Staff photo / Preston Byers Austintown Fitch’s Mya Quarles, bottom, tries to escape against Brookfield’s Isabella Williams during their girls 140-pound consolation second-round match Saturday at the OHSAA state wrestling tournament in Columbus.

COLUMBUS — This time last year, Mya Quarles was doing just about anything to be around wrestling except what she wanted to do: actually wrestling.

As a junior, Quarles could only get as close as matside to watch as her teammates experienced the joys and disappointments of the sport. She spent the season recovering from ACL reconstruction and meniscus surgery, which she said was a “very lengthy and awful process.”

But she was never going to give up.

“I came to practice every day knowing I couldn’t do anything,” Quarles said. “I knew I wanted to be here, I wanted to win, I wanted to be a part of my team any way that I can, even if I couldn’t wrestle. I was there in any shape or form that I could be – doing their hair, coaching them on the side, I did anything I could to be with them. This sport is my everything.”

Recovering was just the first part of the journey, though, as the senior needed to shake off the rust and, hopefully, peak in late February and early March to make it to her first OHSAA state tournament.

It didn’t always look like that would happen.

After placing second at sectionals, Quarles was pinned by Cloverleaf’s Aubrey Willig in the first round of last week’s Mentor district, putting a trip to the state tournament seriously in jeopardy. To place in the top four of the district and make it to Columbus, she had to win three straight matches.

In her first consolation match, she pinned her opponent in 26 seconds. The second match also ended in a Quarles pin, albeit in the third period, before she pulled off her third pinfall win, this time in two-and-a-half minutes against Orange’s Natalie Martincic. After clinching a top-four placing and qualifying for state, Quarles suffered a pinfall loss against Brookfield’s Isabella Williams.

On Saturday, almost a week later, Quarles and Williams were back on the mat against each other, this time with a spot on the girls 140-pound podium at stake. Quarles got there by losing to Fairborn’s Serenity Ulmer-Earnest in the first round and then picking up a win over Bridgette Rice of Delaware St. John’s. Williams had defeated Princeton’s Kimora Carpenter in her first-round match before losing to Logan’s Brooklyn Whited.

Their rematch was a thriller, with the pair trading the momentum and lead throughout. But as time expired and after some hesitation from the official, Quarles was awarded an escape and her 17th and final point, giving her a 17-16 victory and no worse than eighth place.

“Awesome, amazing, a testament to her hard work,” Fitch head coach John Burd said after the match. “She was hurt all last year, she came back this year, had some ups and downs early and in the middle there. She just worked really, really hard to get herself in this position. Solid focus, hard work, desire – everything you can ask for in a wrestler.”

Quarles, an Upper Iowa University commit who ended up finishing eighth after losses in the consolation quarterfinals and seventh-place match, credited her opening defeat with helping her grab a spot on the podium.

“It gave me that pressure I needed,” Quarles said. “I thrive under the pressure, I needed it. I didn’t realize I needed it until it happened, but I was like, ‘This is it, I gotta go. One more match, and I’m done.’ And that flipped a switch, where I was like, ‘It’s now or never, you gotta give it all you got.'”

Burd, who beamed with pride after Quarles’ win vs. Williams, said his senior leader possessed the “belief” in herself necessary to achieve her goal, especially after losing in the first round.

“She really believed in herself, and you could see it in the matches,” Burd said. “She went out and got it. She believed in her skillset, and it showed up here. Super proud of her.

“It’s exactly why you coach – to see good things like this happen.”