When Steinert’s Brandon Cray made history on March 6 and became the first Mercer County wrestler to ever win two state championships, all his friends, family members and the county wrestling community itself were naturally excited for his achievement.
But only one person on earth knew what it truly meant, and that was Cray himself. He certainly gives ample credit to all his coaches, be it club or high school, for his success. In the end, though, a wrestler is alone so many times, be it in training or on the mat.
Cray has never walked around telling people about all he had to do to reach the top of the high school mountain for two straight years. But when asked about it, he admitted that the grueling work that has gone into it since age 6 makes it all the more special.
“I’m the one who was going through all the double practices and making the social sacrifices and doing what’s best for myself during the season,” he said. “No one knows how many times I’ve been training in my basement after practices, no one’s been through the practices and all the sweat and tears and blood I’ve had drawn throughout the season. It is a different kind of appreciation I have for it because I’m the one that did all that.”
Let’s not forget that pesky issue of making weight.
“I love to eat,” Cray said with a laugh. “That’s definitely a big sacrifice.”
Cray was not bragging. He doesn’t consider himself a special case and realizes that every other wrestler in Atlantic City that has their arm raised at the end goes through the same thing.
Many of them, however, come from regions of the state where wrestling is at the forefront and the majority of kids spend the entire season—or their entire lives—toughening up for state competition. Mercer County is not known as an area that breeds state champion wrestlers. Cray gets few tests during the year, so the work he puts in on his own is extremely important.
“I’m just so grateful to be my own category in Mercer County because I am the first two-time guy,” he said. “It just shows that with hard work and dedication, anything can happen no matter where you’re from. Thinking back on it now, it’s a very big deal what I did do, especially coming out of Mercer County. It’s what I trained for my whole life, every kid wants to do that and I just made it happen this year, again.”
Cray ended his career with a 115-10 record and 44 consecutive victories. He went undefeated as a junior and senior, going 24-0 last year and 20-0 this year. Both seasons were limited, as he had mononucleosis as a junior and suffered a partial thumb tear this season.
“It wasn’t really serious but if I didn’t let it rest I could keep re-injuring it and end up in surgery, and miss the states,” he said. “By taking time off in the middle of the season, it helped it heal.”
Coach Adam Jankos was fine with that, saying “he might have made the difference in a few outcomes, but I’ll trade a state championship for three duals. He still did some training and it gave him the rest he needed.”
Asked if Cray should be considered the greatest wrestler in Mercer County history, the coach didn’t blink.
“I think it goes without even saying it,” Jankos said. “His production with what he did on the mat speaks for itself. He’s able to accomplish in multiple years what other wrestlers never have.”
Cray, whose dad Todd was a Nottingham standout in the ’80s, played baseball and soccer at an early age but quickly realized that wrestling would be his sport and put all his energies in that.
He arrived at Steinert already having a reputation.
“I was very optimistic about the situation,” Jankos said. “I heard that every year he was a kid in club wrestling who was either first or second in state finals. For someone to produce that many times you know you have a quality go the distance in high school. I felt we were prepared to give him what he needed.”
Things don’t always go smooth, however. Often times, standout wrestlers get to high school and have to focus more on difficult academics. Or they become distracted by social life and social media. Some just hit a wall because they’ve wrestled so often.
“There are a lot of distractions, and Brandon was able to put his distractions aside,” Jankos said. “I’ve seen pictures on Twitter and Facebook of kids doing this or that. The only thing I saw Brandon put on there was a picture of him going to his prom. He really kept his head on his shoulders. Then you have other kids who wrestled all their life, they get to high school and they’re burned out. That never happened with him.”
Cray’s freshman year was his least productive, if you could call winning the Mercer County Tournament and qualifying for states an off year. He finished second in districts and third in regionals that season.
As a sophomore, he won counties, districts and regions and took fourth in states. From there, he would never suffer the disappointment of losing a district, region or state match again.
“With any loss, I picked up a whole bunch of things,” Cray said. “I didn’t consider losses as losses, I considered them learning experiences. The year I got fourth, I knew what I needed to fix and how to adjust my style to the kind of wrestling they have at states. Next year I came out and had all that stuff fixed.”
And just what is that style in states, that is different from the regular season?
“At states you have to be able to get your points, and when you get all your points, you have to be able to not give up points,” Cray said. “I know that sounds kind of obvious, but you need to learn how to not give up points. You need to stay in position and stay tough because that’s what it comes down to in those close matches you’ll get. You need to have everything.”
Jankos, Spartan assistant Chris Panfili, Todd Cray and Dan Flounders of All Heart Academy all played a part in preparing Cray to take the next step. He became Hamilton Township’s first state champion last year and returned as a marked man this year.
But because of what he accomplished, his confidence was intact to handle all challenges.
“Coming into the season as defending state champion, everyone was trying to put pressure on me,” he said. “All these other people are trying to put on pressure on you, like every match is like a state championship. But to me, I came into this season relieved. I already had a state championship under my belt. I just had fun this year.”
