Javani Majoor called his senior season “my most challenging.”

The Falcon 165-pound wrestler finished the year 40-0 and earned back-to-back state championships.

What could a kid, who hasn’t lost a prep match since December 2022, have found so difficult about this season?

Well, one year after Majoor broke a decades-long streak for Falcon’s wrestling program, in a manner of speaking, he broke another.

“Not many people know I tore my meniscus in my left knee last April and had surgery in May,” Majoor said. “It was my first surgery and my first big injury. I wasn’t supposed to be cleared to wrestle until January/close to regionals.”

Less than two months after becoming Falcons first state champ since 1989, Majoor didn’t know if he’d compete in his final season.

Rather than devoting the offseason honing his skills at tournaments or in Falcon’s wrestling room, Majoor spent hours at physical therapy hoping to compete this season.

“That time off the mat was depressing and lonely,” Majoor said. “It made me thrive and made me want to get back on the mat even more.”

Falcon coaches, including wrestling coach Robert Lovato, briefly “played the role of villain” as they thwarted Majoor’s attempts to return to the mat before his meniscus fully healed.

“In his mind, rehab is ready when he’s ready, but with rehab, you have to listen to the professionals who know this,” Lovato said. “We had to manage him and we had to tell him no a lot. ‘No, you can’t get on the mat.’ ‘No, you can’t wrestle.’ It was hard on him because he’s a competitor. But he listened to us.”

Majoor’s patience and diligence allowed the 165-pounder to return shortly before the season began.

But this marked the first year Majoor didn’t have an offseason to tinker with his game.

As he completed countless rehab exercises and programs, Majoor didn’t just repair his knee, he retooled his mental game.

“It was all about mindset coming into this year,” Majoor said. “I told myself that even though I didn’t have the offseason, I needed to train and stay ahead of everybody. I knew I had to do whatever necessary to get to where I needed to be to win another state title this year.”

After Majoor earned a pair of victories to start the regular season, Falcon competed in Pine Creek’s Battle of the Best tournament — which regularly features top talent from Colorado and a few notable out-of-state teams.

Lovato said they limited Majoor’s mat time at Battle of the Best to, “see how he was going to handle it.”

The Falcon senior finished 6-0 with six pins in his first tournament since his injury.

“When we go to a meet now and people see ‘Vani, they know they have someone to reckon with,” Lovato said. “‘Vani’s brought that vibe and he’s a machine.”

His performance at Battle of the Best served as a precursor for the remainder of the year as Majoor earned 29 wins by pinfall including his semifinals match at the CHSAA State Championship in February at Ball Arena.

In fact, Majoor cruised to the finals of the 4A 165-pound bracket at state.

Majoor earned a tech fall in the first period of the opening round, a 7-0 decision win in the quarterfinals and the pin in the semifinals.

“I knew I had a target on my back going into this year,” Majoor said. “I had to prove my dominance and not let anyone think they could compete with me.”

In his finals match against Erie’s Carson Hageman, Majoor built a 6-2 lead after the first period.

Majoor only allowed points on escapes in the match and earned a 9-3 decision victory to cap a perfect year.

Rather than hold up two fingers after his victory, to symbolize his back-to-back championships, Majoor flexed as he walked toward Falcon’s fan section with three fingers in the air.

Prior to Majoor’s match, teammates Robert Joseph Meza and David Burchett also won titles for the Falcons.

Two years prior, Falcon hadn’t had a state wrestling champion in 30-plus years.

Now, Lovato feels Majoor, along with Meza and Burchett, have laid a foundation for future Falcons.

“It’s like NASCAR, except instead of going from 0 to 100, we went from zero to three champs real quick,” Lovato said. “We had six or seven runners-up in the past 10 years. We thought Josiah Aldinger had it locked up the year before Javani. Then ‘Vani came along and put the icing on the cake last year. We got over the hump and that’s what it took.”