BETHLEHEM, PA – The Hall of Fame Committee of the Eastern Intercollegiate Wrestling Association (EIWA), college wrestling's oldest conference, is proud to announce that five new individuals have been selected for membership into the EIWA Hall of Fame. The Class of 2024 inductees are Thierry Chaney of William & Mary, Denny Diehl of Lehigh, Johnny Orr of Princeton, Andrew Rendos of Bucknell, and Tom Toggas of Lehigh. The induction ceremony will take place on Saturday, March 9, 2024, at The Sojka Pavilion on the grounds of Bucknell University in Lewisburg, PA immediately prior to the finals of the annual EIWA Championships.

Committee Chair Natanya Levioff stated: "This year, we had an influx of highly qualified candidates across our coach, contributor, and wrestler categories, and from across our EIWA member schools. This caused our decision process to be one of the most difficult to go through in recent gatherings, and in the best possible way. As a result, the Committee determined we should induct five individuals into this year's class. This group crosses decades—from the 1970s to the 2010s—and each of them bring unique achievements and accomplishments, both on and off the mat, to the Hall. Of equal importance, they continue to have an impact in the sport, in their communities, and in their professional lives. We are honored to include these gentlemen in our Hall of Fame.

Thierry Chaney - Wrestler The College of William and Mary, Class of 1991 Thierry Chaney moved from Madrid, Spain to the United States in 1982. Having never wrestled until his freshman year at York High School in Yorktown, VA, he went on to build a 97-10-1 overall record, placing 3rd at AA Virigina States as a sophomore (the first to do so in school history) and winning back-to-back championships his junior and senior years. He also gained Fargo All-American and Amateur Wrestling News All-American honors. To this day, he is the only 2x State Champion for York High School. During his collegiate career at William and Mary, he compiled a 101-37-1 record and won numerous honors including 6th at the 1987 Midlands (the first for W&M), 3rd place at the EIWA in 1990, two EIWA crowns in 1988 and 1991, and was a 3x NCAA qualifier. He is the only Tribe wrestler to repeat as an EIWA Champion and achieved the even rarer feat of being twice-named the EIWA Outstanding Wrestler (one of only four to do so). He is ranked as one of the top three William and Mary wrestlers of all time and is a William and Mary Athletic Hall of Fame inductee. Chaney graduated in 1991 with a degree in business with a concentration in marketing. As a professional, Chaney has been highly successful in every area in which he has worked, be it in the insurance, law enforcement, or the IT sector, prior to launching his own company, Innovative Medical Devices, in 2003. It specializes in orthopedics and healthcare solutions. His contributions to the community are even more impressive, having a cumulative 32 years of coaching youth and high school athletes across the sports of wrestling, lacrosse, and football; mentoring over 1,000 young people in that time. Chaney currently resides in Baltimore, MD and with his wife Victoria (Mary Washington College Hall of Fame Inductee for Soccer) and has three sons: D'Andre, Sebastian, and Jadon.    Denny Diehl - Contributor Lehigh University, Class of 1970 Having never competed in a singlet, Denny Diehl is one of the most significant contributors to college wrestling in the whole country over the last 50 years at the national, EIWA, and university levels. He is well-known as a prolific writer, a passionate historian, an advocate for the growth of the sport, a keen statistician, and a loyal friend.   Diehl was the first to publish weight-by-weight rankings, beginning in 1975 after launching the publication, National Mat News that year with Bill White (Amateur Wrestling News did not begin individual rankings in every issue until 1978, and Diehl would later be a regular contributor to AWN). He was a commentator and pre-meet host for Channel 39 TV from 1976-1980, authored the History of Lehigh Wrestling, a 226-page publication documenting LU wrestling from 1910-1997, and is still the publisher of Lehigh University Wrestling News (starting in 1995). He helped design LehighWrestling.com, a top college wrestling club website offering current events and archived school history, and he served as the Director of Media Relations for the NCAA Division I Wrestling Championships from 2007-2011, providing bout-by-bout commentary, statistics, and bio information to the media, including ESPN. Diehl not only has left his mark on these and even more wrestling-related fronts (including numerous fundraising campaigns and serving on several Hall of Fame Committees), but he has also been recognized for the excellence of the contributions that he has made. In 1995, he received the highest honor there is for a wrestling writer—the Bob Dellinger Award—which is the only media award recognized by the National Wrestling Hall of Fame; and he is one of the few to receive the Lehigh Alumni Lifetime Award. He currently resides in Boston, MA and has a grown son, Geoff.    