Clark followed, then topped brother

Whenever John Clark was in a wrestling meet at Canton high school a giant picture of his older brother, Mitch, looked down at him from the gymnasium wall.

Mitch Clark had won a national championship in high school and went on to do the same at Ohio State.

But John found a way to leave his own mark, despite following his older brother's path, including attending Ohio State.

John Clark did not win a national championship, like his brother, but he did one thing Mitch never accomplished.

John Clark became the first Section 10 wrestler to win a state championship when he defeated Vestal's Phil Davanzo 5-4 in the championship match of the 145-pound division on March 7, 1998.

"For so many years, it's been that Section 10 has not had a champion, and for me to be able to do it was just unbelievable," Clark said after that match.

But Clark was not done with state titles after his victory during his junior season. He came back as a senior and won another state championship, defeating Shenendehowa's Greg Parker 10-8 in the 152-pound championship match in 1999, capping a 40-0 senior season.

Like Mitch, Clark ended the prep portion of his career with 177 wins, finishing 177-26.

Clark wrestled at 165 pounds for most of his collegiate career and became the ninth Buckeye in school history to earn multiple All-America honors when he finished fifth at the 2004 NCAA Championships. He was a sixth-place finisher in his junior year and was a Big 10 runner-up in 2002 and 2004.

He ended his career at Ohio State ranked fourth in career wins with 134 and ranked third in school history in takedowns (486) and team points (432).

After one year working as a salesman for Sterling Paper, Clark again followed his older brother Mitch, as well as his father, John Sr., by getting into coaching.

He spent one year working at Stanford and another year working at Lehigh. He's now preparing for his third year as a member of the Brown University coaching staff.

Clark is single and lives in Providence, R.I.

To read about previous selections to the Times' list of The North Country's Greatest Athletes of All Time, log on to www.watertowndailytimes.com