It's 42 miles from Steve Fittery's home in northeast Lancaster County to Jarrett Hostetter's in southern Chester County.
It's 1,145 miles from Lancaster to Omaha, Neb., where Fittery and Hostetter will compete this weekend in the NCAA Division I wrestling championships.
It's one of those great ironies of sport that Fittery, a Cocalico grad and redshirt junior at American University, and Hostetter, an Oxford grad and redshirt senior at Millersville, should find themselves paired up in the 157-pound weight class at the Qwest Center, in the first round of the NCAA's grapplepalooza.
Wrestling begins at noon EDT today, continuing through Saturday night.
Iowa is favored to win its third straight team title, its eighth in the last 15 years and 22nd overall.
Four champions return to defend their 2009 individual titles: Michigan State's Franklin Gomez (133), Edinboro's Jarrod King (a former PIAA champion from Connellsville) at 165, Iowa State's Jake Varner (197) and Missouri heavyweight Mark Ellis.
Hostetter is joined in Omaha by teammate Shane Smith (174) as each vie to become Millersville's first All-American since Tom Barley in 1991.
This is Smith's second national tournament, Hostetter's third, as he becomes the first Marauder to qualify for three NCAAs since Curtis Yeager (2002-04).
This is Fittery's first time on Division I's grand stage, but he is no stranger to national competition, twice placing second in the NCAA Division II tournament while wrestling for Shippensburg.
He took a redshirt last year, then transferred to American where he's adjusted nicely to the competition level, winning the prestigious Midlands tournament this year while being voted the Most Outstanding Wrestler.
(Question: Why, when one reaches the collegiate level, does the title Outstanding Wrestler get inflated to Most Outstanding Wrestler?)
Fittery and Hostetter developed a little history on the open tournament circuit while taking their redshirt years in 2009. Fittery twice defeated Hostetter in close matches, 9-7 in the Mat Town Open and in sudden-victory overtime at the Hitchcock Memorial Classic.
This year, Fittery (29-2) was sailing along until an upset loss to Navy's Bryce Sadoris in the semifinals of the EIWA tournament forced him to scramble to qualify for nationals. Meanwhile, Hostetter (23-5) punched his ticket to Omaha by winning the East Regional, as did Smith.
Fittery is the fifth seed at 157, bracketed with top-seeded J.P. O'Connor (30-0) of Harvard, the EIWA champion, and fourth seed Cyler Sanderson (28-4) of Penn State, champion of the Big Ten.
Also in this half of the draw is Sadoris, the No. 8 seed, and Bloomsburg's ninth-seeded Matt Moley (25-3). Moley, a Boyertown native, has defeated Hostetter twice this year.
Fittery owns major decision victories over two wrestlers in the lower half of the bracket: 15-6 over No. 3 seed Jesse Dong (34-3) of Virginia Tech; and 15-5 over Keegan Davis (33-10) of Oregon State. Boise State's Adam Hall (28-2) is seeded second. Minnesota's Dustin Schlatter (14-2), the 2006 149-pound champion, is seeded sixth.
Smith (23-7) opens against No. 11 seed Joshua Patterson (26-6) of Binghamton. Patterson, a three-time NCAA qualifier, earned All-America status last year placing seventh.
Other nearby notables, both former PIAA champions, in the tournament include Middletown's Tyler Nauman (33-3), seeded tenth for Pitt at 141; and Easton grad Jordan Oliver (28-2), wrestling for Oklahoma State and seeded fourth at 133.
Joining Sanderson from the Nittany Lions are Brad Pataky (26-8); unseeded at 125, Frank Molinaro (29-5), seeded fifth at 149; Dan Valimont (27-7), seventh at 165; Dave Erwin (29-8), eleventh at 184 and Cameron Wade (20-9), unseeded at heavyweight.
Lehigh is represented by Matthew Fisk (21-6), unseeded at 133; Seth Ciasulli (22-12), unseeded at 141; Robert Hamlin (18-10), unseeded at 174; David Craig (22-5), twelfth at 184; Joesph Kennedy (18-14), unseeded at 197 and Zachery Rey (28-4) seeded third at 285.