High school wrestling: Avon's Tony Mrosko has come a long way this season after going a long way away over the summer

Like most high school wrestlers, Avon's Tony Mrosko wasn't exactly thrilled with the way his previous season ended. After going 0-2 at the Division I district tournament in Perrysburg as a freshman, Mrosko was motivated to work hard during the offseason to improve upon that result. Like most high school wrestlers that meant a spring filled with freestyle competition, and like most high school wrestlers that meant a summer filled with running and weight room workouts. But unlike most high school wrestlers, Mrosko did his summer work nearly 8,000 miles from home. "My family actually lives in Kenya, so we flew out there for two months last summer and I just worked my butt off every single day," Mrosko said. Mrosko's mother is from the African nation and his father earned a two-year work contract there that proved to be a financial windfall for the family. So Mrosko's father and two brothers headed to Kenya 18 months ago while he and his mother remained in Avon. The family expects to be reunited in Avon this summer. "My little brother is actually on the (Kenyan) national (soccer) team," Mrosko said. "So I would go with their team and do running in the morning and then go to the gym every day to lift weights. I was really just working on getting my conditioning up because there isn't much wrestling out there." Mrosko's father introduced him to wrestling when he was just 3 years old. "He didn't want other kids picking on me because I was on the smaller side," Mrosko said. He began with a biddy program in Lakewood, then moved on to the Westshore Wrestling Club — St. Edward's youth feeder program. The early plan was for Mrosko to attend St. Edward, but he ultimately felt like Avon was the better fit. "I wasn't sure I could even get on the team (at St. Edward), so I felt I had a better chance to compete and get better here," Mrosko said. "I felt I could continue to improve and maybe even build an outstanding legacy here." Mrosko still has his St. Edward link, as Avon coach Mark Jayne was a three-time state champion while wrestling for the Eagles. "Anytime you have someone like that in the (practice) room, it makes everyone else better," Jayne said of his sophomore 126-pounder. "Whoever he's working with, it increases their game and intensity. Last year, Tony was great, but I think this year he's taking it a step further. He's upped his offensive game and he's been hitting a lot more things in his matches, which is great to see." Mrosko blew through the competition in winning championships at the Rebel Invitational at Willoughby South in December and the John Matteucci Memorial Classic at Eastlake North last weekend. In those events, he went 9-0 with nine pins. Mrosko is 17-3 and ranked No. 17 in the state per Borofanohio.net, and all three of his losses came at the Medina Invitational Tournament, where he went 4-3 and placed sixth. "That tournament was nice because I didn't really have any way to gauge my skill level before that," Mrosko said. "That tournament kind of showed me where I was just as a wrestler. And now that I see what the higher level kids look like, I can just kind of shape it to what I need to do when I go to these harder tournaments … I'm a little bit more prepared. But I'm actually thankful for those losses, because now I know what to do better in situations." All three losses came to opponents ranked in the top 10 in their state — Preston Lefevre of Clarkston (Michigan), ranked No. 7 in Michigan; Wauseon's Zavian LaFountain, ranked No. 7 in Division II; and Sandusky Perkins' Wyatt Nemitz, ranked No. 4 in D-II. "We love the MIT," Jayne said. "I have a great history there as a wrestler, and as a kid, watching with my dad who was coaching for Elyria. And, yeah, to get that competition is really awesome. There's some really good kids there and you gotta get a feel for what it takes to be at that next level. And getting in those close, intense matches only makes you better for the end of the year and for conference." All four of Mrosko's wins at the MIT were decisions and within four points. Three of his victories came against wrestlers who are also state-ranked. "None of those matches were an easy win," he said. "I knew every match I was gonna have to go out there and battle because this was a nice, large tournament and there were a lot of really good wrestlers in it." Unlike most high school wrestlers, Mrosko believes no game plan is the best game plan for a match. "I'm not gonna lie to you, I really don't look at the rankings or anything and I don't even know who I'm wrestling before each match," he said. "Because I believe that if you look into your opponent, you're gonna wrestle their match instead of how you want to wrestle. My motto is to always wrestle your own match … so all that information about guys I've wrestled that are ranked in the state, it's all new information to me. I had no idea. I honestly just go out there and wrestle." Contact Shaun Bennett at (440) 329-7137 or sbennett@chroniclet.com. Like him on Facebook and follow him @ShaunBennettct on X.