FEATURE: Year away fuels nationals run for wrestling's Mitchell, Samano

In college wrestling, extended time away from the competition mat can feel like a lifetime. But for two Averett University wrestlers, a year away from collegiate competition helped each grow as a person. They held each other accountable through the ups and the down and many obstacles along the way, and it paid off. After returning this season, both earned a spot to compete under the brightest lights at the 2026 NCAA Division III National Championships this week.

Senior Khalil Mitchell and junior Adrian Samano were the only Averett wrestlers to qualify for nationals, which will be held March 13-14 at Alliant Energy PowerHouse in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. 

“It feels good,” Mitchell said. “I'm glad I get to go with Adrian because he's honestly the one who helped me get back into the sport. When I was talking about quitting, he was in my ear all the time like, ‘Man, you should come practice with us.’ I was like, ‘Nah, I got work.’ And he would just stop by my house all the time and tell me I should come practice. And I when I eventually stepped on the mat, I started loving it again.”

Two years ago, Mitchell was riding the high of qualifying for nationals as one of six Averett wrestlers to compete in the 2024 NCAA National Championships in Wisconsin. The native of Cocoa, Florida, entered what would have been his senior season last year with a preseason national ranking. Yet, Mitchell never donned an Averett singlet that season.

“I took that season off, honestly, just for growth,” Mitchell recalled. “I was just doing a lot of dumb stuff, and I just needed to focus on school and just my life in general. Coming from a really high point in my life, it was really too much. So I just needed to step back and just grow as a person.”

Meanwhile, Samano transferred to Averett from Ferrum College in fall 2024. However, the 125-pound native of Virginia Beach, Virginia, faced an obstacle: the Cougars already had a multi-time All-American at the weight class in Mason Barrett. Samano could either burn a season of eligibility as the backup or sit out a year. He chose the latter.

Coincidentally, Mitchell and Samano lived together with several other Averett wrestling teammates. One of the hard parts during that time was seeing those housemates go to wrestling practice or compete at events during the 2024-25 season.

“We'd sit there watching our other roommates go to practice and be like, ‘Dang, man,’” Samano remembered. “We really wished we could scrap with the team. We felt like the nice car in the garage with the cover on it. We just wanted to go for a drive.”

As it turned out, that bond between the two laid the foundation for a storied comeback for both on the mat this season — even if there were bumps in the road along the way.

Not competing for Averett last season meant Mitchell and Samano had to create their own opportunities to stay active. The two hit the road together to compete unattached in several open wrestling tournaments as far away as Georgia and Tennessee.

“Honestly, it was really a great experience because me and him did it together,” Samano said. “We’d drive to opens early in the morning. I remember, he wouldn't want to go to an open sometimes and I'd be like, ‘Come on, we gotta go, we gotta go. We're going to do these things next year, right?’”

Those moments helped the two become closer friends.

“Over that time, spending time with someone in a car and driving, listening to music, just having a good time, you bond, you get close,” Samano said. “He definitely became my homie. You learn a lot about a person, and they eventually become family.”

They each found other ways to stay active. Mitchell got into boxing and mixed martial arts while going to school and working at a local restaurant. Samano trained and wrestled internationally for Puerto Rico last year at the Junior Pan American Games in Paraguay, placing third. The experience also took him to Spain, Mexico and Panama.

“Those guys were really grinding behind the scenes all year,” Averett head coach Sam Braswell said. “So when they got back, it was just about getting them back into the groove of things, getting them structured, getting them back in folkstyle wrestling shape.”

Although they remained active while away from Averett’s program for the year, it didn’t necessarily mean that it would translate back into instant success this season when they decided to return. And for Mitchell, he even questioned returning at all.

“Honestly, I wanted to quit wrestling after I took that year off,” Mitchell recalled. “They persuaded me to come back. And when I did come back, it was a rough start.”

Despite winning his first seven matches this season while moving up from the 174-pound class to 184, Mitchell then hit a lull and lost six in a row while also taking some time off along the way.

Samano also took a loss in his first match of the year while trying to shake off the rust and adjusting from freestyle back to folkstyle wrestling.

“At first I was just trying to break my habits from the other style of wrestling just to understand that I couldn't do certain things that I could do in other styles of wrestling in this style, and that people here in the United States wrestle a lot stronger, and they're not as flowy,” Samano said. “I would be trying to do stuff and people would get in on my legs. … So then I started working one-on-one with Braswell, and then we started talking and bettering my positioning.”

It worked as Samano rattled off 11 consecutive wins while maintaining a regional ranking.

Averett has built the reputation as “125 University” for its ability to develop talent at 125 pounds. In fact, with the exception of the first year of the program, Averett has qualified a 125-pound wrestler for the NCAA National Championships each year it has been held. Braswell was the first to lead the way, followed by Barrett. Ultimately that history of success at 125 was what led Samano to transfer to Averett.

“I've had other coaches before that never really understood or I felt like a black sheep to the team,” Samano said. “But when I came here, I didn't feel like that. I felt very welcomed. I felt like a natural flow into the team faster than I did from where I transferred from, which is kind of crazy. And having one-on-one talks with Braswell, I can literally talk to him about anything. And he's a real person. He's gone through stuff, too, and I can break down and cry to him and talk to him about real stuff, and he won't judge me. He won't make me feel any less. He'll be like, ‘Let's get it. Let's get our boots on and let's get it going.’ So it is really nice to have a coach like him.”

