H-S Athlete of the week: Elijah Brown, Belle Vernon
Submitted photo
Name: Elijah Brown
School: Belle Vernon
Class: Junior
Sport: Wrestling
Brown’s week: In winning his fifth match this season over Kiski Area’s Cooper Roscosky, 4-3, in the finals at 215 pounds last Saturday in the PIAA Class 3A Individual Wrestling Championships, Brown not only earned his initial state championship, but the first in the history of the Belle Vernon wrestling program.
“It was pretty exciting to know I not only won a state title, but was the first to do it for Belle Vernon,” Brown said. “I have never been one to showboat after a match, but we went out to eat after the event, and I got to celebrate with my coaches and everybody else. We were talking about finally breaking the ‘Belle Vernon curse’ because they have had some great wrestlers that were very close but didn’t win a title.”
Brown began his march towards the title last Thursday at the Giant Center in Hershey with a fall in 23 seconds over Unionville’s Brady Kelly before earning a 15-0 technical fall in 1:47 over John Boggs of St. Joseph’s Prep in Friday’s quarterfinals to assure himself no worse than sixth place on the medal stand.
Brown faced another familiar opponent in the state semifinals, as he met Ringgold’s Jake Conroy for a spot in the finals.
After a scoreless first period, Conroy took bottom, but Brown scored four near-fall points with 37 seconds remaining in the second. Conroy cut the deficit to 4-2 with a reversal with five seconds left in the period.
Brown scored a reversal in the third to extend his advantage to 6-2 before he was penalized a point for stalling that pulled Conroy within three. Brown controlled Conroy for the rest of the period for the 6-3 decision.
In the finals, Brown scored a takedown 21 seconds into the match and controlled Roscosky for the rest of the period. Brown escaped with 1:43 remaining in the second period for a 4-0 lead that carried over into the third.
Roscosky scored a takedown in the last five seconds, but Brown was content to go to his stomach and allow the takedown then have a possibility of giving up any near-fall points.
“I kind of just bailed there and allowed him to score the takedown because I knew I had the match won,” Brown said. “There was no reason to take a chance and get put on my back.”
Family of athletes: Brown is not the only athlete in his family, as his older brother played basketball in college, and his younger sister, Aubrey, is a member of the Lady Leopards basketball team. She was one of the top freshman players in the WPIAL.
Despite being from a family of basketball players, Brown decided to take up wrestling, and even though he did give basketball a chance, it didn’t take him long to realize the sport wasn’t for him.
“I went to a basketball camp, and I just knew it wasn’t for me,” Brown said. “Aubrey was her team’s star player. She is pretty good. I have two little twin sisters who play basketball and soccer.”
Back to work: Brown is already back in the wrestling room preparing for the freestyle wrestling season. He is working towards competing in the U.S. Open, which will be held April 23-27 at The Expo at World Market Center in Las Vegas, Nev.
“I will be wrestling at 202 pounds, and depending on how I do in the U.S. Open will determine if I wrestle in Fargo (national tournament),” Brown said. “If I do wrestle in Fargo, I will probably go at 190.”