By Richard Smith

West Valley Preps

Miles Nuessle is now in the Liberty wrestling history books as the program’s first three-time state champion. He will have an even larger place in Lion lore for the way he won those medals.

His first amounted to a winner-take-all match for the 182-pound title in 2016 between Nuessle and Chandler Seton Catholic senior Bridger Barker. Nuessle upset Barker 3-1 and Liberty claimed the Division II team title over Seton by a 164 to 159 margin.

That may have been the last big match Nuessle entered as an underdog. In an injury-plagued junior season, he edged Briggs Conway of Gilbert Williams Field 9-8 for the 195-pound crown.

Feb. 8-9 in Prescott Valley, Nuessle left high school wrestling at his peak. Hoping to gain enough points to win another title, coach Eric Brenton asked Nuessle to pin his way to the title for the maximum 30 points.

“This year everything was good. My cardio was great and I trained really hard,” Nuessle said. “I pinned my way through state this year. I wanted our team to win real bad and I wanted to pin everyone as quick as I could.”

Not only did the senior record four pins, he made three of them in less than two minutes. Only Marana Mountain View junior Eric Purvin held off the champ for long, before being pinned 5:17 into the final match.

“I said we need 30 points out of you at the state tournament. We need you to pin out. You’re hoping for the 30 points but realistically you know you might not get the bonus points. He didn’t bat an eye,” Brenton said.

Entering Prescott Valley at his best, Nuessle said this title was the easiest.

“I had to face Bridger Barker, who was a national champ. So that one was the hardest,” Nuessle said. “Junior year, I was injured most of the year. I was just back four weeks before state so my cardio wasn’t good. That one was kind of hard and I won by a point.”

Brenton said Nuessle is a quiet young man by nature, and a lot of their discussions were on having a larger presence in the wrestling room.

The coach said Nuessle has always been a hard worker, but this year he matured considerably.

“Having a couple injuries this year, we really needed all our guys to step up. It’s hard to ask a two-time state champ, ‘Hey I need you to step up,’ I wrote a letter to him in the summer about how important it was for him to cement his legacy. And I think he took that to heart,” Brenton said.

“The hardest thing is trying to stay on top. You have guys that are hungry to be there and willing to do anything,” Brenton said. “For Miles this year it was completely different, in the aspect of leadership. His presence was felt.”

Other than the title victory, Nuessle said his season highlight was winning the El Cajon tournament in California.

He finished the season with a 48-0 record.

“That’s what you’re in high school for, to leave your legacy. That was my goal, to leave here with everybody knowing my name,” Nuessle said.

Now he has one more tournament in his sights before he hopes to latch on with a top college program.

With less than 100 Division I programs and only about 300 colleges nationwide still having wrestling programs, every chance to differentiate yourself matters.

“I’ve been looking at a couple colleges and I know I’m going to wrestle in college somewhere,” Nuessle said. “I’m going to do nationals at Virginia Beach.  Hopefully if I can win that or at least place top three, I can raise my stock and get more colleges to look for me.”

Nuessle said he wants to get a fire science degree and be a firefighter.

Brenton said while college scholarships are rare, the tight-knit wrestling community has taken advantage of modern connectivity. Online media, watch videos and networking allow college coaches to track high school wrestlers more thorougly than they could 10 years ago.

No matter where he ends up, Nuessle has been a transformative figure for Liberty wrestling.

“When you’re thinking about the history of the state, you’re dealing with the one percenters, and that’s Miles,” Brenton said. “Everything he leaves will be in the record books. Our goal is 10, 20, 30 years from now that we have a bunch of legacies are like Miles’. Records are meant to be broken, but the way that you were while you were here and the time you spent, I think that’s what really matters — the impact he has on others. His legacy is the four or five guys he trained with this year, maybe next year, they go on to qualify and even place at state.”