PHS senior Jake Davis looking for elusive state championship

Jake Davis has taken a new approach to wrestling this season.

“I’m going out there to beat the crap out of people,” the Powell High School senior said.

Parents of Davis’ future opponents need not worry; Davis won’t be throwing any punches or kicks this season, nor will his matches resemble anything produced by WWE. Davis is simply fed up with falling short of a Class 3A state championship. And for the past two seasons, he’s done just that with back-to-back runner-up finishes in 2013-14.

Now, with intentions on reaching the top of the mountain in his final season, Davis has brought a new aggression into the PHS wrestling room, and onto the mat with his foes.

“I already see a difference in the way I wrestle ... I’m going a little harder than I have before,” said Davis, who is undefeated this year. “I’m just being super aggressive and avoiding doing dumb things. If you’re going to beat me, you’re going to have to go through hell to do it.”

Davis has made strides since joining Panthers head coach Nate Urbach’s team as a freshman. As a 138-pound ninth grader, Davis struggled to find his way, and came out of his first prep season needing to regroup.

“That first year was a challenge for him,” Urbach said. “He was doing the little things wrong and some of the more experienced guys were getting to him.

“But he worked his tail off in the offseason that year and came back his sophomore year with some fire.”

Davis attributed his first-year struggles to nerves and hesitance to take risks during matches. But all signs of that have disappeared. Davis reached the state title match at 145 pounds as a sophomore, and again at 160 pounds last March. It was there that Davis met a familiar foe, current Cody High School senior John Beaudrie, for the sixth time of the 2013-14 campaign. Davis and Beaudrie’s wrestling history dates beyond their junior high days, and their level of competitiveness, as well as Beaudrie’s respect for Davis, has only grown.

“We’ve wrestled [each other] since we were little kids. Every year it’s always a battle,” Beaudrie said. “Every match [last season] was a dog fight. There was never a letdown or a let-up on either of us. Jake has a never-quit attitude.”

Beaudrie earned what he called “tough victories” in all six matches against Davis last season, including an escape-artist-like performance in the state championship bout. Beaudrie defeated Davis 8-7 in overtime, denying Davis gold for the second straight season.

“It just came down to the luck of the draw that day,” Beaudrie added.

Fittingly, Davis and Beaudrie could draw each other’s numbers again when the state tournament rolls back around, as both wrestlers are currently working their way through the 160-pound division.

“If that happens, I’ll be ready,” Davis said.

Davis was one of PHS’ five state finalists on Urbach’s team last year, but the only Panther not to take home a first-place medal. 

“The feeling that I got being our only finalist that didn’t win state last year, that kind of put me on the side of ‘What the hell am I doing?’” Davis said. “It didn’t feel good.”

The close loss could have crushed Davis, but the opposite seems to be the case in the early going of this season. Davis is currently on a tear, owning a 14-0 record through the first month of wrestling, and has picked up where he left off in March. He said his fast start is due in part to a crossfit training program he underwent during the summer with The Gym’s owner/head trainer Jess Campbell in Powell. He also gave up football this season to further commit to his winter sport.

“I wanted to focus all of my energy on wrestling,” Davis said. “I wanted to put as much time into it as possible. Winning state is my focus.”

Urbach said that he and Davis have mostly avoided any talk of the grappler’s aspirations of a state title this season, adding that Davis does his talking on the mat.

“We’ve discussed it, but there’s not really much to discuss ... Jake knows what’s at stake and he knows what he has to do to get it,” Urbach said. “I have nothing but confidence in Jake that he can do what he’s setting out to do.”

Next to Davis’ personal goal for a singles state title is a shot at PHS history. The Panthers are three-time defending state champions, and will give PHS its first four-time athletics state champion if they can repeat history once more at the end of the year. So while Davis is dead set on achieving his own dreams, he intends to be a part of something bigger in the process.

“I just set goals for my self. I set the goal to get a singles state championship and a team championship, and every match I wrestle gets me closer to that,” Davis said. “Do I want to win state? Yes. Is the season lost if I don’t? No. At the end of the day, the biggest thing is to be a part of something special, and helping my teammates and Powell win another state title would be special.”