‘A special talent’: Joliet Catholic’s Dillan Johnson is the 2023-24 Daily Southtown Boys Wrestler of the Year.

After finishing off his fourth state championship in typical dominant fashion for Joliet Catholic, senior heavyweight Dillan Johnson isn’t sure if he has wrestled his last match.

But Johnson does know that — as far as high school wrestling goes — it’s definitely mission accomplished. And now, he can finally smile about it.

“The job is done, so I have some time to sit back and enjoy it,” Johnson said. “It feels pretty good. I feel pretty proud of myself. I realize all the hard work that went into it and all the people who helped me along the way.

“I’m really able to appreciate it now.”

Johnson, the 2023-24 Daily Southtown Boys Wrestler of the Year, earned the honor for the second straight season after finishing his Joliet Catholic career with a sterling record of 145-1.

“Not only in the history of the state but in the United States, in high school wrestling history, Dillan is one of the most dominant wrestlers ever,” Joliet Catholic coach Ryan Cumbee said. “Over 90% of his wins were by pins. He was only taken down once in his career, and that was in his loss.”

That defeat came in December when Johnson dropped a 5-4 decision to Cole Mirasola from Wisconsin at the Donnybrook Invitational in Iowa.

Mirasola is another of the country’s top wrestlers. A couple weeks after beating Johnson, Mirasola stunned reigning NCAA champion Max Dean of Penn State in an Olympic Trials qualifying event.

After helping Joliet Catholic’s football team finish as the Class 5A state runner-up, Johnson had extremely limited time in the wrestling room leading up to that match against Mirasola.

“It was just tough to deal with, but I knew I had to bounce back, get in shape and work my butt off,” Johnson said. “I knew the best thing to do was get in and put in the work.”

Johnson got his opportunity for revenge in January at the Cheesehead Invitational in Wisconsin, defeating Mirasola 9-5.

“Some people might look at Dillan’s one loss as a blemish in an otherwise perfect career,” Cumbee said. “For me, that was a highlight. It showed Dillan wasn’t afraid to step up to the challenge of only having two practices before facing a world-class wrestler.

“And Dillan showed he can lose and come back. He dominated him the next time. It was great.”

Johnson also dominated the rest of his opponents, pinning all four he faced at the state meet.

He also helped the Hilltoppers get to state for the dual team meet three seasons in a row after the program had previously never done it.

Joliet Catholic won the Class 2A title in 2021-22 and finished second last season. This season, the Hilltoppers lost to Class 3A champion Mount Carmel in the quarterfinals.

“It’s been great to share this all with my teammates,” Johnson said. “I hope I’m someone who inspires the next group of athletes at Joliet Catholic to push themselves.”

Cumbee said Johnson inspired his teammates — and his coach — from day one.

“There’s that old adage that you don’t know what you have until it’s gone or you don’t appreciate what you have until you don’t have it,” Cumbee said. “But I’ve appreciated every match of Dillan’s career at Joliet Catholic because I knew from the time he started that he was a special talent.”

Johnson has signed with Wisconsin for football and wrestling but is still debating whether he will try to do both in college or pick one.

Cumbee hopes Johnson’s wrestling days are not done.

“I can look at him and realize there’s only one Dillan Johnson-caliber wrestler out there in the world right now,” Cumbee said. “The impact he can have on the sport is so great. That’s not to say he can’t have that same impact in football — it’s just not my area of expertise.

“I don’t know if we’ve seen the last wrestling match for Dillan, but I hope not.”