At a tournament the size of the WPIAL Wrestling Championships, some of the best stories are barely noticed.

One such story last weekend involved senior Mars 172-pounder Christian Scheller.

Sidelined early in the season with a knee injury, Scheller returned to the mat and wrestled much of the campaign with a torn ACL. Still, he fought through and wound up becoming a section champion.

This being his final season, Scheller’s ultimate goal was to get to Hershey this weekend and wind up on the podium as a state placer.

He didn’t make it — but not because of anything he did wrong.

During the first night of the WPIAL tourney, Scheller suffered an injury to his other knee. The Mars coaches had no idea as to the extent of the injury, but when Scheller woke up the next morning in his hotel room, he could barely walk.

But he refused to end his season that way.

Scheller returned to the Canon-McMillan gym and won two matches in the consolation round, pinned Manuel Santos of Seneca Valley and scoring a major decision over Ryan Walsh of Bethel Park.

“Honestly, I have no idea how he did that,” Mars wrestling coach Bob Jox said. “He was practically willing himself through.

Scheller wrestled with both knees heavily taped and wrapped. He reached the fourth round of consolations, when a win would have landed him in the consolation final while punching his ticket to the state tournament.

Not to be.

Scheller was pinned by Logan Hoffman of Belle Vernon, ending his dream of getting to Hershey.

Back in the practice area behind the stands, he sat at the top of a small set of bleachers, head in his hands, still in his singlet. Mars coaches, family members and supporters tried to console him.

When someone is this passionate about his sport and it’s his final high school season, only to see the end of that season fall victim to injury ... there’s njust no accepting that.

And Scheller didn’t.

This kid could have easily called it a day, headed home, simply forfeit the fifth-sixth place match — which would have been the final match of his high school career regardless.

The dream is shattered. Just take care of your knees and call it quits.

Not this kid.

Scheller took to the mat against Butler’s Mickey Kreinbucher, a 30-win wrestler in his own right. He wound up winning the bout by a 12-5 decision to take fifth place, ending his season with a 23-5 record.

While it wasn’t the way Scheller wanted his high school wrestling career to end, it was a fitting end. It was a win.

Scheller's victory in that final match was probably noticed by few in the stands at the time. Most eyes were on the WPIAL championship matches.

But that 12-5 win spoke volumes for who Christian Scheller is — one tough, dedicated, determined and courageous high school athlete.

No medal or award can top that.

John Enrietto is sports editor of the Butler Eagle