Delano returns to the wrestling mat after knee injury

Discoverer Brenyn Delano pins David City's Keaton Kloke Jan. 7, at CCC-Columbus.

After making it all the way to the Class A NSAA State Wrestling Championships in February, Columbus High's Brenyn Delano had his junior wrestling season cut short due to a knee injury.

Delano was able to finish with a sixth-place medal despite having to medically forfeit his final two matches of the state meet. Since then, Delano's knee has healed enough for him to be able to return to the mats.

"I'm still icing it and it's still pretty swollen," Delano said. "I've been doing light workouts, really unweighted stuff and working on flexibility with it."

Delano was recently able to represent Team Nebraska in the 2023 US Marine Corps Junior Nationals in Fargo, North Dakota, on July 17.

While Delano finished 1-2 in the event and wasn't able to place in the 132-pound freestyle division, he still sees the experience as a positive.

"It was cool to represent Nebraska with the 3,000 wrestlers from all over the county being there," Delano said. "To be able to wear Nebraska really means a lot, it's a pretty cool event. Being from Columbus was awesome because there are not many kids that go from here."

Discoverers junior Brenyn Delano takes down Fremont's Roberto Morales in the district quarterfinal at Papillion-La Vista South on Feb. 11.

Prior to his matches in North Dakota, he was able to compete in multiple other summer events including the Nebraska USA Wrestling State Freestyle meet in Lincoln on May 7. He finished with a 3-1 record and a second-place medal.

He also competed with the USA NE team in the NSWCA National duals tournament in Virginia Beach, Virginia.

"It's cool and means a lot to me because I like to travel and wrestling can really take you places," Delano said. "I feel like I've done a lot this summer, maybe not too many tournaments but I've still been practicing and focused on getting better every day."

Less than a month after the season Delano was already back on the mats despite the knee injury where he took first place in the Nebraska USA State High School Boys meet with a 4-0 record and he finished 4-0 in the Nebraska AAU State meet.

"It was cool showing that I could still get after it with my injury at state," Delano said. "It was important to help me build my confidence back up after wishing to win a state title and not accomplishing that so going in and winning those two events felt good that I could still do it."

Discoverers junior Brenyn Delano takes down Omaha Westside's Shawn Packett in the 120-pound first round match at the CHI Health Center in Omaha on Feb. 16.

With a healthy knee, Delano is using all these different events to not only get better for when the state meet comes around again but to get back into wrestling form heading into his senior season.

"All this offseason stuff helped me get ready in back into it after state last year," Delano said. "Fargo was a good way to get back into the swing of things and knock the rust off."

Delano will continue his work to get ready for his final wrestling season as a Discoverer.

"Every time I've been on the mat I've been focused in on getting better, so any extra practice really helps," Delano said. "Some kids aren't doing extra work and this will propel me and my teammates to better seasons. The more work we put in the more it pays off during the season, the extra reps and conditioning really shows in our matches."

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