Parkersburg High School’s Stephen Myers, Dominic Way earn All-American honors
PARKERSBURG — Stephen Myers and Dominic Way, a pair of rising sophomores at Parkersburg High School, added to their trophy cases after recently earning All-American honors at the Fargo Nationals held on the campus of North Dakota State University.
Way, who was unable to compete in the Class AAA state tournament due to missing regionals with an injury, claimed All-American by placing eighth in the 16-and-under, 126-pound, Greco-Roman division.
Myers finished his first season for the Big Reds of head coach Matt Littleton with a 40-1 record and the 126-pound state title. After winning the 120-pound 16U freestyle crown in Virginia Beach at the NHSCA Nationals, the Big Red went through the 126-pound freestyle field in Fargo to the top of the podium as the No. 11 seed.
“I definitely say Fargo is probably my most excited one because it’s just how far it is, just how everyone knows it,” admitted Myers, who gave kudos to Team West Virginia head coach Chris Way and everyone helping him continue to hone his craft. “College coaches go there and everything.
“I think that one is probably the most exciting for me, and I cherish that one a little more than state and NHSCA. States, in West Virginia as a freshman, is pretty good. I just think of it as another tournament. That’s how I like to go into my tournaments, so I can have a calm, cool, collected kind of mind set.”
Dominic Way actually had to face off against Myers, his mat room partner, in the round of 32 as Myers went on to upend top-seed Bruno Cassioppi of Illinois, 12-6, in the finals.
“We’re definitely partners through and through,” admitted Way. “That was the first time we wrestled in a match. There were some mind games going on. He struck first. I was winning at one point and he ended up scoring a few points off of me. It was close. I just tried my best.
“The way the seeds worked, I had figured out that one of the kids seeded above us had missed weight and that messed up the seeds. That put us in the same quarterfinal. A lot of things happened and a lot of unforeseen things happened. It was just unfortunate that we had to wrestle each other.”
Way, who was seeded eighth in Greco Roman, managed to earn the last All-American spot.
“I was expecting to get more,” he said. “There in my quarters match I got hurt and I was medically taken out of the tournament and had to plead with the orthopedist to let me wrestle my last round to get into the top eight, so I was wrestling with one arm the last match before I injury defaulted to eighth place.
“I don’t really get a whole lot of Greco training because there’s no one around here that really enjoys Greco besides me. Most of the time it’s just me in the room by myself looking up stuff and figuring stuff out. It’s definitely my favorite style.”
Myers, just the fifth Mountain State grappler to capture a 16U crown, said going to the FargoDome for a second time helped with familiarity.
“I lost in the blood rounds,” Myers said of 2023 when he was not seeded.
“I didn’t really care what seed I was because that’s not going to be true to what the wrestlers’ ability is, so I didn’t really care about it. I just went out there and I knew what I had to do and I got it done.”
The Fargo champ added of facing Way “I knew that at the end of the day, I mean we were just going to be practice partners, so we just went out there and we tried to kill each other. I mean like every other match kind of sucks, I’m not going to lie, because I want the best for him. At the end of the day we both know it was whoever wins, wins, and we’ll always be practice partners.”
Following his absence from the state tournament in Huntington, Way was just happy to be back competing.
“I was definitely hungry for some wins,” he said. “This season wasn’t very good for me. Last year we went out to Fargo and came up short and lost in the blood round. This time we took it a little different. We trained really hard and were out working hard.
“Me and Stephen, Kayden (McDonald) and Seth (Drennen), even though Kayden and Seth didn’t do as good, they were out there training with us. We worked really hard to get there and once we got there I wasn’t going be denied to not be on the podium. I worked too hard to not get there.”
Myers, who said for whatever reason his first match of any tournament always seems to be his toughest, led from start to finish in his championship final.
“The score shouldn’t have been what it was,” Myers added. “I was just trying to stay safe and not do anything stupid. I was so excited. All the hard work I’ve put in.
“All the help I got, especially from Chris Way and I’d like to thank him because he’s the one who got me to this point in my career. I’d like to thank all my practice partners, too. Just everything that’s happened, so grateful for that opportunity.”
Grateful also could describe coach Littleton, who is excited to see what the future has in store.
“Very proud of all our boys that went and competed at a high level,” admitted coach Littleton. “I know Drennen and McDonald didn’t place, but they still were willing to accept the challenge to go there. We knew going into freestyle Stephen had a really good shot at winning it, and he did just that.
“It’s unfortunate that him and Dominic had to meet in the round of 32. Dom placing in Greco was big for him. He finally earned All-American status and had to battle through an injury to do it. I think we all got a little better this past weekend. Excited to continue to watch this group compete and get better.”
Contact Jay Bennett at jbennett@newsandsentinel.com