Malachi Smith has a goal to earn a Division I scholarship to wrestle at a Division I school and, based on his trajectory at Byron-Bergen, you would be foolish to bet against him.
As an eight-grader he took sixth place in Section V B2 division. As a freshman he advanced to third place. One year ago, in his sophomore season, he was second in B2 at 172 lb. and in the Section V Championships before eventually finishing seventh at the New York State Intersectional Championships and State Qualifier.
In this, his junior campaign wrestling in the 189 lb. weight class, Smith has already been named Outstanding Wrestler at the 27th annual Byron-Bergen Tournament and the Fred Large Memorial Tournament after taking first place in his weight class at both events. As of January 23, he is ranked second at 189 lb. in Section V according to local wrestling website https://www.armdrag.com.
“I definitely take pride in it (being ranked),” Smith said. “As I’ve gotten older in the sport, I’ve gotten to many different levels and it’s been quite a ride. I’m super excited to see what happens this year at states.”
“He’s awesome to have in the room and is a leader in every way,” co-head coach Rich Hannan said. “If a kid needs to be picked up, Malachi is in his ear, but he also leads by example as the hardest working kid in our program and his results on the mat speak for themselves.
“He’s also a great student and that’s a huge piece of it, so he does have lofty goals and going into his senior year, he definitely wants to wrestle at the next level.”
Byron-Bergen has four seniors and two juniors, so Smith has taken on a leadership role in his first year as an upperclassman, but his fifth with the varsity.
“We’re a young team, which we’ve always kind of been,” Smith said. “I’m exceedingly proud of everybody who has come out – everybody is tough, they’re ready to wrestle and the mindset is not only about the individual, but the team getting better every day, learning about each other and how to support each other better, becoming better athletes and becoming better men. I think we’ve done a great job with that so far.”
Two of those underclassmen he has helped along are his two brothers, sophomore Roman Smith (138 lb.) and freshman Solomon Smith (132 lb.), who are also on the varsity squad.
“I have four brothers total, so we wrestle a lot (at home) and we have a lot of fun. Our coaches are always willing to go the extra mile to stay with us extra time if we want to learn something specific – that’s what has really helped us over the years.”
Any athlete who wants to compete at the college level needs to commit almost year-round to the sport and Smith used this past summer to work with several local clinics and people to get better and ready for this season.
“I was at a Paddock facility down in Warsaw and I worked with the former captain of our team Zach Hannan, our coach’s son. He knows a ton and my other coaches worked with me over the summer too, so that was really helpful. And I went to a camp in Batavia as well.
“I’ll go to college on some sort of scholarship – that’s what I’m looking for and working towards, but if it doesn’t work out then I always intend to keep wrestling in the future.”
As for how this wrestling journey started, Smith reminisced. “When I was a younger kid, I had a tough time in school (so) I thought it (wrestling) would teach me how to fight. And so, I came to wrestling as a youth and the older kids were really, really nice to me I remember and it made me want to stay. I just wanted to feel like I was a part of something and it really has felt that way.”
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