daughter’s youth softball team and has served as an assistant wrestling coach at Richland High School in Johnstown since 2008 where the program has produced three state championships, a runner-up finish and multiple Pennsylvania state-place winners.
Benton, his wife Cortney, and three girls, Cali, Tylee, and Kensley reside in Johnstown.
“I pushed myself to do things that I didn’t want to do, to make myself better. Everyone has a breaking point, I knew that to get to where I wanted to be I had to go past that point,” Mr. Benton said. “I worked my way to become a national champ, but not alone. The biggest thing that made me who I am is the people that were around me, pushing me, and wouldn’t let me give up on myself. Being inducted into the hall of fame is great, I just wish I could add the names of the people that got me to that point. The brotherhood runs deep and there is no way I could have gotten to this point without any of them.”
