The Dave Schultz High School Excellence Award and Tricia Saunders High School Excellence Award recognize and celebrate the nation’s most outstanding high school senior male and female wrestlers for their accomplishments in wrestling, scholastic achievement and citizenship or community service. The national winners of the awards are selected from a group of state and regional winners each year.

The awards are named for legends in the sport with an impact in all-around life. Dave Schultz was a World and Olympic champion, three-time World silver medalist, two-time World bronze medalist, NCAA champion and multiple-time All-American. 

Women’s wrestling pioneer Tricia Saunders is a four-time World champion and advocates for the growth and development of opportunities for women’s wrestling to this day. Saunders was named Outstanding Wrestler at the World Championships in 1992, USA Wrestling’s Woman of the Year in 1997 and coached at the Olympic Games in 2004—the first Olympic Games with women’s freestyle wrestling. 

The 2021 state recipients from Wisconsin are Matty Bianchi and Rose Ann Marshall. 

Bianchi graduated from Two Rivers High School as a four-time Wisconsin state champion and will continue his academic and athletic career at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. After winning Freestyle State, Bianchi teched his way to the top of the podium at Northern Plains, went undefeated as part of Team Wisconsin at Junior National Duals (5th place overall) and placed 3rd in the Junior Men’s Freestyle division at Junior Nationals (Fargo). 

Wisconsin’s only past national winner of the DSHSEA is 2X Olympian Garrett Lowney (Freedom High School). 

Stoughton’s Rose Ann Marshall will continue her academic and wrestling career at Friends University, which has a budding program for women’s wrestling in the NAIA. Marshall won her third WWF Girls Folksytle State Championships this season, won the 112-pound bracket at Northern Plains, went undefeated at Junior National Duals and battled at Junior World Team Trials and Fargo to cap off the 2020-21 season. 

Congratulations to Matty and Rose Ann! 

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