Late last season, soon-to-be national champion and then-freshman J’den Cox pulled then-redshirt freshman Lavion Mayes aside after practice. Cox knew that Mayes had been struggling on bottom in duals and he had a piece of advice for his teammate.
“Why don’t you just stand up and get out?” Cox said.
Cox’s wise words applied to more than just Mayes’ underneath game. Mayes said he had struggled with his confidence on the mat during his freshman year and that he credits Cox for helping him get out of his own way.
“My mentality has changed so much just from that conversation,” Mayes said. “Sitting down with J’den and talking with him about what I could do to improve helped me figure it out. I’m confident and it’s working.”
Mayes ended up winning Most Improved Wrestler honors from his coaches at the end of last year.
He said the recognition had more to do with the change in his attitude than any physical improvement.
“I don’t think I was the most improved wrestler strength-wise or skill-wise. I think it had a lot to do with how my mentality changed,” Mayes said. “I did the extra workouts, that’s when my confidence started to build.”
Mayes has improved even more this year. He said after a dual in late January that “it’s going to take an act of God to beat me.”
He hasn’t lost yet.
Mayes is the No. 5 ranked wrestler in the nation, and at 24-1, he’s become an anchor on the Missouri squad, and he feels like he’s had it in him all along.
“I expect to win my matches,” Mayes said. “Whenever you expect to win, it looks like improvement, but you might have had the talent all along. I feel like I’ve always had the talent, I just needed a little confidence.”
No. 9 Willie Miklus has noticed Mayes’ newborn confidence.
“He’s way more confident when he steps out onto the mat,” Miklus said. “It kind of vibrates off of him. He walks with his head a little bit higher and that’s awesome. It’s fun to see him making the strides that he is.”
Mayes said confidence plays a crucial role in the success of the sport’s best wrestlers.
“You don’t see many of the best guys second-guess themselves out there on the mat,” Mayes said.
Then he paused.
“I don’t know why I’m saying ‘they.’ I should be saying ‘we.’ We are the best guys.”
After winning the team title at the 2015 NWCA National Duals on Sunday, the Tigers really are “the best guys.”
As the only undefeated team left in the nation, the program is ranked No. 1.
Mayes said that the team only celebrated for “about five minutes.”
He and the rest of the Tiger grapplers are fixated on their next challenge: The Mid-American Conference Championships, which are set for March 7-8 here in Columbia.
Mayes went into last year’s MAC Championships as the No. 4 seed. He had lost to the No. 1, 2 and 3 seeds earlier in the year and ended up finishing fourth in the tournament.
This year, Mayes heads into the MAC Championships as the No. 2 seed, having only lost to the No. 1 seed, Zach Horan of Central Michigan. In fact, the loss to Horan is the only blemish on Mayes’ 24-1 record.
“That was a bitter loss,” Mayes said. “Especially because I’ve beaten guys that have beaten him.”
Despite having lost the close match against Horan, Mayes is confident about what he feels he can accomplish at this year’s MAC tournament.
“I expect to win the MAC this year, even though I’m the No. 2 seed,” he said. “I’m ready. I don’t think there’s one person in the entire bracket that I can’t takedown.”
Beyond the MAC Championships lies the NCAA National Championships.
Mayes said that he talked to Missouri coach Brian Smith about the National Championships after a recent practice. Midway through the conversation, Smith turned to Mayes and put it bluntly: “You only get four opportunities. You know that, right?”
Mayes said of that conversation: “That was the truest statement I’d ever heard. Everything in our sport builds up to those four matches at Nationals.”