Excelsior Springs graduate Damon Ashworth had a wrestling career some can only dream of.
He began his career wrestling for Minnesota West Community and Technical College in 2022 and he made it all the way to the semifinals before losing his final three matches and taking sixth in the 165-pound weight class at the National Junior College Athletic Association Wrestling Championships.
After that, two of his former Excelsior Springs teammates convinced him to transfer to the University of Central Missouri, where he made his mark in the NCAA Division II landscape.
He earned All-American status again as a sophomore and a junior for the Mules, finishing in fifth and fourth place respectively at the NCAA Division II Wrestling Championships at 184 pounds.
This past season, however, was his best yet. As the No. 4 seed in the 184-pound division of the Wrestling Championships, Ashworth made it to the championship match and was one win away from accomplishing his ultimate goal of becoming a national champion. However, he fell to McKendree University’s Darion Johnson by a 17-2 tech fall, finishing his career as a runner-up and a four-time All-American.
“I think this last year I just wrestled with a lot of confidence,” said Ashworth, who earned four all-state medals at Excelsior Springs, including a state title as a junior. “I felt like I was pretty established coming into this last year, but with Coach (Cody) Garcia and my other coaches, it made it turn out well along the way.
I really wanted to go out on top, to be honest with you. But still looking back at it, I think I was one of only a few guys to ever do that in the history of the school. I’m pretty satisfied.”
In the 2026 Wrestling Championships, Ashworth started off with a couple of close matches. A third-period takedown with 44 seconds left led to a 4-2 win over Colorado School of Mines’ Wyatt Reisz in the first round. The Mules senior then followed that up by edging Nebraska-Kearney’s Kaden Hart 4-1 in the quarterfinals.
Having two competitive matches set him up for a dominant pinfall win in 1 minute and 8 seconds in the semifinals against Wisconsin Parkside’s Sullivan Ramos, clinching his best performance of his college career.
“I knew those matches were gonna be like that, too, because I’d wrestled those kids earlier in the year and had close matches as well,” Ashworth said of his wins over Reisz and Hart. “I just happened to get in on some good shots late in the third and get the points. But I felt pretty sharp by the time the semis rolled around. I felt like I was already pretty battle-tested on the weekend. And that probably contributed to my success in that match a little bit as well.”
During the tournament, Ashworth said his sweep single-leg takedowns and timeliness of his shots helped him in the neutral position, but it was the top position where he found the most success.
“I felt like on top, my top game was probably what helped me out the most,” Ashworth said. “I think I showed that in my semi-match with that cradle.”
He added that gaining the top position was important at the college level as it was significantly more difficult to escape from bottom than it was in high school.
“I think one thing that changed a lot for me from high school to college was I just felt like people were a lot better on top,” Ashworth said, “so bottom was a struggle initially, but the further I got, I started to get a lot better on top, and I could really win matches just by basically holding people down with a couple of takedowns.
“If you can get really good and aggressive on top, I think that is a big difference.”
Ashworth plans on imparting some of the knowledge he learned at the college level on younger wrestlers as he plans on being a coach. He said he learned a lot from Garcia, and Ashworth hopes to model his coaching style after him.
“I think that’ll be something I really have a passion for,” Ashworth said. “I’m talking to a couple of different high schools about being an assistant coach. But then I also sometimes think about being a college coach because I do like competing. It’s a lot more competitive to be a college coach.
“I’m not sure yet on what exact move I’m going to make, but I know I’m going to stay in the sport. I’m going to be around it.”