National high school wrestling news, updates (1/8/2023)
It's time for our weekly spin around the nation's wrestling mats to take a look at biggest news.
*The weight classes were posted on the brackets with the additional three-pound weight allowance, hence 106 = 109. We are referring to the weight classes as they are listed by the NFHS
Poway stakes claim to Doc Buchanan title
The team race at the Doc Buchanan tournament hosted by Clovis, California this weekend came down to the top two teams in the field based on Mat Scouts team rankings (all team rankings referenced here come from those rankings), No. 4 Poway (CA) and No. 5 St. Edward (OH).
The team race was already decided when the championship finals unfolded and Poway added two champs out of five finalists, while St. Edward went one-for-two in the finals to leave the final tally at 223-206, in Poway’s favor.
The tournament director, Michael Noel, puts the finals in a running order he deems best for the fans. As there was no team race drama, the matches were selected based on other criteria. No pattern emerged based on teams or even relations, as Gilroy’s Cortez brothers (Isaiah and Elijah) had their matches separated even though they typically compete back-to-back at 126 and 132.
Poway (CA) sent five wrestlers to the finals and crowned two champs to win the Doc Buchanan Tournament last weekend.
Poway’s five finalists paced the field with No. 8 Paul Kelly (138) being the star for his squad, authoring two upsets en route to donning the cowboy hat. In the semis, Kelly mauled No. 5 Jace Roller from Bixby, Oklahoma, 18-3. For top honors, Kelly downed No. 4 Drew Gorman (Buford, Georgia), 4-2. Kelly did not place at Doc B last year and lost to Roller in the process.
At 175, No. 16 Angelo Posada proved the rankings true with a 3-1 victory over St. Edward’s No. 17 Ty Miller to improve on last year’s runner-up showing. Settling for silver for Poway were No. 13 Arseni Kikiniou (106), No. 8 Edwin Sierra (113), and No. 10 Robert Platt (215).
Poway’s other award winners were No. 13 Laird Root with the bronze at 150. Billy Townson was fourth at 126 and Elias Navida (honorable mention) was fifth at 132.
To say St. Edward’s lone champ was unexpected would be an understatement. Ryan Bennett (144) had a tough go of things at the PowerAde tournament and dropped out of the rankings. His finals opponent was No. 4 Joseph Toscano, who was Buchanan, California’s only finalist. Bennett came out ahead, 2-1, when the buzzer sounded.
Ty Miller was second at 175 for the Ohio power. Taking bronze back home were No. 8 Karson Brown (120), No. 13 Kade Brown (138), and No. 12 Jarrel Miller (190). No. 15 Ethan Timar was fourth at 113 as was Nate Gregory at 285. Lucan O’Brien was fifth at 144 and honorable mention Timmy Mazur landed in the sixth spot at 106.
No. 11 Gilroy was fourth but crowned three champions, the most of any squad. No. 4 Isaiah Cortez won a nailbiter with the host school’s Nikade Zinkin (HM), 3-2, for his second consecutive Doc B championship. Zinkin shocked No. 7 Gage Walker (Bixby) in the semis, 4-3.
No. 14 Elijah Cortez blanked Jesse Grajeda (St. John Bosco, California), 5-0, at 132. No. 1 Cody Merrill captured the heavyweight bracket with a 3-1 win over No. 9 Nicholas Sahakian (St. John Bosco).
Palm Desert, California saw two wrestlers reach the top of the podium. Brock Mantanona’s title was expected as he was a returning champion and ranked No. 1 in the nation, but not on the back of an overtime affair with No. 15 Ethan “EJ” Parco (Los Gatos, California), 3-1.
Once No. 13 Andrew Barbosa reached the 157-pound finals he was favored over No. 14 Ismael Guerrero (Bixby), and he made good on that expectation with a 4-0 shutout. To reach the finals, Barbosa pulled off a quarter-final shocker over No. 4 Grigor Cholakyan (St. John Bosco), 7-2.
