Twelve of those grapplers advanced to the second day of competition.

Six ended up as place finishers.

Remarkably, two captured state titles.

And still, one of those wrestlers distinguished himself from everybody else when Jordan Joslyn was named the Division II Most Outstanding Wrestler the final weekend of February at MVP Arena in Albany.

Jordan Joslyn Photo by Tim Walters

That’s why the Chautauqua Lake junior is The Post-Journal/OBSERVER’s 2023 Wrestler of the Year.

Joslyn had a season for the ages, wrestling to a 42-2 record for Chautauqua Lake/Westfield/Panama/Clymer.

Multiple times, head coach Ken Rowe said that Joslyn would be hard to beat.

He was.

Joslyn named the Most Outstanding Wrestler after winning the 126-pound weight class at both the Triple-O Mechanical 27th annual Byron-Bergen Invitational Tournament and Section VI Class C/D Championships.

The son of Scott and Jen Joslyn, Jordan won the 126-pound title at the 22nd annual Patrick J. Morales Memorial Tournament and the Section VI Division II state qualifier.

A second-place finish at the third annual Linda C. Knuutila Memorial Tournament came as the result of a championship-bout loss to Niagara Falls’ Jaden Crumpler, who ended up as the Division I state champion at 126 pounds.

Joslyn’s only other loss this season came at the hands of Cobleskill-Richmondville’s Liam English at the New York State Public High School Athletic Association Dual Meet Championships.

In addition to Joslyn being named the MOW at the C/D championships at Southwestern Central School, he led the Thunderbirds to a sectional crown.

“I think a kick in the pants in the middle of the season can kind of clear your head for the end of the year,” Rowe said that weekend, noting Jordan had been battling sickness.

Joslyn then cruised through the 126-pound bracket at the Section VI Division II state qualifier in Angola.

“He’s phenomenal. I genuinely feel that if he just wrestles, he’s not beatable at his weight class,” Rowe said at Lake Shore High School. ” … If he’s mentally squared away, he’s going to have a great tournament.”

Joslyn, who was seeded fifth at 118 pounds a year ago at the state championships, but left Albany empty handed, returned to Mayville with a gold medal this winter.

In the state capital, the seventh-seeded Joslyn received a first-round bye before a 3:19 pin of Section III Marcellus/Onondaga junior Colin Sherer.

In the quarterfinals, Joslyn earned a 16-0 technical fall over Section V Honeoye Falls-Lima sophomore Waylan Winseman in 3:43 to advance to Saturday’s semifinals.

“I never sense nerves. Sometimes mid-match, he’ll get in a funk, but he rarely shows anything,” Rowe said following the first day of action at MVP Arena. “His head’s in the right spot. Hopefully that continues.”

It did continue. To open the final day, Joslyn calmly defeated defending state champion Trevor Cortright, a senior from Section IV Chenango Valley, 2-0 to advance to the final.

“We knew it was a winnable match. He obviously had a great record, but we knew he could do that,” Rowe said of Joslyn’s 2-0 victory. “The matches that he’s had this year that were tighter, in my opinion, if he keeps his head on straight, he does the same thing to a lot of kids that he’s struggled with. When his head’s on, he’s very, very hard to beat.”

Under the championship spotlight, Joslyn beat Section IV Tioga junior Gianna Silvestri, another defending state champion, 6-4 for the title, clinching the Most Outstanding Wrestler honor.

“He earned it. He beat a two-time state champ. I bet, statistically, is probably not something that happens hardly ever,” Rowe said. “He deserved it. He wrestled the way he needed to get it, and he did it.”