After graduating Frazier High School in Western Pennsylvania,  Rune Lawarence, #13 on the Class of 2024 Big Board, will travel approximately forty miles south to attend West Virginia University. Whether or not the roads Lawrence takes to get to Morgantown will technically qualify as "country" or not will be a matter of debate. Regardless, it's likely the famous John Denver song won't be far out of mind as Lawrence announced on social media that he has committed to wrestle for the West Virginia Mountaineers. 

We're not completely ruling out the possibility that Lawrence eschews roads completely and commutes to campus exclusively via private helicopter, however, seeing as how the high school junior referenced the official state song of West Virginia in his commitment graphic, we feel it's a safe assumption that the Rune thinks of that song at least once at some point during his journey to college, by whatever means of conveyance he takes.

Lawrence, currently ranked #8 in the country at 195-pounds -- although that is with the four soon-to-graduate seniors ranked ahead of him -- is a three-time Pennsylvania state champ, winning the AA class tournament thrice while at Frazier, one of the smallest schools in the PIAA which you can find in Perryopolis just over 30 miles south of Pittsburgh. 

Hear from Rune after he won his third PIAA title:

Beyond his performances in the Keystone State, Lawrence also placed third at both the Walsh Jesuit Ironman and Super 32 Challenge tournaments in 2022, two of the toughest and most prestigious tournaments of the high school season. 

This is West Virginia's second top 20 recruit in the last three years, as Brody Conley was ranked #19 on the 2022 Big Board. Other recent blue chip recruits for the Mountaineers include #32 Ty Watters from the class of 2023 and #25 Jordan Titus from the class of 2021, evidence that Mountaineer head coach Tim Flynn has the WVU program headed in the right direction.

Rune's older brother Thayne is a rising senior that competes at 174-pounds for the Lehigh Mountainhawks.