It might be a stretch to talk about Kresgeville's Samantha Klingel in the same sentence with Thomas Edison, Henry Ford and Bob Dylan unless you consider the one thing they all have had in common.

The first step toward their great accomplishments took place in the basements of their homes.Klingel started playfully grappling in her family's basement when she was 10 years old. Her opponent was her brother, Ernie, who went on to win the Eastern Nationals as a sixth-grader, and then to win 100 matches during his career at Pleasant Valley High School."My dad was the referee," she said. "When Ernie pretended that he hit his head on the floor, I jumped on him, and Dad called it a pin."Although Ed Klingel, who coached the Pleasant Valley Bruins youth group, had reservations about his daughter wanting to become a wrestler, he supported her ambition and entered her in a novice tournament at Southern Lehigh. Samantha, the only girl there, defeated four boys before she lost in the finals in the 52-pound weight class."Samantha went from a cheerleader for our youth team to getting cheered for as a wrestler on the mat," her father said. "It was difficult at first. She was laughed and sneered at, but when a lot of the moms saw how good Sam was, they formed their own cheering section for her."She also proved her athleticism in cross country running. As a freshman at Pleasant Valley in 2007, she was the Times News Girls' Cross Country Runner of the Year. She won her last four dual meets and the Mountain Valley Conference championship that year before she finished 32nd out of over 300 girls in the PIAA state championship meet.On the mat at Pleasant Valley, as fate might have it, Samantha had to wrestle off against Ernie to determine who would compete in varsity matches. Ernie won, but then a freak accident involving firewood would provide an opportunity for Samantha to advance her wrestling career."Ernie and I were throwing firewood into a truck one day," she said. "I tossed a piece that hit the side of the truck. It bounced back and broke Ernie's finger. This unfortunate experience put me on the mat in his place.""Ernie was heartbroken, of course," said their mother, Nancy. "But then he became Samantha's biggest supporter through all her wrestling accomplishments.""To this day, my brother is my best training tool. I owe him a lot of credit for my success," Samantha said.Klingel had to deal with other issues and controversy that surrounded her participation in what historically has been a male-dominated sport."I expected some problems when I wrestled boys," she said. "I would sometimes hear the comment, 'she's only a girl.' And then I would say back, 'I am wrestler.'"Samantha, who would later go on to become the Folkstyle High School National Champion, became angry when boys forfeited matches to her, but she understood the complexity of the issue for them. Win and you beat a girl. Lose and you can't go home."I am not really a crusader, trying to prove the point that girls can be as good as boys; I just love to wrestle and I love to compete."Mark Getz, Samantha's former high school coach at Pleasant Valley, said he was initially skeptical about having a girl on his highly ranked team, but from the day she walked onto the mat as a sophomore, he claims she was as tough as any male wrestler he had ever coached."Sam had already proven herself at the junior high level before she got to our team," he said. "And her work ethic is still second to none. She knows only to go 100 percent in training and on the mat."Sam is such a fierce competitor in everything she does. We had a Navy Field Challenge which involved push-ups, pull ups, timed runs and other strength and agility tests and she blew everybody on our team away. We had a lot of very good athletes too."Klingel now wrestles for King University in Tennessee, one of 20 US colleges that have a women's wrestling program. At this high level of competition, effort and skill have resulted in extraordinary achievements for the 120-pound junior. Klingel helped King win its first National Women's College Association Dual National Championship with a technical fall victory in the semifinals, which brought her season record to 10-1.Getz, who called Klingel a trendsetter for women wrestling in the area, follows her college career. He works out with her at East Stroudsburg University and evaluates her matches so he can help her improve."When I was her coach, I was telling everyone then that we were going to see Samantha Klingel wrestle in the Olympics someday," Getz said. "Now I believe this even more so. Sam is still learning. She has a huge upside, and I believe she will succeed against the best wrestlers in the world."Last July, Klingel won the gold medal at 112 pounds and led Team USA to victory at the Pan Am Junior Women's Wrestling Championships in Chile.She also won the title at 55 kilograms (121 pounds) this past March at the University Nationals in Oklahoma City.Last week, Klingel finished fifth in the U.S. Open Freestyle Wrestling Tournament, where she competed against women who were in their late 20s and early 30s with much more match experience than her.Jason Moorman, Klingel's coach at KU, calls his prize wrestler a grinder on the mat."Sam wears her opponents down. She may fall behind early in a match, but she ends up dominating at the end," he said. "Sometimes you can sense a bit of fear in a wrestler when she goes up against a strong opponent, but never in Sam. She is relentless, and nobody, in my opinion, shows more determination to attain a victory."Klingel is right in the middle of a major upswing in women's wrestling in the U.S. Since 1994, the number of registered women wrestlers has increased from 804 to 8,727. Since 2004, women have wrestled freestyle in the Olympics. She hopes to make the U.S. Olympic team for the 2016 or 2020 games."Wrestling is like chess," Klingel said. "You have to anticipate your opponent's moves, but unlike in chess where you win with your mind, in wrestling you win with your body. And though it's listed as a team sport, it's really what I can do as an individual in my match to help my team."With a U.S. National title and a Pan Am championship already under her belt in the past year, the next step for Klingel will be the World University Games in Hungary this July.If she wins, she will be able to say that her journey to the ultimate in wrestling success will have climbed from her basement floor to the top of the entire world..