Returning from an injury usually has the expected path. Rehabilitation is followed by those first practices and contests where everything seems a little out of form.
 
That is unless you're Alex Gordon.
 
After suffering an ACL injury during football season, the Dublin Scioto High School senior wrestler has stormed back to put himself in position to make another run at a state championship.
 
At 152 pounds, he was 20-2 and ranked fourth in the annual Brian Brakeman wrestling forecast.
 
"My goals haven't changed and once I started rehabbing, I kept the same mindset," Gordon said. "It was pretty heartbreaking after being told I couldn't wrestle, but I'm pretty much right back to where I was at this point last year."
 
A dislocated elbow ended Gordon's season a year ago at the Division I sectional tournament when he was ranked sixth in the state.
 
He was a state qualifier as a sophomore.
 
"Watching the district tournament from the stands last year drove him absolutely insane," coach Scott King said. "I knew that if he didn't come back he would be thinking, 'What if,' the rest of his life. With the effort he's made, he knows he's done everything he possibly could. So far, it's turned out for the best."