Middletown High School’s Brandonn Johnson and Chad Strube both won 2A-1A wrestling state championships March 7 at the University of Maryland. Johnson, a senior at MHS, won the 171 pound weigh class. Strube, a junior, won the 125 pound weigh class.
Johnson beat River Hill’s Scott Trench by a score of 11-2 in a dominating performance. Johnson, who had come in second two years in a row at states, wanted to win states more then any thing.
Johnson took over the match early, winning the first six points of the match. The only points Trench got were off mistakes made by Johnson, which is rare.
“It’s just been my dream since I started to wrestle,” said Johnson “Then once I lost two in a row, it was the only thing I thought of.”
Johnson has wrestled most of his life. He worked hard almost every day to keep his weight down so that he could wrestle at the right weight class. During gym class, he could have been found running on the treadmill with multiple sweatshirts on.
“This was the hardest I’ve ever worked for a season. I went to nationals during the summer and wrestled some of the best in the country; I was ready at states,” said Johnson.
Johnson has earned the right to be called a state champion. He went undefeated during the regular season 43-0. It would be hard to find a wrestler who has had a better season than him.
When he attended the meet at nationals, he was one fight away from being an All-American wrestler.
Johnson is arguably the best wrestler MHS has every seen. Johnson has won 142 career matches.
Strube is just as good as Johnson, compiling over one hundred career victories, too. Being only a junior, he hopes to destroy the record for most wins in MHS history.
At states, Strube beat Winters Mill’s Jake Pennington. He won by a score of 7-5 in a close match, which Strube fought through to get the victory.
Strube worked just as hard as Johnson. He has also come up short in states before. As a freshman, he lost the state championship for the 103 pound weigh class.
The early lose at states may have helped Strube. Coming up short and being so close gave him an even better motive to work hard.
“This year gave me a chance to redeem myself. Coming so close was hard but this year made everything alright,” said Strube.
Both wrestlers had a strong fan section at states. Both said the fans helped them in continuing to wrestle hard.
Strube hopes to continue his success at MHS. As for Johnson, he is looking at many colleges to wrestle at after high school.