JW North’s Coby Merrill rehashed his 195-pound California State final from a year ago with Poway’s Platt. Interestingly, they both competed for different schools a year ago, Merrill was at Gilroy, while Platt was at Brawley. The state final went into overtime with Platt coming out on top, 3-1. Merrill avenged that loss with a 3-2 decision of Platt to claim his hat at 215.
No. 6 Ronnie Ramirez from Walnut, California emerged as the 113-pound champ a year after failing to place at Doc B, putting a 3-2 decision of Poway’s Sierra on the final line of the bracket. Granite Hills, California’s No. 7 Collin Guffey also improved his position from a year ago when he lost in the finals with a 5-4 victory over No. 9 Joseph Antonio (St. John Bosco) at 165.
No. 6 Isaiah Quintero (El Dorado) defeated Gilroy’s No. 12 Moses Mendoza, 4-2, at 120. Canyon Springs (CA) had one champ in No. 15 Sonny Kling, who decked Trevyn Gates (Pleasant Grove, Utah), in the third period, 5:05. Gates used two upsets to reach the finals, pinning No. 12 Jarrel Miller and getting by Palm Desert’s Diego Costa (HM), 10-3.
No. 5 Ignacio Villasenor (Pomona, Colorado) joined Bennett as the only other non-Californian to strike gold at Doc B, using a 3-0 decision over Poway’s Kikiniou for glory at 106.
Southeast Polk brings home top honors from the Cheeshead Tournament
The Cheesehead tournament hosted by Kaukauna High School in Wisconsin brings together a lot of quality teams from the Mid-West and surrounding areas. They wrestle pool rounds then get slotted into a bracket based on pool performance, therefore, the point tallies are extremely high with Iowa’s No. 16 Southeast Polk (Iowa) outpacing runner-up No. 30 Joliet Catholic (Illinois), 591.5-504.
The champion count was spread around with twelve teams crowning a champ and No. 20 St. Charles East from Illinois, who finished third, being the only team having more than one titlist with three.
All three were favored and all three won with relative ease. No. 5 Dominic Munaretto (113) planted Ethan Bast (West Bend West, Wisconsin) in the first period with eight seconds left, 1:52. No. 1 Ben Davino (132) posted a 7-2 decision of No. 4 Logan Swensen (Wayzata, Minnesota). No. 10 Tyler Guerra had the closest finals match with a 4-1 decision of No. 21 Miles Anderson (Millard South, Nebraska) for the 138-pound title.
Southeast Polk’s No. 23 Carter Pearson (120) won an overtime tiebreaker match, 2-1, with Wayzata’s Luke Koenen (HM). Reaching the finals and coming up short in their title quests for Polk were Maximus Riggins (126), Brent Slade (190, HM), and Holden Hansen (215).
Other awardees for the Rams include a third-place finish from No. 16 Nico DeSalvo at 106. Fifth place showings from Garrett Kingery (144) and No. 16 Cooper Martinson (285). Matt Prine was sixth at 113, while Justis Jesuroga (132) and Wil Oberbroeckling (138) were seventh. The tournament placed up to 22 wrestlers, but we only highlighted the top eight for the Rams.
Joliet Catholic’s No. 5 Dillan Johnson stole the show at Cheesehead with an upset run through the heavyweight field that started by gaining revenge on No. 2 Cole Mirasola (West Bend West), 9-5, in the semis. Mirasola previously beat Johnson in the finals of the Dan Gable Donnybrook in early December 5-4. In the finals, Johnson used a 4-1 decision over No. 4 Koy Hopke (Amery, Wisconsin).
Mirasola’s “smaller” brother, No. 2 Connor pinned Polk’s Slade in the middle frame, 3:15, for the gold at 190. The last Wisconsin champ was No. 2 Charlie Millard from Homestead, who used a 6-2 win over No. 10 Aaron Stewart (Warren Township, Illinois), for his gold.
