Through an electric combination of leadership, commitment and dominating performances, senior co-captain and All-American Justin Lister has led the Binghamton University wrestling team to its first top-20 ranking in school history.
The team broke into the top 20 in mid-January and has remained there since, vaulting as high as No. 18. In its five dual meets since initially breaching the top 20, Binghamton has posted a 3-2 record — with one of the losses coming at the hands of Oklahoma State University, the No. 1 team in the nation.
The Bearcats’ roster is riddled with talent, but even if his teammates are some of the top wrestlers in the nation, Justin Lister still stands out from the pack.
“[His] work ethic separates him from a lot of the guys,” Binghamton head coach Pat Popolizio said. “We have a team full of hard-working athletes, so to say that he works the hardest says a lot.”
Lister’s work ethic made him an All-American, but the path he took to get there didn’t come with great success, but rather failure, determination and, most of all, perseverance.
THE EARLY YEARS
In high school, Lister finished runner-up in the New York State Championships. Three times.
South Jefferson High School’s standout wrestler posted second-place finishes in the New York State Division II High School Wrestling Championship as a freshman and sophomore. His senior year would end in the same fashion.
“I never wanted to take the easy way out,” Lister said. “This was wrestling. It’s a man-to-man sport.”
And during his senior year, he really could have taken the easy way out. The reigning state champion, Mike Kampnich, wrestled in the same section as Lister. The two met for the first time at the local Frontier League tournament. Lister got punished.
“After I lost to him in the Frontier League [tournament], I could have bumped up a weight class and wrestled my way through with ease, even winning the state tournament,” Lister said. “A lot of people told me to, but I just couldn’t do it.”
The two would wrestle again at the Section III Division II Championships, where Kampnich again defeated Lister en route to taking the crown. Both wrestlers would compete in the New York State Championship Tournament, and, of course, met for the third and final time in the championship match.
“We both pinned our way through the season, the Frontier League tournament, the Section III tournament and the State Championship tournament,” Lister said.
In his final high school match ever, Lister stood toe-to-toe against the reigning state champion, marking the first time two athletes from the same section wrestled in the finals.
“Usually the third time, I don’t lose to people,” Lister said. “Maybe once, maybe twice, but never a third time.”
But Lister lost by a score of 4-0, and his high school wrestling career ended.
“I wasn’t proud or satisfied with those second-place finishes,” he said.
THE BEARCAT YEARS
Lister committed to Binghamton, and as a freshman was forced to red-shirt. It wasn’t until his second year at BU that he began to make his presence known.
Lister captured the 2010 Colonial Athletic Association championship at 157 pounds, leading to an automatic bid to the 2010 NCAA Division I Wrestling Championship, matching him up against 32 of the top wrestlers in the country at his weight class.
“I don’t look like the typical 157-pound wrestler,” Lister said. “I’m six inches taller than everyone I wrestle.”
With little respect from the NCAA Division I Wrestling Committee, Lister entered the NCAA tournament unseeded, but advanced to the quarterfinals behind dominating performances. But Lister was still an underdog, and in the quarterfinals would go up against the No. 3 seed from Virginia Tech, Jesse Dong.
Though the odds were seemingly stacked against him, Lister became Binghamton’s second All-American after pinning Dong with a stealthy cradle — a Lister favorite — only 1:18 into the match.
“There’s no secret,” Lister said about the move. “It’s simply just something wrestlers overlook.”
He would go on to lose in the semifinals, but in the consolation match, Lister proved his remarkable tournament run was no fluke.
In what Lister considers the greatest wrestling moment of his life, he pinned Cyler Sanderson — the No. 3 seed from Penn State and younger brother of wrestling legend and Olympic gold medalist Cael Sanderson — in four minutes and four seconds.
“I took him down, locked a cradle up and pinned him in the second period,” Lister remembers. “It was then that I felt I had proved myself worthy and that I wasn’t just a fluke.”
But what happened after Lister’s victory is almost as memorable as the win itself.
“I’ll never forget walking over to Cael Sanderson, thinking I was going to have the opportunity to shake a legend’s hand after defeating his younger brother, just to watch him glare me in the eyes, turn around and walk away before I could get any closer,” Lister said.
Lister went on to lose his final match and finished in fourth. It was the highest NCAA tournament finish by an unseeded wrestler in seven years and made Lister the highest NCAA tournament finisher in Binghamton wrestling history.
“Within that tournament alone, I grew as a person,” he said.
After his performance, Lister was named CAA Wrestler of the Year, and would later go on to win the NY Collegiate Championship.
“It definitely made me feel better knowing I at least won a state title in college,” Lister said. “It makes up for my high school state tournament losses.”
Lister repeated as CAA and NYS Championships winner as a junior, but his NCAA tournament ended prematurely with an injury-forced forfeit in his second-round match.
This year, Lister has already set the tone for what he hopes to be a National Championship run. With one of his only two losses coming against Cornell junior and No. 1-ranked Kyle Dake, Lister hopes to break free of his second-place curse and finally claim the championship prize, and with his attitude and drive, anything could happen.
NOT JUST A WRESTLER
Lister has built a reputation for himself off the mat as well.
“I’ve had two good internships, one that I did last summer in Kirkwood with the [New York] State Police, and one that I did last school year with the University Police on campus,” Lister said.
According to Tim Faughan, chief of Binghamton’s New York State University Police, Lister fit right in.
“He’s a hard worker and absolutely worked more hours and days than his internship required,” Faughan said. “He took a genuine interest in the field. He is the success story of our internship.”
Lister has also earned the respect of his teammates, but not just as a wrestler.
“Coming in, I didn’t really know what to think of him,” freshman Joe Bonaldi said. “I didn’t know if he was going to be rude and think he’s better than all of us. The first couple of days I was here, he acted like one of the guys, asking us [freshmen] if we wanted to hang out and he came right over to the dorms.”