Samano finished the regular season 15-4 and rolled through the Old Dominion Athletic Conference Individual Championships to take first place. However, to get to nationals, a wrestler must finish in the top three of his weight class at the NCAA Region Championships. That wasn’t an issue for Samano, who won twice by technical fall and once by fall on his way to the region finals. His 20-4 tech fall in the semifinals clinched his first career trip to nationals. 

“Honestly, it really didn't feel real,” Samano said. “I had gotten the tech fall, and I looked back at Braswell and nobody told me anything, and I was like, ‘Did I win?’ Because the ref told me to go back to the line and I was like, ‘All right, let's keep wrestling.’ And then I was like, ‘Oh, wow, I just qualified.’ I was like, ‘Heck yeah.’”

The road to the national tournament wasn’t as easy for Mitchell. He entered the ODAC Championships on a six-match losing streak. With as much momentum as a car stuck in neutral, Mitchell flipped the switch during the conference tournament.

“I had a really good training cycle going into conference and then regionals,” Mitchell said.

Mitchell won the ODAC Championship at 184 and then entered the NCAA Region IV Championships with a positive outlook. After winning his first match, he then got pinned — sending him to the consolation side of the double-elimination bracket, an uphill battle because wrestlers must fight back through the consolation bracket just to reach third place. Mitchell won his next three matches to get to the third-place bout, where he had to face the same wrestler who pinned him earlier in the tournament — as well as earlier in the season at the Gator Boots Duals.

That’s where Mitchell’s personal growth became evident as he was set to face University of Mount Union’s Blaine Christian for the third time and a trip to the NCAA Championships on the line. This time, Mitchell didn’t just win — he dominated Christian with a 14-4 major decision.

“Khalil didn't have the storybook season he wanted,” Braswell said. “He got pinned by the kid twice. And then in order to go to nationals, he figured it out, and we sent that kid home packing.”

Braswell said the Mitchell of old would have been afraid to wrestle someone multiple times. 

“Khalil feels like his style is predictable, so to speak,” Braswell said. “That is what taking the year off did for him — it has helped him mentally. Yeah, he’s wrestled this kid twice already and he has to wrestle him again in order to make the national tournament. You could just tell he wasn't worried about that. He had one job on his mind and one job only — and he got it done. That's why we coach. That's growth. Because he could have tucked his tail and we wouldn't be here training. But the fact of he was able to not even care about that when that used to be an issue. That's what's awesome to see. Now you've fixed some part of your mental game and you're going to be able to use that later on in life after you leave Averett.”

As Mitchell prepares for his second trip to nationals and Samano heads to his first, Braswell looks forward to seeing what both can do on the big stage.

“They're both scrappers,” Braswell said. “So when you have that type of mentality, anything is possible. They're not really worried about who's in front of them. They just want to go out there and wrestle and put points on the board. That's what we look to do here at Averett wrestling, so I'm excited for them wherever we land. Last time Khalil made it to the blood rounds, so that's very exciting for him. I’m ready for him to get his All-American status. And, Adrian, this is his first time, but he's wrestled at a bunch of international events, so I don't think the lights are going to be too bright for him. He really doesn't care about that. He just wants to put on a show.”

Both wrestlers have similarly difficult paths to navigate in their respective weight brackets. Samano will face Centenary University’s Jack Thode for a chance to then take on a familiar face — No. 2 seed Mac Cafurello from Roanoke College, who edged him in the region finals. Mitchell, meanwhile has to open with Case Western Reserve University’s Mathew Gummere for a chance to advance and face No. 2 seed Kasey Ross of Wartburg College.

During the two weeks in between regionals and nationals, Mitchell and Samano have been working on the little things.

“I definitely know what to expect going into it this time,” said Mitchell, who has focused on his conditioning the past two weeks. “I know people are going to come out and it's basically a fight, like people are going out there fighting because everyone wants to become an All-American and win the tournament. I have to go out there and be prepared to fight, too. I'm 100 percent ready for it.”

When training has gotten hard, Samano reminds himself of one thing.

“Second place and eighth place look the same on paper, but the only difference between winning first,” he said. “It says champion and I want to be champion. Nobody remembers who's the second guy. So that's just been my mindset and my manifestation. And I always tell myself these delusional or manifestation thoughts and it tends to have some success, especially when I did the Puerto Rico wrestling and I took bronze. So I'm really feeling good.”

Braswell believes the ceiling for both is a national championship.

“If you want me to be quite honest, if these guys really turn it on at the right time and they stay disciplined through difficult situations, there's nobody in the country that can beat them,” Braswell said. “They're unstoppable. I honestly think their floor is All-American just because they're scrappy. And in those later rounds, when things don't go your way, it really shows who you are. Both of these guys have had to be backside warriors at some point in their career or in this season.”

As the two have talked in recent weeks, Mitchell has reminded Samano to just enjoy the moment no matter what. After all, a year ago they were away from the sport at the college level. Yet, here they are set to take the mat on the biggest stage in NCAA Division III, and Braswell couldn’t be happier for them.

“Overcoming obstacles translates to wrestling,” Braswell said. “Nobody out there can help you. It's really only you. You’ve got to go get it, and it's one of those things where it might be difficult. There might be obstacles to overcome, but they figured it out and I’m really proud of them. You can find every excuse in the book not to go to these opens, not to train together, not to keep going and for you not to have the season that you didn't want. They didn’t.”