Glenville State University’s Nick Johnson, a Parkersburg High School graduate, gets loose prior to a match earlier this season inside Memorial Fieldhouse. (Photo by Jay W. Bennett)

PARKERSBURG — Glenville State University will be eyeing its third straight Mountain East Conference wrestling title next weekend inside the Waco Center.

Sixth-year head coach Dylan Cottrell, who was West Virginia University’s first Big 12 champion, just watched the Pioneers climb to No. 9 in the recently released National Wrestling Coaches Association poll.

The new Division II individual rankings also came out and a quartet of G-men are currently ranked with 141-pounder Ethan Hardy (No. 1), heavyweight Colby Whitehill (No. 8), 125-pound All-American Colton Drousias (No. 9) and fellow All-American and former Parkersburg High School state champion Nick Johnson, who is slotted behind top-ranked 197-pounder Max Ramberg of Augustana.

“The event was really cool having it over at Nick Johnson’s old high school,” Cottrell said on the GoMart Pioneer coaches show of last week’s match inside Memorial Fieldhouse where the Pioneers picked up dual match wins versus rival Fairmont State and current No. 7 Tiffin. “He got to wrestle in front of family.

“Parkersburg South and Parkersburg High School, where we were at, are notorious for some of the best wrestling in the high school division in the state of West Virginia, so it was awesome to have some Parkersburg people over there watching. They know wrestling and it was a cool atmosphere. I thought we wrestled probably the best we’ve wrestled all year.”

Johnson, who finished as a Class AAA state runner-up as a junior before winning it all during his senior campaign back in 2016 for the Big Reds of then head coach Chris Way, broke out his Parkersburg Cougars Youth Wrestling T-shirt while back at his old stomping grounds.

“I’ve had that one,” Johnson said of the T-shirt. “It’s pretty much been in storage. Trying to protect it because I got it my junior year.

“The first time making the state finals I wore it out for the title match and I’ve just kind of had it ever since. Luckily it’s maintained pretty good condition.”

Affectionately known as the “grandpa” of the team, Johnson’s journey has been unique.

Following graduation, Johnson went to VMI and was redshirted. He then enlisted in the United States Marine Corps and after serving his country he eventually made his way back to Parkersburg and served as both an assistant wrestling and football coach for the Big Reds before landing in Gilmer County.

Despite all of his success, the ex-Big Red doesn’t take anything for granted and is just trying to be the best possible version of himself.

“That’s something we definitely preach at Glenville is you never know when your time is going to be there,” Johnson said. “You never know, on the flip side, when your last time is going to be. That’s why we enjoy the room that we have where we’ve been blessed with some good depth and talent of old guys, new guys, guys changing weights. You never know if somebody needs to take a week off to just recover or if they have an injury or whatever it is.

“Or, just coach wants to see somebody else, just kind of see how they do and get some reps in, so you don’t really know what the situation is going to be. You don’t know when it’s going to be so it’s always fun getting to see those guys who aren’t typically in the lineup get a chance to come out here, have some fun and score some points, and get some wins individually and as a team. Good stuff all around.”

What’s been more than good since Cottrell was tabbed to start the GSU program from scratch is the continued climb for the G-men.

Along with repeating as the MEC champs last winter, the Pioneers secured their first Super Region 3 championship.

When asked about expectations at GSU Johnson didn’t mince words.

“I’ll quote coach here,” Johnson said. “He says that ‘basically everybody’s goal when they came in was they wanted to be a national champ’ so top down, everybody in that room, we are all training for the same goal, individual and as a team. We want titles. That’s what we train for and more than that I mean titles come with it.

“We like to have fun and score points, but ultimately at the end of the day the titles, the accolades, and stuff like that comes with scoring and having fun out there. That’s everybody’s goal is pushing one another to accomplish individual goals and round about winning a team title.”

Johnson’s run to the 197-pound national crown was derailed last year by Indianapolis eventual champion Derek Blubaugh in the semifinals as the Pioneer fought back to finish fifth.

“I think something that I kind of enjoy about it is I know that if I, like, push myself to my limit, that the younger guys especially, if they are feeling banged up or tired or something is hard they’ll say ‘well Nick’s over here doing it. He’s 27 going on 28’ so they’re like ‘well I can’t be feeling that bad if he’s doing it,'” Johnson said.

“Or they’ll complain about something like ‘oh, my this hurts or my that hurts and I don’t know how Nick is doing it over here.’ It’s a little bit of a kind of gut check for them and an eye opener, maybe that they got more in the tank and that also motivates me because I’m like ‘they can’t see me dragging’ because I’m motivating them. They compliment each other so I like it.”

Johnson, who is set to earn his business administration degree this spring, still has a year of eligibility remaining.

“It’s still up in the air. It’s not set in stone, but it’s looking more and more likely,” Johnson said of coming back to GSU. “I’ll be a grad student. I got one more year of eligibility after this.

“I’ll graduate in May with my undergrad. Figured the way I’m seeing it is it makes no sense to leave that last year on the table without at least giving it a shot and having fun. It’s not set in stone, but it’s looking more than likely.”

Coming from the rich history of the Big Reds to basically the infancy of the Pioneers’ program is also something Johnson sees as unique.

“It’s kind of different sides of the same coin I guess where growing up in Parkersburg and PHS especially having all this tradition and kind of the forefathers and the ground has already been laid,” he said. “Now at Glenville, being a pretty new program, we don’t have that many success stories yet so it’s nice kind of still having you can be the guys that future people look back on and say hey ‘like these were the first ones and this is how they did it.’

“Both situations I’ll say are neat in their own perspectives so it’s definitely been fun still being in Glenville and kind of being part of that initial wave coming through of what I see as being a longstanding tradition of winning there. We started that way since the beginning of the team and it doesn’t look like it’s going to change anytime soon.”

Contact Jay Bennett at jbennett@newsandsentinel.com