MANSFIELD, Ohio — As his teammates celebrated Mansfield Senior’s season-ending win over Madison during the football season, Brandon Myers found himself overwhelmed with emotion.
The tears Myers shed that late-October night at Madison’s STARTEK Stadium weren’t because his football career had come to an unceremonious end — a knee injury suffered in practice two weeks earlier had cost Myers his final two games.
“Everybody thought I was crying because my football season was over,” Myers said Monday afternoon inside Senior High’s steamy wrestling room. “I wasn’t crying because of football. I was crying because I thought I might not be able to wrestle.”
His fear, it turns out, was unwarranted.
Myers, the Richland Bank Athlete of the Week, will wrestle in this week’s Division I state meet after taking runner-up honors at last week’s notoriously brutal Mentor district tournament. The athletic 220-pounder was 3-1 at Mentor, falling in the finals to nationally-ranked and projected state champ Jared Campbell of Lakewood St. Edward.
The knee injury — a chipped bone and Grade II ligament strain sustained during what was supposed to be a non-contact drill — forced Myers to miss the opening week of the wrestling season. He sat out the prestigious Walsh Ironman in early December but has been virtually unstoppable since his return. He will bring a 38-5 record into action Thursday at Ohio State’s Schottenstein Center.
“I don’t think the injury set me back at all,” Myers said. “The knee feels as strong as ever.”
Strength has never been an issue for the powerfully-built Myers. What distinguishes him from his peers, however, is his athleticism.
“He’s a lot quicker than most of the guys he wrestles,” Senior High coach Billy Stevens said between drills Monday. “We are going to concentrate on what his best assets are and we’re going to take advantage of those assets.”
Myers won a championship at Madison’s Tom Ellis Classic early in the year and finished third at the 55th J.C. Gorman Invitational at Mansfield Senior.
“Winning the Tom Ellis Classic was great and competing for a Gorman championship was great, but the goal is the state championship,” Stevens said. “We want him to start peaking in sectionals and districts.
“What I have told Brandon all season is we have a time-table for him. He keeps getting better and better.”
Myers cruised to an Ohio Cardinal Conference championship and overwhelmed the competition at the Toledo Waite sectional, going 3-0 with two pins. He had two more pins last week at Mentor before knocking off Midview’s Spencer Berthlold 12-6 in the semifinals.
That set up a showdown with the Missouri-bound Campbell, who is ranked fifth nationally. Campbell won by pin in 1:05 in a rematch of a freestyle match this summer.
A third meeting with Campbell would not come until the state championship match. Myers was the victim of a brutal draw which sees him take on Aurora’s Bubba Arslanian (40-2) in the opening round Thursday. Arslanian finished third at 182 last year and beat Myers earlier this season at Wadsworth.
“He’s a strong guy, but the more muscle you have the more oxygen you’re body needs,” Myers said. “I’m going to stick to what I do best.”
While most prognosticators don’t consider Myers a championship contender, Stevens said anything is possible.
“On any given weekend, anyone can win a state title,” Stevens said. “We want to peak this weekend and Brandon is going to take his shot at it.”
