Vote: Who should be SBLive's Upper Weight National Wrestler of the Week (1/2/2024)?
The 2023-24 high school wrestling season has crossed into 2024 with the completion of a number of high profile holiday events. Now, we invite you to help us decide who is the SBLive Sports National High School Upper Weight Wrestler of the Week.
Below are the details on the candidates we have selected for your consideration. Share this post with your friends, family, teammates and classmates and encourage everyone to support the wrestler they find most deserving. You can vote as often as you like and the winner will be announced in next week's poll. Voting ends on Sunday, January 7th at 11:59 p.m. (Pacific).
Congratulations to last week's winner: Michael Murillo of Bakersfield (California).
Here are this week's nominees:
Kollin Rath (Bethlehem Catholic) 152 – Rath (No. 5) won a battle of ranked wrestlers in the finals, 16-5, over No. 23 Thomas Stofka (First Colonial, VA) at the Tony Iasiello Memorial Christmas City Tournament.
Leonard Ashley (First Colonial, VA) 160 – Ashley, who is unranked, upset Bethlehem Catholic’s Charlie Scanlan (honorable mention), 6-3, for the gold at the Tony Iasiello Tournament. Scanlan was a Beast of the East finalist.
Asher Cunningham (State College, PA) 160 – Cunningham is ranked 14th in the nation at 157. Pennsylvania uses a different set of weights than most states and only has 13 weight classes. 160 is where Cunningham landed and he rolled to the PowerAde title with an upset victory over Delbarton, New Jersey’s Alessio Perentin (No. 7 at 165).
Kaden King (Buckeye, OH) 165 - King won an ultimate tiebreaker match, 6-5, against Kaiyon McKinney (Perkins, OH) in the finals of the Medina Invitational. King has never been ranked before, while McKinney has been in the honorable mention section numerous times.
Gage Wright (Parkersburg South, WV) 172 – No. 3 Wright gained revenge in the PowerAde finals over No. 2 Ryan Burton (St. Joe’s Regional, NJ) with a 4-2 decision. Burton had beaten Wright, 5-4, in the Beast of the East semis.
Jarrel Miller (St. Edward, OH) 189 – Miller, ranked 13th in the country, pulled off a mild upset of No. 11 Jake Dailey (Wyoming Seminary, PA), 5-3, in the PowerAde finals.
Aydan Carlson (St. Francis, MN) 189 – Carlson broke onto the scene with a third period pin of Minnetonka, Minnesota’s Marco Christiansen (HM), 5:09. Christiansen was a Double All-American at Fargo in the 182lb weight class this summer and was much higher in the rankings before his move to 189.
Sonny Kling (Canyon Springs, CA) 190 – Kling, who is making the move up from 175/182 this year is unranked at 190. His performance at the Tournament of Champions, where he pinned No. 15 Eugenio Franco (Corona del Mar, CA) in the finals, 4:21, will be changing that.