Cray was unstoppable in districts and regions, as he pinned his way into the 120-pound state semifinals without wrestling a full six minutes. It was there that he met West Morris’ Shane Metzler, who brought a 37-match win streak into the contest.
Holding on to a 7-6 lead, Cray was hit with a stalling point with seven seconds left, forcing overtime. It would have been easy to crack after such a tough call, but he battled through two scoreless overtimes and won it in the third OT.
“There was a lot of pressure on that match, since that decides who goes to the finals,” Cray said. “The kid was good, he stayed in there, he stayed in good position. We battled it out and I just dug deep in the end and came out on top.”
Cray felt that type of test was almost necessary heading into the finals.
“To be able to win those close matches is a big deal in Atlantic City,” said Cray, who had a 17-second pin in the quarterfinals. “Most of the kids, it’s usually a one-point win. I needed that good match. Throughout the season I hadn’t really had any good competition. To get that good semifinal helped me out.”
Jankos agreed, adding, “You never know what it’s like until you have an opportunity to wrestle that kind of match. After wrestling the overtime match he said he actually felt pretty good. It gave him confidence to have that explosiveness the first couple periods in the finals.”
Cray was matched up against freshman Nick Raimo of Hanover Park. Raimo was ranked third in the nation by intermatwrestle.com, and his only loss was to a nationally-ranked Pennsylvania wrestler.
After a scoreless first period, Cray got an escape and takedown and led 3-1 going into the third period. With 10,000 screaming spectators looking on, he fought off two takedown attempts and in the waning seconds got a takedown to seal a 5-2 victory. The next Intermat rankings pushed Cray from 10th to sixth, one spot ahead of Raimo.
“He almost took me down, and I somehow got out of it,” Cray said. “That was crazy. He was tough to score on. I give that kid a lot of respect because he’s only a freshman and doing what he did was a great accomplishment.”
Cray admitted that his 2015 finals appearance made a difference the second time around.
“Being there the year before definitely helped me out,” he said. “You have all those nerves before the match, it’s a huge crowd, just one mat. Some kids get caught up in the moment. Being there before helped me calm down and stick to the game plan.”
And just what is that plan?
“I just did what I’ve always done,” he said. “Stay aggressive, try to control the match. Don’t let the kid get into his zone or get into good position. The normal stuff. I don’t change things. If it’s working, why change?”
Why indeed? The only time he really needed to change was after his sophomore season, after his mentors discovered a few things.
“After his freshman year he had to reevaluate what he needed to do to be where he wanted to go,” Jankos said. “He took the right approach the following year, and took fourth as a sophomore. He still wasn’t happy with that. Between me, Chris Panfili and his father, we had a plan for the next two years for him to perform at the right level at the right times.”
To Cray’s credit, he remained at Steinert when the temptation could have been to go to a parochial or prep school. Jankos felt part of the reason he stayed was that the Spartans were a winning program during his first two seasons. Cray said the reason was that he felt he had everything he needed at Steinert.
“I could have gone to a different school but I felt Steinert was good enough for me, and the coaches really worked with me,” he said. “I couldn’t have asked for a better opportunity. I think it’s really cool that I did it out of Steinert.”
He is hoping some of what he did rubs off on the returning Spartans.
“Considering we have a real young team, I could just show them that when they do work hard good things could happen,” he said. “As they grow up in the sport they can realize that they and the team could do better.”
Cray not only excelled on the mat but in the classroom with a 3.2 grade point average.
“You’ve gotta balance the social aspect, your wrestling, your school work, all of that during your season,” he said. “Most people don’t really understand that, they only know about the wrestling part. I think I’ve got it down to a T right now.”
He will take that philosophy to the University of Maryland, where the Terrapins plan on wrestling him at 125 pounds. Cray will head to College Park in the summer and is looking forward to the challenge.
“I just have to keep working on winning those close matches,” he said. “Every match in college is going to be close and everyone you wrestle is gonna be good, especially since I’m going into the Big 10. I’ve just gotta continue to work hard and stay focused. I probably need to get better on top. In college, they have riding time, the longer you hold a guy down you get a point. I need to work on that, which I will. And I’ll just fine tune a couple things I’m already good at.”
Jankos, who hopes to parlay Cray’s success as impetus for Hamilton Township to restore athletic programs in the middle schools, was watching the NCAA national finals and allowed himself to dream.
“I was just imagining Brandon up on that podium,” the coach said.
Whatever happens in his future, Cray knows one thing. The work and discipline that has made him a champion wrestler, has been a tremendous training ground for whatever he decides to do in life (he has yet to decide on a major).
“Wrestling is more of a sport that teaches you about discipline and fighting adversity,” he said. “This is a sport that really goes hand in hand with the real world. It teaches you a lot of traits and lot of life lessons and I’m just learning every single day in wrestling.”
Cray is too smart and too savvy to make his high school accomplishments the highlight of his life. He will always, however, take pride in one thing.
“I’m a two-time state champ and that’s awesome,” he said. “No one can take that away.”
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