Stewart’s teammate, No. 8 Caleb Noble edged No. 24 Turner Ross (Simley, Minnesota), 2-1, to capture the 106lb wall chart. Ross upset Polk’s DeSalvo, 3-1, in the semis. Illinois had one more champ in Dekalb’s Jacob Luce, who captured the 165 bracket with a 3-2 win over Dominic Mann (Kasson-Mantorville, Minnesota).
Simley’s unranked Cash Raymond was probably expecting to encounter No. 9 Wyatt Duchateau (Arrowhead, Wisconsin) in the 150lb finals, but in the end, he faced off with Danny Heiser (Evansville, Wisconsin) after Heiser surprised Duchateau, 8-2. Raymond ended Heiser’s storybook run by the narrowest of margins, 10-9.
Ponderosa, Colorado’s No. 5 Tyler Eise was the 175-pound champ, pilling up a tech fall of St. Charles East’s Brody Murray, 15-0. No. 23 Caeden Olin (Millard South, Nebraska) was the 215lb titlist putting a 5-0 blanking of Polk’s Hansen in the books. Legend Ellis (Coweta, Oklahoma) flattened Polk’s Riggins in the final period at 126, 4:52.
Jefferson, Georgia traveled farther than any other team to attend the event and flew back home with one champion in Dallas Russell who posted an 8-1 decision of Ian Crapp (Fennimore, Wisconsin) in the 144lb finals.
Edmond North Dominates at the Geary Invitational
No. 3 Edmond North (Oklahoma) dominated the competition at the Geary Invitational, which is the nation’s oldest in-season high school tournament. The event took place at Stegall Long Field House in Geary and saw North outpoint its interstate rival, No. 38 Stillwater, by more than 100 points, 244.5-135.
Putting eleven wrestlers in the finals and crowning nine champions will lead to this level of dominance. Of their nine champions, only two were challenged in their finals matches.
No. 18 Devon Miller snuck past unranked Marcus Williams (Marlow, Oklahoma), 3-2, at 120lbs. At 157, Kody Routledge (No. 4 at 150) also posted a one-point win, his being over No. 9 Landyn Sommer (Stillwater).
Edmond North’s other champs were Tommy Baker (106), No. 17 Hunter Hollingsworth (138), No. 5 Layton Schneider (144), Joseph Jeter (150, HM at 157), Jude Randall (175, No. 25 at 165), No. 12 Oscar Williams (215), and No. 12 Ricky Thomas (285).
Placing second for the Huskies were Hudson Hackbarth (132) and Brayden Lucas (165). Christian Belford was third at 126 and Madden Skidmore finished fourth at 113.
Stillwater placed four wrestlers in the finals and won half of those bouts. At 132, JJ McComas (No. 6 at 126) posted a major decision of Hackbarth. No. 3 LaDarion Lockett pinned Lucas in the first period, 1:08.
Two of Stillwater’s second place finishers did not reach the finals but won their “true-second” place matches. No. 21 Aydan Thomas (113) and Stockten Allen (120) won those, while Julio Aguirre (126) and Sommer fell in their gold medal matches.
Oklahoma teams crowned two more champs with Collinsville’s Canon Acklin blanking Aguirre, 3-0, and Del City’s Liam Daniels also pitching a shutout, 7-0 over Ryan Rainey (Arlington Martin, Texas).
Randall, Texas’ unranked Michael Ruiz was the sole out of state champ, putting up an 8-5 win over Mustang, Oklahoma’s Van Smith in the finals. Ruiz upset Stillwater’s Thomas, 3-1, in the semis.
Blair Academy cruises to RWC Duals championship
No. 2 Blair Academy from New Jersey traveled to Richmond, Virginia this weekend for the Richmond Wrestling Club’s New Year’s Duals, which featured a number of National Prep Tournament teams and a rare regular season appearance from Valiant Prep in Arizona.
