In the mindset of Quintraylon Johnson, a wrestling match begins way before he sets foot on a mat. For example, in last Saturday’s Class 5A Region II meet at the Ellis Davis Field House, it started around 45 minutes before his championship match.
While still in warmups, Johnson takes 10 steps, turns around on a dime, then takes 10 steps back to where he started, continually repeating this routine. The Kimball senior only takes brief stops to take off his warmup sweater and put on his headgear.
“I have got to keep my feet moving. It’s just what I do. It makes me feel comfortable and good before the match,” Johnson said. “I picked this up watching videos of (former U.S. Olympic gold medalist) Jordan Burroughs.”
Dallas Kimball wrestler Quintraylon Johnson exhibits a determined focus prior to his match in the finals of the 175 lb. weight class 5A Region ll meet held at Ellis Davis Field House, 9191 S. Polk Street in Dallas on February 7, 2026.
Steve Hamm
Johnson has picked up similar information in the past 3½ years and it made him one of the best high school wrestlers in the state of Texas. Quickly.
Johnson is 36-1 this season, wrestling in the 175-pound weight class, finishing second at the 5A-II meet to qualify for the UIL State Wrestling Championships, which begin at 8:30 a.m. Friday at the Berry Center in Cypress, near Houston.
This is Johnson’s third time to qualify for state and coming off placing third in the Class 5A 165-pound division in 2025. Johnson’s younger brother, Jumario Abston, has also qualified at 120 pounds. The championship round is scheduled to begin at 4:45 p.m. Saturday at the Berry Center.
High School Sports
Johnson has accomplished a lot considering he didn’t compete in the sport until he was a freshman at Kimball while many of his competitors have been wrestling since early in grade school. Right now however, Johnson is not in a reflective mood on his accomplishments.
“I know the job is not finished. I know I have to keep going and keep wrestling,” Johnson said. “I haven’t won anything big yet.”
Before Johnson enrolled at Kimball he had no interest in wrestling at all. Not even the entertainment-heavy professional variety.
Johnson said when he was a freshman his favorite sport was football. He would go on to have a solid gridiron career for the Knights at defensive end and linebacker, overcoming what would appear to be a height disadvantage. Johnson, who is 5-foot-7, had 67 tackles, seven for loss, with 38 quarterback hurries and three sacks as Kimball went 7-4 and made the playoffs this past fall.
Dallas Kimball wrestler Quintraylon Johnson, right, plans his strategy against Frisco Reedy wrestler Leo Ashurov as the two competed in the finals of the 175 lb. weight class 5A Region ll meet held at Ellis Davis Field House, 9191 S. Polk Street in Dallas on February 7, 2026.
Steve Hamm
Back when Johnson was a freshman, Kimball wrestling coach Devin “Buck” Fortson saw something in Johnson that made him feel he would be a good wrestler.
Fortson is a former wrestling and football standout at Kimball. He was a college wrestler at Richland College (now Dallas College Richland) and played college football at West Texas State and the defunct program at Ranger Junior College. Fortson has been Kimball’s head wrestling coach since the program was revived in 1997, one year before wrestling became a UIL sport.
“I see me in him. I’m a football loving person who loves wrestling too, except a little heavier,” Fortson said. “I thought he could be that same person.”
Johnson said he decided to pick up wrestling because in the Kimball football program, varsity players have to compete in another sport.
Johnson turned out to be a near-perfect fit for wrestling. In his first competition as a freshman, a junior-varsity tournament on Nov. 18, 2022 at Northwest Eaton, Johnson won his weight class. He would be promoted to varsity midway through his freshman season.
Johnson said the work he was putting in was starting to show for him as a sophomore, when he qualified for state and went 1-2 in the tournament. He added that he now watches professional wrestling and will put in elements of that style when he can.
Since his sophomore year, he said the best part of wrestling is simply winning.
“The best feeling is getting your hand raised at the end of a match,” Johnson said.
Johnson’s success led to him being a part of Team Texas at the USMC 16-and-under Junior Nationals in July in Fargo, N.D., which led him to be part of a viral video.
Johnson went 2-2 in the tournament, but the highlight was during a match against Nicholas Hernandez of California that Johnson eventually won 19-16. At the end of the second period and from a standing position, Johnson leaped over Hernandez’s head and locked his arms around Hernandez’s waist on the way down for a takedown. It’s a maneuver called the flying squirrel and while it’s illegal in folkstyle wrestling in high school and college, it can be used in freestyle Olympic competition that could be in Johnson’s future.
“I saw the video on TikTok. I got hops,” said Johnson with a laugh.
Johnson does enter this year’s state competition on the heels of a rare loss. The 5A-II 175-pound final was a battle of the undefeated against Frisco Reedy’s Leo Ashurov. Johnson beat Ashurov twice in the 2025 postseason, but on Saturday, Ashurov got an early takedown and used strong defensive tactics for a 4-2 win.
Johnson said he wrestled too much of Ashurov’s game and not enough of his own. Johnson’s first-round match at state on Friday will be against Mission Sharyland’s Valeriano Elizondo (6-2) while Ashurov (20-0) will open against Corpus Christi Carroll’s Koby Soliz (28-4).
Fortson said how Johnson reacted to Saturday’s loss reminds him of what happened to former Kimball girls standout Destiny Miles in 2020. Miles lost a region final that year, Frisco Liberty’s Princess Egbuchunam, but regrouped at state and won a rematch in the 165-pound state championship match by pin in 1 minute and 17 seconds to repeat as a state champion, the first Dallas ISD wrestler of any gender to win two state titles.
“After Destiny lost she said, ‘I got this. I’m getting my hand raised again. I’m going to win this for my neighborhood,’” Fortson said. “What’s happening with Quintraylon is very similar.”
After high school, Johnson could be heading to big-time college wrestling. Johnson said he has received offers from Nebraska and Oklahoma State. However, Fortson said, because of the influence of name, image and likeness (NIL) it has become more difficult for high school wrestlers to earn college scholarships, adding that NCAA programs would rather recruit transfers from junior colleges and NAIA programs.
Fortson said Johnson is smart and should do fine in college when it comes to academics. Johnson said wrestling is a major reason for the way his life is going now and life without the sport could have been different and worse.
“I ain’t going to lie. I’m in a bad neighborhood,” Johnson said. “Without wrestling, it would have taken me down the wrong path. I probably would have dropped out of school, smoked weed.”
Johnson has extra motivation to excel this weekend, and in the future, with wrestling because of his mother, Latrisha. Fortson said he has felt responsible to help the Johnson family out as Latrisha has raised Quintraylon as a single parent.
Latrisha was not able to attend the 5A-II meet because of an illness. Quintraylon said this illness makes it unlikely his mother will be able to attend the state championships as well.
“I know I have to do it for her and bring the gold medal back for her,” Johnson said. “She said she’s proud of me and wants me to keep going with wrestling.”
Dallas Kimball wrestler Quintraylon Johnson circles the mat prior to the start of his match against Frisco Reedy wrestler Leo Ashurov as the two competed in the finals of the 175 lb. weight class 5A Region ll meet held at Ellis Davis Field House, 9191 S. Polk Street in Dallas on February 7, 2026.
Steve Hamm
Why so many of the area’s longest-tenured, successful coaches are leaving their programsDallas-area Texas high school football coaching carousel: Tracking changes ahead of 2026
Find more high school sports coverage from The Dallas Morning News here.