William Monroe wrestling heavyweight Austin Rath looked toward the Dragons’ corner of the mat in Salem and, for a second, contemplated a classic wrestling state championship celebration, the leap into your coaches’ waiting arms.
“Coach (Mike) Sizemore literally said ‘don’t you dare jump on me’,” Rath said. “For a second or two I thought I weighed 106 pounds.”
You can hardly blame Rath for feeling lighter than air. The Dragons’ senior had just won the program’s first ever wrestling state title with a third period pin of Booker T. Washington’s Tyree Sutton. The win completed a two-day run to a title that several Monroe wrestlers have nearly completed in the last few years, but Rath managed to close the deal.
The Monroe senior had faced Sutton in the Region 3A East finals the week before, winning that match to secure a region title. But this week Sutton was a much tougher out, attacking early with a bull rush where he got close to a takedown. Rath held him off though and was able to sneak behind a head-and-arm attempt to get control of the match. In the second period, Rath chose to work from bottom and got an escape. Then Rath, who is particularly good at working from the top, caught Sutton on an attempted switch in the third and pinned him 36 seconds into the final period to secure the win.
“I don’t even think it has sunk in yet,” Rath said.
The win came at the end of a long day that included a 7 a.m. weigh-in followed by breakfast and a long wait through consolations before finally wrestling around 4 o’clock. That came a day after another long day where Rath wrestled in the quarterfinals in the morning and then the semifinals on Friday night. His first match was a second period pin, but it came after an early surprise where his opponent from Hidden Valley shot early. He shook that off and came up with the second period pin. That set up a semifinal clash with an established rival, Warren County’s Nathan Johnson, a wrestler he’s faced five times, three of them this year.
“My coaches came up with a plan to keep his hands down because he likes to dump and hit (fireman carries),” Rath said. “I knew I had to ride him out.”
Rath executed well and grabbed a 6-2 decision to punch his ticket to the final, where he broke new ground for the Dragons’ wrestling program.
Winning a title is sweet on its own, for it to be the program’s first made it pretty special for Rath.
“I’m really excited about that, I’m hoping some of the mojo rubs off on some of the younger kids and I just get the spark going,” Rath said.
He’s certainly done his part.
Austin and his proud coaches pic.twitter.com/46BJQvFyjt
— William Monroe (@WMHSDragons) February 18, 2017
