Syracuse, N.Y. — Syracuse City's Ryan Brown and Cicero-North Syracuse's Kamdin Bembry became first-time Section III Division I champions at Saturday's championships at Onondaga Community College's SRC Arena.
The emotion running through both athletes was evident to all in attendance.
Immediately after Brown's win, he did a backflip on the mat to let out his excitement.
Brown is just a sophomore and it's only his third year competing in the sport and first time at the Division I meet. Brown missed last winter's Division I championships because he missed time due to the death of his grandmother and he did not qualify.
This year, his grandmother was with him for the win in spirit. Brown has a tattoo in honor of his late grandmother on his right arm.
"Winning with her name on my arm, getting that same arm raised feels great," Brown said.
Being new to the sport, Brown sometimes felt that he may not be ready to compete at this level, but his coaches let him know that being late to the sport means nothing if you work like Ryan does.
"Sometimes (Ryan) gets down on himself because he believes that because he's only been doing it a short time, he should progress slower," Syracuse City coach Rob Northup said. "But he's so much of a great athlete to where he can grow exponentially compared to some others that just have to do the slow grind where he can jump leaps and bounds over weeks, days, months. So having been in it for years now, you can see it's starting to pay off."
Brown was the No. 1 seed in the 190-pound class of Division I and defeated No. 2 Judson Ferris from Baldwinsville in the finals.
For Bembry, he came up just short in last year's 215-pound finals against Central Square's Rocky Files. This season, the same foe stood in his way.
Bembry entered the match 40-0 on the season and after pulling off the double-overtime win over Files in the finals, Bembry continues his perfect season.
The 215-pound Division I champion shed tears after realizing his accomplishment on Saturday.
"I work every day for this. Not every practice is a perfect practice, but I go to practice every single day," Bembry said. "I don't miss a single practice. Work hard every day. I get told I can do it. It's all about believing in yourself and once I did, I did it."
Bembry was named the Most Outstanding Wrestler at Saturday's meet and will head to the state meet for the first time.
"I don't know what to expect. I've never been there," Bembry said. "But I know damn well none of them are stronger than me. None of them work harder than me. I'll be there, I'll be right at the top."
Bembry's teammate Kennedy Thomas won his weight class in overtime as well.
The defending Division I 132-pound Section III champion moved up to 145 pounds this winter and still emerged victorious.
"(Winning) feels amazing. I'm just glad to be here," Thomas said. "Glad to go to states again. It's all the hard work I've put into this sport. I just love it so much."
Thomas, the No. 2 seed, found himself down 7-6 to top-seeded Logan Munn from Carthage with less than a minute to go in the third period, but he fought back and managed to force overtime. With a trip to states on the line, Thomas scored two points on a takedown in overtime to win a Division I championship for the second straight year.
C-NS was the Division I team winner with 181.5 points. Carthage (177.0), Indian River (142.5), Baldwinsville (118.5) and Central Square (104.0) made up the rest of the top five.