Johnny Orr - Wrestler Princeton University, Class of 1985 Johnny Orr was one of the best wrestlers to compete for Altoona High School in Pennsylvania, where he would rack up an 86-6-1 record (undefeated in dual meets), was a 3x District 6 champion, a 3x Northwest Region place winner (including one championship title), and a 2x PIAA Class AAA medalist including a state runner-up finish. He was also a runner-up in the Cadet National Freestyle championships and 3x PA state freestyle finalist. He would take his winning and champion mindset to Princeton University, where he competed for the Tigers in the 142-pound weight class. He owned an overall record of 89-9, was a 2x EIWA place winner, plus became the EIWA Champion in 1984 while also collecting the Outstanding Wrestler Award that year. Orr was a 2x NCAA finalist in 1984 and 1985, a 2x All-American, a 4x First Team All-Ivy, and a 2x Ivy Outstanding Wrestler. He captained the Princeton team twice, helping lead the Tigers to being the Ivy League team champions in 1985. He graduated that year with a degree in Ancient History and was the recipient of the William Winston Roper Trophy, which recognizes one member of the Princeton senior class for high scholastic rank and outstanding qualities of sportsmanship. Orr would continue competing once leaving Princeton, placing 5th in the 1988 final U.S. Olympic Freestyle trials while serving as a graduate assistant coach for Penn State. He would go on to coach youth wrestling over a 15-year period for the Lakeland Predators (IL) and then the Flemington Elks (NJ). Orr also played a key role in helping rebuild the Princeton Wrestling program and is an inductee in the PIAA and Blair County (PA) Halls of Fame. Orr has been in the automotive and pharmaceutical industries for over 33 years. He is currently the Senior Director of Supply Chain and Operations for Clario Inc. He currently resides in Flemington, NJ with his wife Wendy, and they have three grown sons: Alexander, Grady, and Hunter.       Andrew Rendos - Wrestler Bucknell University, Class of 2010  Andrew Rendos, from Brockway, PA was a 2x PA State Champion in 2005 and 2006. During his time with Brockway Area High School, he accumulated a record of 144-16 which included undefeated years during his junior and senior seasons. Rendos would continue his wrestling career by joining the newly reinstated Bucknell wrestling program in 2006. He was part of the first recruiting class for the Bison when the program was brought back from a hiatus. He would go on to become a 4-year team captain along with finishing 3rd, 4th, 2nd, and 1st in the EIWA from 2007-2010. His EIWA crown would come during his senior year, which would be the program's first EIWA champion. Along with being a 4x EIWA place winner, Rendos was also a 4x NCAA qualifier and 2x NCAA All-American, with finishes of 5th in 2009 and 6th in 2010.  His 121 wins during his competitive time at Bucknell currently ranks second in career wins and was a program record at the time. He graduated in 2010 with a Bachelor of Arts in Economics. Additionally, he completed his Master of Business of Administration in 2019 from Clarion University. He has been inducted into PA District 9, Bucknell Athletics, and Pennsylvania Wrestling Coaches Association Halls of Fame. Rendos currently resides in Wellsboro, PA with his wife Chelsey and three children Audrey, Christian, and Emma. He is a financial analyst for C&N Bank while still being highly involved in local wrestling programs as a coach.    Tom Toggas - Wrestler Lehigh University, Class of 1988 Tom Toggas, originally from York, PA, was immersed in a wrestling legacy, surrounded by family members deeply involved in the sport from his cousins to his brothers to his uncle to his father. Competing for West York High School, Toggas' accomplishments would include being a 2x York County Sectional Champion (1981, 1982), placing 3rd at the 1981 PA South Central District Tournament, making a state championship appearance in 1981, and captaining the team his senior year. While he had considered walking on at Iowa, a recommendation from his cousin John (Head Coach at Parkland High School) would find Toggas taking a post-graduate year at Blair Academy (NJ). He not only captained that team, but he also recorded an 18-0-1 record and secured a dominant National Prep Championship in the 155-pound weight class. Toggas would join the Lehigh Engineers to wrestle at the 158-pound weight class.    After winning his 3rd EIWA Tournament in 1988, Toggas earned the Fetcher Award, given to the wrestler who generates the most team points in their EIWA career. His Lehigh teams in 1985 and 1988 secured the EIWA Team trophy and he finished his Lehigh career with a record of 70-33-1. He graduated in 1988 with a degree in Finance and Marketing, later earning his MBA in Real Estate Development from American University where he served as an assistant coach. Toggas went on to be highly successful in the mortgage banking, financial planning, and software development sectors. In addition to his professional endeavors, he volunteers as a local Little League Baseball coach, training service dogs for Veterans' kennels, and serves as a volunteer assistant with George Mason University's wrestling team. He currently resides in Washington, DC and has three grown children, Colin, Olivia, and Sammy; with the boys following in their father's footsteps in the sport of wrestling. About the EIWA Hall of Fame  The EIWA Hall of Fame is the only NCAA Division I Wrestling Hall of Fame in the country. As part of the oldest collegiate wrestling division in the nation, the Committee works tirelessly to induct into its Hall of Fame individuals who have excelled as competitors or coaches, have contributed to the sport in unparalleled ways, have had impactful lives beyond the mat, and most importantly, embody the traits of character, resilience, and determination. The nomination cycle runs from November 1st through September 15th each year.