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A four time All America with two third place finishes, a second and the 1982 NCAA Division III championship, Phil Lanzatella compiled a 136-7-1 record in wrestling and was a four-year starter in football.
Lanzatella was a two-time New York State wrestling champion, competing against both Division III and Division I wrestlers. He won the 177 weight class in 1981 and was named the Most Valuable Wrestler in the meet and the 190 class in 1983. He was the first and only Saint wrestler to win a match by pin at the Division I nationals, beating Ed Katz of Stanford in the opening round of the 1982 190 pound class He also qualified for the Division I nationals in 1983 despite finishing second in Division III. He was ranked as one of the top six wrestlers at 190 pounds in 1983 regardless of Division and his loss with eight seconds to go in the championship match was the only loss in a 34-1-1 season. He won a bronze medal in the World Greco-Roman championships in Stockholm, Sweden in his sophomore year at SLU.
A standout at defensive end in football, he is one of three athletes on the 1982 Hall of Fame football team who were also national wrestling champions, joining Mike Conners and Lelan Rogers.
A private coach and a teacher, Phil was a five-time Olympic trials finalist in Greco-Roman wrestling. He was the 2000 recipient of Street and Smith’s Mickey Mantle Foundation Courage Award for his championing of the cause of organ and tissue donation. He received the donation of a heart valve in 1997 at the age of 35 and returned to competitive wrestling two years later.
Phil and his wife Melody are the parents of two daughters.
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