Fort Mill’s Josh Cizmadia, top, goes to pin his Hillcrest opponent during the Jackets playoff match up this past season. Cizmadia has signed to wrestle at Lander University.

FORT MILL – Senior Josh Cizmadia took the hard way to Lander University, which included going through two ACC wrestlers.

                Cizmadia, 19, will be heading to Lander to wrestle this fall and said the two people that helped him get there the most on the mat was three-time state champion and NC State wrestler AJ Leitten and one-time state champion and Virginia Tech wrestler Jake Hart.

                “I used to get the crap beat out of me,” he said. “But having those guys in the (wrestling) room showed me where I needed to be and inspired me to get up on that (state champion) wall.”

                Fort Mill wrestling head coach Chris Brock said facing those two caliber wrestlers in Leitten and Hart made Cizmadia stronger.

                “Certainly, seeing him deal with them everyday and seeing him comeback everyday says a lot about the kid,” Brock said. “By his senior year he had given so much to the sport he had gotten better at it.”

                Cizmadia is the latest Fort Mill wrestler to win a state championship and get his likeness on the wall outside of the wrestling room. He won a state championship at 160-pounds this past season going 51-3. He ended his prep career with 135 career wins.

                “There is no substitute for quality senior leadership,” Brock said. “We had a lot of success with Josh in the program. He willed himself into a state champion wrestler. He had the work ethic, determination and drive.”

                The goal for Cizmadia is to bump up to wrestle at 174-pounds in college. He looked at Virginia Military Institute and the Citadel, but talking with the coaches at Lander, he said he felt the Greenwood school would be best for him.

                “I started looking at the campus and everything they had to offer,” he said. “They are a top Division II school.”

                Cizmadia plans on majoring in math and is doing a duel enrollment with Clemson University as well, meaning he will be graduating with a degree in mathematics from Lander and a degree in mechanical engineering from Clemson.

                Cizmadia has been apart of the Fort Mill wrestling program for the past decade starting when he was in elementary and on the varsity squad for the past three seasons.

Mac Banks: mac@fortmillprepsports.com, @fortprep