WILLIAMSPORT, Pa. – One of nine four-time individual wrestling champions in the history of the Middle Atlantic Conference and the first national champion in the career of Lycoming College head wrestling coach Roger Crebs, Kurt Schneck '94 was selected for induction into the MAC Hall of Fame, the conference has announced.
 
Schneck is one of 10 inductees to the MAC Hall of Fame in 2024, joining Emilie Replogle Hoffert (Delaware Valley), Matt Reppert (DeSales), Jennifer Lococo Connolly (DeSales), Colleen Mahon Moyer (Scranton/Drew), Bill Timony (FDU-Florham), Damon Saxon (King's), Andrea Castilow Hoover (Lebanon Valley) and Dawn Ketterman-Benner (Moravian).
 
Schneck is the fifth Warrior associated with Lycoming wrestling to earn induction into the MAC Hall of Fame, joining Budd Whitehill (2012), Bill Bachardy (2013), Royce Eyer (2017) and Ron "Buddy" Knoebel (2020).
 
"It's hard to explain," Schneck said of the importance of the honor. "Budd is one of the most celebrated coaches in the history of Division III and those are some of the best wrestlers that we've ever had here. It's an honor to be part of that group."
 
As a freshman, he dropped just two matches, both against Division I opponents, in the regular season and followed that by picking up the first of an unprecedented four MAC titles at 126 pounds. The Pine Grove, Pa., native terrorized nearly all of his MAC competitors, posting five pins and four technical falls during the tournaments in his career. He entered the national spotlight as a sophomore, earning All-American honors with an eighth-place finish at the Division III Championships.
 
Even a broken hand that kept him from the lineup in 1992 and forced him into a medical hardship didn't slow him down, as he won a MAC title and two matches at nationals before falling short of All-American status as a junior.
 
"After my junior season, I felt like I wasn't going to wrestle anymore," Schneck said. "I had graduated with my English degree, but was working all summer in construction and didn't know what I was going to do. I talked to some people and decided to get my teaching degree and went back to do my student teaching."
 
He came back for the spring semester in 1994 to complete his senior year, wrestling under first-year head coach Crebs, who took over the program after Budd Whitehill passed away that summer. Schneck wouldn't be denied, winning the national title with a 12-6 win over Dan Gabrielson of Central.
 
"It was a fun time," Crebs said. "Kurt came in January and things were a lot different than when he was wrestling for Budd. Things had changed in the room. Probably the best moment was when he took a loss  up at Ithaca to a kid from Kean. He was up at 134 pounds and I told him you have to go to 126 to win a national title. He didn't want to hear that, but we ended up getting him down to 126 with a lot of extra workouts and putting time in and you see what happened. He went out there and dominated."
 
Schneck had a similar memory of his run to the national title.

"I didn't really have a lot of expectations going into that year and Coach Crebs wasn't about to have that," he said. "I was there 150 percent or not there at all. He made it known to me early on that's how it needed to be. I was at 134 all season and he said you need to drop a weight class. He was right. I made that drop and it made all the difference. To have Budd those first three years, then Coach Crebs was the icing on the cake. He helped with the whole mental aspect of wrestling a lot. I couldn't have done it without him, or Coach Budd."
 
In all, Schneck posted a 96-18-1 career record, earned two All-American honors and earned the MAC's Sam Spinelli Most Outstanding Wrestler award in 1994. The English major was inducted into the Lycoming College Athletics Hall of Fame in 2001.
 
After graduating, Schneck was a high school English teacher and wrestling coach for 15 years at Mount Carmel (Pa.) (assistant and co-head wrestling coach, 1996-99) before moving on to Sussex Tech (Del.) (assistant coach) (1999-11). He left teaching in 2011 and is a senior project manager for residential construction with Capstone Homes in Delaware. He and wife, Carolina, a middle school history teacher at Delmarva Christian School, have been married for 20 years and the couple have two children, 16-year-old son, Dominic, and 10-year-old daughter, Angelia. Schneck volunteers with his church youth program and played drums with the music program at his church.