GRAPPLING, THINKING WITH SUCCESS ACADEMICS ARE IMPORTANT TO HIGHLAND WRESTLER.

Byline: Gideon Rubin Staff Writer

PALMDALE - Steve Frehn is a thinking-man's wrestler who by his own admission sometimes thinks too much.

Frehn has received national recognition as an inventor and excelled in Highland's prestigious International Baccalaureate program. But his off- the-charts intelligence can be a wrestling liability.

``That's one of my problems with wrestling,'' Frehn said. ``Sometimes, I think too much before a match. If you think about it too much, it can actually impair you.''

Judging by his success in the sport, however, it is difficult to believe Frehn's intelligence is really that much of a hindrance.

A senior who competes in the 145-pound division, Frehn is a three-time Golden League individual champion who is coming off an inspired performance in last week's Southern Section Central Division championships. He overcame severe flu symptoms to become his school's first individual champion in seven years.

Frehn (38-2) is among 20 area wrestlers competing for a state championship berth at the two-day Masters Meet at Fountain Valley High, which begins today. Eight wrestlers from each division will qualify for the March 4-5 state meet at Bakersfield's Centennial Garden.

Other area notables include Harvard-Westlake of Studio City's Kenji Porter (189), a two-time Southern Section Coastal Division champion, and Royal High of Simi Valley and 2004 state qualifier Eric Blackwell (152), one of four Highlanders in the event. Emerging Marmonte League power Calabasas qualified three.

Frehn, meanwhile, has other things going on besides wrestling for a state berth.

Frehn and Highland volleyball standout Andrew Deagon took third in the prestigious Siemens-Westinghouse Math, Science and Technology Competition for high school students for a collaborative project in which they were able to induce plastics that respond to electrical charges to simulate muscle movement.

The project was based on work by NASA involving electro active polymers (EAP) Frehn read about last summer in Scientific American.

Frehn and Deagon simulated actual human muscle contraction by applying an electrical charge to EAPs that sandwiched a non-chargeable polymer.

``Because there's that middle layer, the EAP's have nowhere else to go,'' said Frehn, who tinkered with the project in Deagon's garage.

Frehn believes the project could someday be the basis for developing replacement muscle tissue for humans.

``They have nowhere near the strength of human muscles right now,'' Frehn said, ``but if they do become strong enough, you can apply this to anything.''

Frehn vows not to overanalyze wrestling as he pursues a state berth, but he believes the qualities he has developed in academics and wrestling do correlate.

``Work ethic can apply to just about anything you do,'' he said.

Gideon Rubin [phone]

gideon.rubin(at)dailynews.com

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SOUTHERN SECTION MASTERS MEET