Much like his older brothers, Christian McChesney thrived in both wrestling and football at Greensburg Salem. During his senior year with the Golden Lions, McChesney emerged as one of the top grapplers in Westmoreland County. Now, he’s a key component of Washington & Jefferson’s championship squad. McChesney is featured in this week’s installment of the Westmoreland Alum Q&A.

As a freshman in 2019-20, McChesney competed at 170 pounds for Greensburg Salem, posting a mark of 11-21. He placed fourth in the sectional, thus qualifying for the WPIAL Class AAA bracket, but McChesney lost his first match and did not place. Collectively, the Golden Lions went 5-6 overall, including a mark of 3-2 in Class AAA Section 1B, but they did not advance to the WPIAL team tournament.

The next year, McChesney bumped up to 189 pounds, where he went 13-13 on the season but did not place in the sectional. Likewise, the Golden Lions failed to qualify for the WPIAL Class AAA team bracket.

In 2021-22, McChesney made drastic strides, as he improved to 27-10. In doing so, he placed third in the sectionals, and moved on to the WPIAL Class AAA tournament. However, McChesney went 0-2 in the 189-pound field. Collectively, Greensburg Salem failed to qualify for the WPIAL Class AAA team tournament.

As a senior in 2022-23, McChesney bumped up to 215 pounds, and enjoyed his most successful high school campaign. He notched a record of 39-9, including winning the sectional. With Greensburg Salem dropping down to Class AA, McChesney won a pair of matches to reach the WPIAL semifinals, and he also won a bout in the consolation bracket to finish third. McChesney then followed with a fifth-place finish in the Southwest Regional, allowing him to compete in the PIAA Class AA field. Despite his individual success, however, the Golden Lions went just 4-13 overall, including 1-5 in Class AA Section 6.

McChesney concluded his high school career with a record of 90-53 on the mat, while also serving as a crucial part of the Greensburg Salem football team.

Like his older brothers, Christian McChesney opted to pursue wrestling at the college level, joining the Washington & Jefferson College squad for the 2023-24 season. Competing at 197 pounds, McChesney went 20-17, including three pinfalls. He finished as runner-up at the Presidents’ Athletic Conference (PAC) Championships, and also won a pair of matches at the NCAA Division III Southeast Regional. Collectively, the Presidents went 5-10 on the campaign, including 2-1 in the PAC. W&J finished in second place at the conference championship, 11th at the Southeast Regional, and 46th at the NCAA Division III Championships.

This year, McChesney has moved to 285 pounds, and has enjoyed a breakthrough season as a result. To this point, he’s achieved a mark of 24-5 with seven pins. Once again, McChesney took silver in the PAC Championships. In the NCAA Southeast Regional, McChesney won a pair of matches to reach the semifinals, and after a loss, he battled back in the consolations for a third-place finish. Thus, he punched his ticket to the NCAA Championships on March 14. Meanwhile, the Presidents enjoyed a banner year, going 6-7 overall but 4-0 in the PAC. Last month, Washington & Jefferson scored 116.5 team points to win the PAC Championship for the eighth time in program history. The Presidents also finished in eighth at the Southeast Regional.

While he prepares for his first national championship appearance, Christian set aside time to answer questions about the best aspects of competing at 285 pounds, his ideal future profession, and a hidden talent he possesses.

Q: How did you improve from your freshman year to this season?

A: There are two big parts to my improvement from last year to this year. The first is that I went up to 285, which allowed me to compete at my natural weight without the worry of making weight. The second is my offseason training. I was blessed with the opportunity to train with my brother Billy for about two and a half months. Training with high-level guys is the best way to get better, allowing me to jump levels.

Q: How would you describe your wrestling style?

A: I would say that it depends on the match and my opponent. Of course, I love getting to my leg attacks and working my top series, but shooting on some of those bigger guys can be risky. When that happens, I need to get them moving and make them try to open up.

Q: What are the best aspects of competing at 285 pounds?

A: The best aspect of moving up a weight class is not needing to cut weight, but besides that, I'd say my strengths shine more at 285. I’m quicker than most of my opponents and I'm good on top, and at heavyweight, those two things win you most matches.

Q: Your team captured the PAC championship recently. What was the key to that success?

A: The key to that success was our dominant performance in the finals - winning five finals, and most coming against Saint Vincent, really set us apart in the team score. With Josh Smith having a big win in his revenge match against Saint Vincent, that got us rolling to having multiple bonus point victories back-to-back. This sealed the deal.

Q: What individual and team goals did you establish for this season?

A: As a team, our goal was to win the conference, which we did by a big margin. After that big win, our next goal as a team was to have five or more people place at our regional tournament, and a couple of people make it to nationals. As an individual, my goals are never short of being a national champion. I don’t think anyone should compete without that being their final goal; I hold myself to a high standard and never settle for less.

Q: What led to your decision to attend W&J?

A: I chose W&J because I believed it to be the best place for me to accomplish my goals and dreams. That, combined with having my former high school teammate Isaiah Payne here helped it work out really well, even though he has moved on to better things dealing with language and business.

Q: What is your major and ideal future profession?

A: My major is wrestling - it’s what I study every day. But on a serious note, I’m a communications major. With this, I will become a wrestling coach. I know I wanted to be a wrestling coach for a while, but with my oldest brother already being in the coaching field with football, I wanted to do it with wrestling.

Q: What has been your most challenging college course?

A: My most challenging course has been statistics. Since getting to college, my math skills have decreased so much so that statistics is a real challenge for me.

Q: You were a standout football player at Greensburg Salem. How does your background in that sport help you in wrestling?

A: I would say football really helped with my physical toughness. When you think about it, wrestling is a relatively safe sport. There aren’t too many ways to get seriously injured when wrestling. Football is a different story - every play in football is a car crash, especially on the line. Wrestling helps a person with being mentally tough, but football helps with physical toughness. I believe you can’t do one sport without the other.

Q: What was your fondest high school memory?

A: My fondest memory isn’t a specific event, but instead, it is the summer between junior and senior year. My day was to wake up, drive 30 minutes to pick up Isaiah Payne, go to football practice, go to the public pool with Isaiah, then go to wrestling practice before dropping him back off. This everyday struggle, you could call it, was all to get better and be the best we could be.

Q: Do you still follow Golden Lions athletics or WPIAL wrestling?

A: I follow Greensburg wrestling; I like to show my support to the teammates and coaches who helped me for my four years at Greensburg. They support me in return by coming to the Saint Vincent dual.

Q: If you could change one rule about college wrestling, what would it be?

A: I have two I can’t decide between - freestyle out-of-bounds and freestyle passivity instead of stalling. I think these would help with edge wrestling and promote activity.

Q: What is your favorite sports movie?

A: If you think that Cars is a sports movie, I would say Cars. It’s one of my favorite movie series of all time. If you don’t think this, I would say Dodgeball is a classic and just too funny.

Q: What is a hidden talent you possess or a little-known fact about you?

A: My favorite hidden talent is that I am pretty good at drawing. I keep a charcoal portrait of myself in my room that I made in a high school art class.