Jackson heavyweight Brysen Wessell harvests gold at Class 4 District 1 wrestling tournament

CEDAR HILL – Brysen Wessell still had a hard time getting over the way his district wrestling tournament ended in 2024.

So, on Saturday, the Jackson heavyweight had some unfinished business to attend to – and then some.

After entering the tournament as the top seed, Wessell delivered on the big stage with a first-period pin over Noah McCollum of Eureka in the final of the Class 4 District 1 Championships at Northwest High School in Cedar Hill.

The victory came 12 long months after he dropped a 2-1 (TB) heartbreaker to Oakville’s Ethan Venable in the 2024 District 1 finals at 215 pounds.

“I feel like last year losing that match did not really put me in the spot I wanted to be at state,” Wessell said. “That really fueled the fire this year. I just wanted that first-place title to make a statement to the rest of the district.”

Wessell, who is currently 37-6 on the season and 77-14 in his career, walked away much happier and more satisfied than he was in his last major tournament, where he lost in the SEMO Conference finals. That was obvious from his lively expression after hitting a body lock to deck McCollum at the 1:55 mark.

“I was definitely ready for this tournament leading up to it,” Wessell said. “Felt really good throughout the week. Just a lot of training that went into it and I was ready to dominate.”

Wessell thinks he should win every tournament he competes in, and based on this past weekend’s evidence, he’s right to believe so. The junior was utterly dominant, earning a 7-0 decision in the quarterfinals before picking up back-to-back first-period pins in the semifinals and finals. Even more impressive, he did not surrender a single point in the tournament.

Head coach Steve Wachter believes his guy is heating up at the perfect time and is not surprised by Wessell’s continued ascension.

“He's wrestled really well all year, to be honest with you,” Wachter said. “The Ste. Genevieve kid he lost to at SEMO conferences is ranked No. 1 in Class 2 and the St. Pius kid he lost to 1-0 is ranked No. 1 in Class 3. At KCI (Kansas City Invitational), he lost 4-2 to a three-time state champion from Iowa. So, he's lost to some really outstanding wrestlers and his losses this year have really been to some top-notch heavyweights. He wrestled a really good district tournament, but he's really wrestled pretty solid all year long.”

Wessell is not your “typical” heavyweight, either. Even after beefing up for football and gaining 40 pounds of mostly muscle in the offseason, the junior normally weighs in around 255 pounds – 20 to 30 pounds lighter than most high school 285-pounders – but admittedly said he uses it as an advantage in terms of quickness, agility, and being lighter on his feet.

“I feel like having a little bit of a lighter aspect at heavyweight, you can definitely be more athletic than some of the other kids that are heavier,” Wessell said. “Even quicker in some scenarios, and that can definitely be a benefit.”

With his added size combined with his raw athleticism, Wessell works a lot with 22nd-year assistant coach Jerry Golden in an attempt to bolster his offense and refine his hand fighting from the neutral position.

“Last season, he had his technique down,” Golden said. “Coming into this season, he kind of retained everything from last year from the get-go. So, we’ve just been honing in and getting better and better on our technique.

“Really, he's a light-heavy, but he's so dang rangy and tall, and he's got great feet. It’s kind of hard to wrestle against. He's got good defense and good offense, but sometimes in a heavyweight match, it's going to come down to overtime or one point. So, you’ve got to learn how to win in those situations. And that's all we've been focusing on – not necessarily getting the takedown, but winning the tie-ups, getting one and learning how to grind.”

Golden, who primarily works with Jackson upper weights in the practice room, has also seen major strides in Wessell’s mental edge, which is the most important factor in the sport, especially during this time of the year.

“I think a lot of his success just in the last couple of weeks has been his mental approach,” Golden said. “It’s pre-match, getting his mind set and thinking about what he needs to do in his game plan. What our plan is on our feet, what our plan is on bottom, and what our plan is on top. Just kind of going through that in his head has really helped him a lot too.”

Wessell will be one of seven Indians representing Jackson at the Class 4 state tournament this Friday, Feb. 28, and Saturday, Mar. 1, at the Mizzou Arena in Columbia.

Last year, he was one match shy of reaching the state podium after falling to Ozark’s Ruben Arvizu in the third round of consolations (also known as the “blood round”) at 215. This time around, Wessell enters the tournament as the top seed at 285 and draws Blue Springs junior Phillip Fields in the Round of 16.

“That hurt,” Wessell said of his blood-round loss at the state tournament last year. “And I don't want to be there again. So, I'm definitely going to keep training hard this week and go into it just knowing I am prepared, I need to be there, and I deserve to be there. I think I can get it done for sure.”

Besides, this is what Wessell thrives on: unfinished business.