Athlete of the Week: Ben Kaiser, Versailles

Kaiser is a freshman wrestler at Versailles. At the Division III state tournament, he created Ohio history by becoming the first freshman to win the individual championship in the 285-pound heavyweight division.

For his efforts, Kaiser was named the Dayton Daily News Athlete of the Week for March 9 through March 15, earning the honor through reader voting at DaytonDailyNews.com.

“It was pretty cool to hear that I got nominated and that a lot of my friends and people from our area are voting for me,” Kaiser said.

He was not aware of his chance to create history and only learned of the feat after his accomplishment.

“I’m kind of glad they didn’t tell me until afterwards. If I knew going into that match, I would just have put more pressure on me,” Kaiser said.

The road was challenging for Kaiser. And he had a flare for dramatics that made several more memories along the way.

He won his first round and quarterfinal matches both by one-point decisions. He got a takedown with one second remaining to win 6-5 and advance into the quarterfinals, where he also got a 2-1 win.

His semifinal match against Will Odenthal of Nelsonville-York played out with Kaiser trailing most of the match. He turned the tide and secured a needed pin with, again, one second left in the match to win.

In the finals he faced Indian Lake’s Christopher Timms for the third time this postseason and prevailed 4-3. He said he remained patient into the final period where he broke through with a takedown that allowed him to ride out most of the remaining clock.

“I wanted to go to state. It was my dream, but placing at state? At the beginning of the year it kind of seemed like a fantasy to me,” Kaiser said. “But throughout the year, I started to gain confidence and started to believe in myself, then when I got to the postseason, I just took it one week at a time and before I knew it, I was at the Schottenstein Center. Pretty cool and I accomplished a lot of my goals.”

Kaiser is also the first Versailles wrestler to win a state title since 1989.

He said each step came with an increasing amount of nerves, from walking out of the tunnel and seeing pictures of multi-time state champions on the walls to the increasing amount of people in attendance for each round.

When it was time to wrestle in the finals, he said his performances helped put an end to that energy.

Kaiser didn’t believe having a chance to become a four-time state champion would be an option, but recognizes he can’t get there without the first and that’s now in his pocket. He said he hopes to continue pushing himself mentally and learn more about the sports as he goes into his sophomore season as the champion.

“All those nervous times I had before my matches, it was just a huge mental battle, and just God really helped me out,” he said. “He was definitely one of the main reasons I got a state title. I couldn’t have done it without him.”

Send us your nominations

Where to find our coverage

Want to find the latest news on your smartphone? Download the new and improved Dayton Daily News app from your app store.