Wrestling from the ground up

High school wrestling and Ben Thompson have been good for one another.

Wrestling was in its infancy as a high school sport in Arkansas when Thompson first put on his tights. But it did not take long for it to gain momentum as a growing sport and Thompson quickly became one wrestling's brightest competitors.

Thompson became interested in wrestling after attending a few sessions at the Arkansas Wrestling Academy, which is run by Pat Smith, the first wrestler to win four NCAA Division I individual national championships.

"I went to a couple of practices as an eighth-grader, and I kind of liked it," said Thompson, who is the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette's Male Academic Athlete of the Year for 2014.

"I can tell a wrestler a mile away," Little Rock Christian Coach Danny Newton said. "You can tell by their temperament and personality. ... They have to be willing to put in the hard work. It's not for the faint of heart.

"Ben had that personality, and without a doubt, his dedication and determination made him very successful."

Little Rock Christian Academy's wrestling program was only three years old when Thompson joined the team as a freshman.

"They did a really good job of pushing the sport at our school," said Thompson, who had played three years of football prior to becoming a wrestler. "It seemed like a different sport that I would enjoy."

Thompson had an inauspicious start as a freshman. He was pinned early in his first match with one of wrestling most basic moves -- a half-nelson, a maneuver in which one arm is thrust under the corresponding arm of an opponent and the hand is placed on the back of the opponent's neck.

"I was so new to the sport, and it happened so fast that I didn't know what I had done wrong or how to fix it," Thompson said. "I wasn't expected to win my first match, so I wasn't devastated by it."

His second match brought about a different result. Thompson pinned his opponent in the first period.

"He tripped backwards, and I took advantage of it," Thompson said. "It was kind of a fluke thing. It wasn't like I methodically worked it out and got the win. I just took advantage of his mistake."

From those humble beginnings, Thompson became one of the state's most successful wrestlers. As a sophomore, he finished fourth in the state's 170-pound division. As a junior, Thompson was the state runner-up in the 170-pound division. As a senior, he was the state runner-up in the 182-pound category.

"Finishing as a runner-up two years in a row is kind of rough, but it's respectable," Thompson said.

Thompson was more than respectable in his academic pursuits. He scored a 34 on the ACT and was a National Merit finalist. He earned both a National Merit Scholarship and a Presidential Scholarship at the University of Tulsa.

"I like the size of the school," Thompson said. "It's a great mix. It's not a large school and it's not a small school. They have a very good engineering program, which is what I'm interested in. Tulsa is a really great city, and it just felt like the best fit."

"To be able to carry the [academic] load he had and wrestle at the level he did was remarkable," Newton said.

Thompson said he wants to combine engineering with business for a career.

"I've always liked figuring things out and being creative at the same time," Thompson said. "I had a couple of engineering courses, and I've always loved math and science. ... Almost anything is possible for a mechanical engineer.

"I don't have everything figured out yet, but I know the world always needs more engineers."

Sports on 07/20/2014