Cody Thorn He ended his summer by earning All-American honors at the USMC 16U and Junior National Championships last month in Fargo, North Dakota.
The sophomore-to-be took third place in Greco-Roman in the 94-pound bracket.
He hopes to use the success this past season, which included a fourth-place showing in the KSHSAA Class 6A State Championships, to have a banner final year at Junction City.
Final year you say?
Witt’s father is in the military and is currently stationed at Fort Riley, just outside of Junction City. He’s already moved from California to Alaska to Kansas, but where the family lands next is still unknown.
“It makes me want to push and get as far as I could,” Witt said of his final year wrestling for the Blue Jays. “If would be great to win a high school state championship in Kansas.”
He qualified for both freestyle and Greco-Roman at the event held at the FargoDome. Witt was hoping to place in both, but went 2-2 in freestyle and his run ended early.
“It was exciting but it was scary,” Witt said. “It was exciting for the first year. I was going to go last year but COVID canceled it. It was new, but it was definitely an amazing experience.”
When Greco competition started, he did well, but he assumed he might since he is more comfortable wrestling that style.
Witt won his first two matches by a combined 25-6 score, but then lost 7-4 to Davis Motyka of Pennsylvania, who ended up taking fifth place.
That bumped Witt to the consolation bracket and he responded with four straight wins to take third place.
Along the way, he beat eventual seventh-place finisher Ryker Graff of Iowa, 14-7, and then had a 4-2 win over Pennsylvania’s Josef Garshnick. Witt trailed 2-0 after the first period but got a takedown and nearfall in the second to win against the eventual sixth-place finisher.
In the third-place match, Nebraska’s Cadyn Coyle scored the first point on an escape but Witt tallied the next eight to build a big lead in an eventual 10-3 victory.
“I didn’t want to mess up and be posted on Flo (Wrestling) for a big mistake,” he said of competing in the high-pressure matches late. “I wanted it (to place); I’d let people down if I didn’t. I wanted to do the best I could. I wanted to finish as high as I could (after the loss), so I could go for third.”
He is the first Junction City All-American since current Baker wrestler Elisa Robinson did so two years ago. Witt is the first wrestler on the boys side since Aaron Rafalko, a decade ago. Rafalko wrestled at Midland University.
“It is the first stepping stone through all of that to get to the next level,” Junction City coach Tyler Gonzales said of Witt. “How to approach and move forward and obviously grow and wrestle bigger competition. To me, one of the big things is it kind of proved to him all the work he put in has paid off.”
Witt’s summer included a second-place showing at the UWW in Greco in Wisconsin. At the Cadet Nationals in Indiana, Witt went a combined 16-4 between both styles.
He bounced between 98 pounds and 102 pounds this summer but cut weight to get down to 94 for Fargo.
Witt expects to wrestle at 106 pounds again for Junction City. He wrestled most of last season at that weight class but was often giving up 10 pounds or so against most foes.
“He would have to wrestle bigger kids at practice, most of the other smallest (guys) were 120 pounds,” Gonzales said. “It wasn’t terrible, but it is also a little more difficult to know what it will feels like in a match when you wrestle someone his size. It went to his benefit but at the same time, it could be tough.”
Gonzales points to a match in freestyle where Witt lost 6-4 to Tyler Garvin from Maryland.
“He was a really tough kid and one of those things it is very hard to mimic that without a practice partner (the same size),” he said.
In freestyle, Witt won his first two matches before falling to Garvin in the quarterfinals. Witt then lost, 8-6, to Wisconsin’s Liam Neitzel, who ended up taking eighth place, in his first consolation match.
Gonzales expects Witt to be at 106 or 113 this upcoming season.
Witt went 30-13 last year in his first season for the Blue Jays. He lost in the semifinals to Washburn Rural’s Jonathan Morrison but then beat Lawrence’s Andrew Honas to reach the third-place match. In his last match, Lawrence Free State’s Nolan Bradley bested Witt, 12-2.
Wrestling will be put on the back burner a bit for Witt. Soccer practice started in early August and in the spring, he will run for the track and field team – focusing on the 1,600- and 3,200-meter runs.
“For him. it is great for him to be an All-American,” Gonzales said. “We talked this year, his freshman season, just what his goals were and trying to get a good feel for the kid. You can tell he has talent for his size. I wanted to get to know him a little bit more throughout the high school season and as I did, I used those answers from what he said his goals were to push him and make sure when things got tough he would push through.”