Valiant Prep is not part of theirs or any other state associations, so they are unable to compete against most high school teams as even some private schools require a state affiliation to compete. No. 31 Green Farms Academy in Connecticut appears to be one of those teams that need an opponent to be bona fide as they only wrestled a handful of exhibition matches versus Valiant Prep while Blair and others wrestled full duals.
Blair handled Valiant Prep, 50-9, Green Farms Academy, 47-16, No. 41 Baylor (TN), 52-12 and host St. Christopher’s 57-15.
Finishing unscathed for the Bucs were Vince Anello (113, No. 9 at 106) and No. 1 Leo Deluca (120), who were 2-0. The following grapplers were 4-0, Michael Batista (120, No. 25 at 113), No. 5 Matty Lopes (132), No. 9 Logan Rozynski (144), Paul Ognissanti (165, No. 15 at 157), William Henckel (175, No. 5 at 165), and No. 6 Carter Neves who never wrestled a match at 285, receiving four forfeits.
Eric Bocanegra (106), No. 16 Billy DeKraker (138), Barry Norman (157), and Cael Meilnik (190) were 3-1 for Blair.
Notable wins notched by Blair wrestlers were DeLuca pinning former World Champ Christian Castilo (Valiant Prep) in the third frame, 5:13, at 120. Lopes took out Castillo’s teammate, Adrian Meza, 6-4 in overtime, at 132.
Henckel defeated National Prep runner-up Xavier Giles (GFA, HM) by fall, 3:26. Rozynski put up a major decision over St. Christopher’s Walker Turley, at 144, 13-5.
DeKraker’s loss was to Valiant Prep’s Kyler Larkin, 10-4. DeKraker beat Larkin in their previous meeting at the Journeymen Spring Classic, 4-3.
Turley posted a 3-1 win over Evan Petrovich (Connellsville, Pennsylvania). Petrovich was fresh off a sixth-place finish at PowerAde where he beat St. Edward’s Ryan Bennett, who just won a Doc B title this weekend.
Green Farms Academy defeated Baylor 51-18. Three matches to spotlight were Jeremy McGrath upsetting Baylor’s Jacob Bond, 6-3, at 120. Ronnie Christolin getting by Baylor’s Titus Norman, 7-4, and Heavyweight Gabriel Garibaldi decking Baylor’s Owen Rose, 1:27.
The Clash Duals XXI title is won by St. Michael Albertville
No. 23 St. Michael Albertville (Minnesota) had little trouble winning this weekend’s Clash Duals at the La Crosse Center in La Crosse, Wisconsin. Their closest match came during the pool rounds with Staley, Missouri, which ended with a 24-point margin of victory, 41-17.
Chatfield (Minnesota) got within 29 during the championship rounds, 43-14. Vacaville, California fell 45-12 during the final round as did Zumbrota-Mazeppa (Minnesota), 46-9.
In the early pool rounds St. Michael Albertville beat Illinoi’s Loyola Academy, 51-19, and Wisconsin’s Menomonie, 49-15.
Posting undefeated 6-0 records were Lincoln Robideau (114), Chase Mills (127), Ian Schultz (139), Landon Robideau (152), Jed Wester (172), and Noah Torgerson (189). Eli Schultz was 4-1 at 106 and Jarrett Wadsen was 5-1 at 160 for St. Michael Albertville.
Unranked Chatfield surprised No. 48 Bettendorf, Iowa in the pool rounds, 39-30. Chatfield edged Vacaville in the championship rounds, 29-28.
No wrestlers went undefeated for Chatfield. The following grapplers were 5-1, Carson Rowland (145), Kail Schott (189/215), and Miles Mulhearn (285). Jameson Priebe (106) and Jack Dornack (145) were 4-2.
Thomas Sandoval (189), 6-0, and Qusai Marini (139), 4-0, were Vacaville’s only unblemished wrestlers.
Nolan Ambrose (Jackson County Central, Minnesota) pulled off the biggest upset of the tournament when he shocked No. 19 Wyatt Medlin (Washington, Illinois), 12-3, at 139lbs.
