School: Quakertown
Wrestling
Favorite athletes: Lance Armstrong, Cale Sanderson
Favorite teams: Eagles, Phillies, Flyers, Penn State
Favorite memory competing in sports: “Taking fifth place at the Beast of the East and rooming at Beast with the team.”
Most embarrassing/funniest thing that has happened while competing in sports: “Last year when I won districts, I got on the podium and then tripped off of it.”
Music on iPod: “Rap, Rock, Country, a little bit of everything but mostly Rap”
Future plans: “Wrestle in college, get my degree, then work and have a family someday.”
Words to live by: “Carpe diem.”
One goal before turning 30: “Get a good education”
One thing people don’t know about me: “I talk in my sleep sometimes.”
Matt Rust is an accomplished wrestler, and the Quakertown senior – who recently notched win number 100 of a stellar career – owns bragging rights in his household when it comes to the sport that is his passion.
“I’m the only one in the house that has a district title,” he said. “I’m the only one in the house with 100 wins.”
That is no small feat considering that he is the fourth of four brothers who were wrestlers.
He points to his brother Jason as ‘one of the hardest working kids’ he’s ever seen. His brother Jeff holds the record for wins at Southern Lehigh with 99, and his brother Justin, also an outstanding wrestler, went on to play running back for Ithaca College’s football team.
And while Rust enjoys joking about owning bragging rights, he’d really prefer talking about the special bond he shares with his siblings – which also includes younger sister Jen, who is the manager of Quakertown’s wrestling squad.
“I have never met a family closer than ours, which is cool because I always know if I have a problem, I have someone I’m comfortable talking to,” Rust said. “I’m also really close to my parents (Jess and Bev Kulp). I’m very fortunate in that aspect.
“Some people don’t get along with their families. I feel bad for them, and I know how fortunate I am.”
Rust earned win number 100 of a standout career in the wrestle-back rounds at the Beast of the East – a win he notched by medical forfeit. He went on to finish fifth in the prestigious tournament and currently boasts a career mark of 103-25.
That success, according to coach Kurt Handel, didn’t just happen.
“Matt does all the right things in the offseason,” the Panthers’ coach said. “He does the clinics in the fall and spring. He’s been lifting, and when you put those combinations together, you’re going to be pretty successful.
“He’s a hard worker as well. He works hard in the room. He’s always asking what he has to do to get better. On top of being a great athlete and wrestler, he’s a real nice person as well.”
Rust has been wrestling since he was four years old when he began wrestling for Southern Lehigh under the tutelage of his father and coach Keith Turner, who is now the Northampton coach.
“I have always loved it,” he said. “When I was younger, I was always a littler kid until I hit high school and I started filling out.”
While that size disadvantage as a youngster may have worked against Rust when he competed in some of his other sports such as baseball, soccer, football and lacrosse, it didn’t come into play when he was on the mats.
“In wrestling, they couldn’t take anything away from me,” he said. “I just fell in love with the sport.
“My brothers were really good, so we were always competing – who’s going to get the highest (finish) in a tournament, who’s going to have the most takedowns in a season, all kinds of stuff like that.”
It wasn’t long before the other sports fell by the wayside as wrestling began to take precedence, and by the time he was in high school, wrestling was his year-round focus.
“There’s always good and bad with every sport,” Rust said. “In football, you have to wear 20 pounds of pads and run around in the middle of summertime.
“In wrestling – yes, cutting weight is (tough), but out of all the sports I’ve played, I’ve never gotten a better feeling than after I win a big match or I’m down and come back and beat a kid because it’s just you and him out there on the mat, and you know how hard you work in practice.
“I personally don’t think any other sport can match the feeling of winning in wrestling.”
Rust has experienced that winning feeling more often than most. As a freshman at Southern Lehigh, which competes in District 11, he advanced to Regionals.
“When I came here my sophomore year, I guess I could say I had a big head,” Rust said. “I thought I was going to walk through it here because everyone said District One was easier, but it kind of bit me in the butt.”
The summer after his sophomore year, Rust worked hard to ensure there would be no reruns of that disappointing season.
There weren’t.
As a junior, Rust captured the district and sectional titles and at regionals came within one spot of advancing to states. He’s looking to improve on that finish this season, and his fifth place finish in Beast of the East is a good start.
“That was huge,” he said. “Being only the fifth wrestler from Quakertown to ever place there – it’s the hardest tournament in the nation, and it was a good feeling standing on the podium at the end of the tournament.”
Talk to Handel, and it’s clear that Rust is not an athlete who is content to rest on his laurels.
“He has improved over the years,” he said. “He’s very good on his feet, and he can pretty much take anyone down at least once. That’s his strongest point, but he’s worked on his top and bottom positions a lot, and he’s improved those two positions.
“I think that’s what is really going to help him this year. He’s focused on the mat and improving himself there. It’s his senior year. It’s his final go-round here. He’s doing all the right things to make it to states. His goal is to place in states this year, not just make it, and it’s a realistic goal for him.”
Rust plans to take his talents to the next level next year.
“I’m hoping I can go to a Division One program and wrestle,” he said.
His coach believes that’s a realistic goal.
“I do see him going to the next level and competing,” Handel said. “He has a great support group at home between his mom and dad, his brothers and his sister. Mom and dad want to make sure he knows what his ending goal is when he goes to college.”
Although he is undecided on a college, Rust has chosen his major - he plans to major in sales and marketing with his sights set on getting his lead mechanics degree.
But for now, he has some unfinished business to take care of at Quakertown.
“I’d like to place at states,” Rust said. “That’s everybody’s goal, I guess. I’m just working hard, and hopefully, I can get that.”
