Portage County Gazette

By John Kemmeter

Plover native Brady Koontz will represent the United States in the Junior World Greco-Roman Wrestling Championships in Trnava, Slovakia in September.

Brady and his twin brother Dylan both competed in the 55 kg weight class at the World Team Trials in Indianapolis, Ind., Friday, June 8, where Dylan lost on criteria in the semifinals, and Brady went 3-0 to advance to the best-of-three Championship Series.

There, he won the first two matches over reigning World Silver Medalist Cevion Severado to earn a spot on the USA Junior World Team.

“I’m super excited, it’s a great experience,” said Brady. “It’s going to be great to represent the United States in the Worlds.”

“We knew going into that tournament that one of us was going to make the team,” said Dylan. “We just didn’t know who.

“We were both going for it,” he said. “And we were just helping each other get there.”

In high school, the Koontz twins each won a WIAA Division 1 State Title at Stevens Point Area Senior High School (SPASH), as Brady was the 106-pound State Champion and Dylan was the 113-pound State Champion in 2016, before they redshirted last season as freshmen for the NCAA Division 1 The Ohio State University wrestling team.

Brady (left) and Dylan Koontz (right) with their father, SPASH assistant wrestling coach Bryan Koontz, after Brady won the WIAA Division 1 State Title at 106 pounds and Dylan won the 113-pound State Title at the Kohl Center in Madison in 2016. (John Kemmeter photo)

Both entered the World Team Trials in the 55 kg weight class, where they competed in the nine-man Challenge Tournament, with the winner to move on to the Championship Series to take on Severado, who earned an automatic spot in the finals after he won the 2018 UWW Junior National Championships in Las Vegas April 26.

In the Challenge Tournament Semifinals, Dylan squared off against Junior Nationals Runner-up Joey Harrison of Omaha, Neb., and lost on criteria 7-7.

“I was really looking forward to it, I was training harder than ever before, and I was just happy to be able to compete,” said Dylan. “And I wrestled good, for the most part.

“I made a few mistakes, and looking back on it, I’m just thankful that I had the opportunity to be there,” he said. “I’m not happy with how I finished, but I’m just looking forward now.”

Brady opened the Challenge Tournament with a 9-3 win over Rayvon Foley of East Lansing, Mich., and then won 9-0 in the semifinals over reigning World Team Trials Champion Elijah Varona of Miami, Fla., to advance to the finals of the Challenge Tournament.

“I’ve wrestled the guys before, Dylan wrestled one of them a couple of weeks ago at Junior Nationals in Las Vegas, and I knew they were going to be tough matches,” said Brady. “I just had to stick to my game plan, wrestle aggressive, be physical, and wrestle my match.”

In the finals, Brady took on Harrison, and won by fall in the first period in 1:56 to advance to the best-of-three Championship Series.

Brady Koontz (right) holds on to an 11-5 lead on Cevion Severado in the second period of the first match in the 55 kg Championship of the USA World Team Trials in Indianapolis Friday, June 8. (Contributed photo)

“Dylan wrestled him, I never wrestled him before, so I knew he was good,” said Brady. “I just had to get on him fast and hard and be physical, always pressuring him, trying to get him out of position, and get my angles.”

The win sent Brady to the Championship against top-seeded Severado, who was the runner-up at the World Team Trials a year earlier, but replaced Varona due to injury at the World Championships, where he ended up winning the Silver Medal.

“I knew going into it that it was going to be tough, because I wrestled him in Las Vegas (at Junior Nationals) and he won in a close match,” said Brady. “But I knew that if I got out fast and hard and then won the first match, that it would come easier to me, that I would feel more confident in the second match, knowing that I already had beaten him once.

“And I knew that if I started physical and started moving him, that finishing the first match would be easier,” he said.

With a berth on the World Team on the line, Brady beat Severado 15-5 in the first match to take a 1-0 lead.

Brady came back in the second match and won on criteria 3-3 over Severado to earn a spot on the Junior World Greco-Roman Wrestling Team for the first time.

“I looked over in my corner and saw my two coaches and my dad, and it was great,” said Brady. “The second match was a lot closer than the first, but it was a fight.

“I enjoyed it though, it was a fun fight,” he said. “And both matches, I was battling with the guy.”

“I’m really proud of him and happy with how he finished,” said Dylan. “I know that he worked for it really hard.

“He was disappointed with how he did at the Junior National Tournament in Vegas,” he said. “And he was just on a mission when we were in Indianapolis.”

Brady Koontz has his arm raised after he beat top-ranked Cevion Severado 2-0 in the best-of-three finals at 55 kg at the USA World Team Trials in Indianapolis Friday, June 8. (Contributed photo)

After redshirting at Ohio State last season, the Koontz twins will look to compete for spots in the lineup at Ohio State next season, where their former SPASH teammate Fritz Schierl went 22-6 as a redshirt freshman at 165 pounds last season, as Brady will wrestle at 125 and Dylan is set to be at 133.

“I’m really excited for my first year being able to actually compete for the team,” said Dylan. “I love the team, I love the coaches, and I love the atmosphere.

“And it’s definitely a place where people can grow and get better as wrestlers and as people,” he said.

“I love it; the team’s great, everybody on the team is super cool, the coaches are awesome,” said Brady. “The atmosphere in the room is really good, everybody works hard.

“Overall, the team is just great, and it’s a great culture,” he said.

The World Championships will be the second time in international competition for Brady, who won the 2015 UWW Cadet National Championship at 46 kg to advance to the World Championships in Bosnia-Herzegovina, which featured the best 15-to-17-year old wrestlers in the world.

Meanwhile, Brady and Dylan have been back home since the end of the school year, as they’ve continued to train at World Gold Wrestling in Stevens Point with former Greco-Roman Olympic Silver Medalist Dennis Hall, who has coached them since their days as youth wrestlers.

“Me and Brady both are very thankful to our parents (Bryan and Julie) and to Dennis for helping us so much over the years and these past few months, getting ready for the World Team Trials and this upcoming college season,” said Dylan. “For the rest of the summer I’m staying in Point and training with Brady in Greco, and then for a week or two we go back to Columbus to train and work some camps.

“But it’s basically just a lot of training to get Brady ready for the Worlds in September,” he said.

“I’m just going to keep training hard, and just keep working with Dennis,” said Brady. “I have a couple of World Team camps, but most of it’s just working with Dennis, because he’s been overseas a lot, so he already knows what it’s going to be like.

“I’ve only had one international match in 2015, and that didn’t go very well,” he said. “I’m just working hard so that this year goes a lot better.”