National high school wrestling notebook (12/12/2023)

Wyomin Seminary wins the Walsh Ironman

The Ironman tournament held at Walsh Jesuit High School in Ohio is considered by many to be the toughest in-season high school tournament in the country. Ranked teams and wrestlers are everywhere you look and chaos ensues.

With all the wild outcomes and unpredictable results, one thing was never really in doubt – Wyoming Seminary (Pennsylvania) (No. 1 in Mat Scouts team rankings) was winning the team title. If anything was surprising about that outcome, it was how easily they did it, outpointing runner-up No. 2 Blair Academy, New Jersey by almost 100 points, 268-174.5.

The Blue Knights’ four champions and seven finalists paced the field. At 113, Davis Motyka was an unlikely finalist, let alone champion. Motyka picked off the No. 3 seed, No. 9 Grey Burnett (Perrysburg, Ohio), 3-2, in the quarterfinals, and then upended the second seed, No. 6 Ayden Smith (Notre Dame-Green Pond, Pennsylvania), 3-1 in an overtime semi-final. In the finals, Motyka blanked No. 13 Hunter Taylor (Liberty, Missouri), 1-0.

Seminary’s other three champs were favored in their title bouts. No. 1 Luke Lilledahl (126) won the latest meeting in his rivalry with No. 2 Jax Forrest (Bishop McCort, Pennsylvania), 2-1, for his second straight Ironman crown. Also winning a second consecutive gold for the Blue Knights was No. 2 Jude Correa, who received a forfeit in the 215lb finals after No. 5 Rune Lawrence (Frazier, Pennsylvania) suffered an injury in his semi-final win over No. 4 Max Shulaw (S. Francis DeSales, Ohio).

The fourth champ, No. 6 Vince Bouzakis, placed eighth here last year with Notre Dame-Green Pond. The junior spent his freshmen year at Wyoming Seminary and returned this year. Bouzakis downed No. 12 Kody Routledge (Edmond North, Oklahoma), 3-2, for top honors at 150lbs.

Landing in the No. 2 position on the podium for the Blue Knights were No. 5 Shamus Regan (106), No. 2 Joe Sealy (165), and No. 25 Jake Dailey (190). Dailey performed greater than expected as a small 190lber taking out the No. 1 seed, No. 8 Nate Taylor (Green Farms Academy, Connecticut), in the semis, 3-2.

SBLive National High School Wrestling Rankings (12/7/2023)

Seminary’s other place winners were No. 4 Nathan Desmond, who was third at 120, and placing fourth at 132lbs was No. 13 Matthew Botello.

Blair Academy pushed two grapplers to the top of the podium, and both were the favorites to win their weights. No. 2 Leo DeLuca (120) defeated No. 3 Beric Jordan (Stillwater, Oklahoma), 12-0, in the Fargo Freestyle finals, this meeting was much closer with DeLuca edging Jordan, 3-2.

Heavyweight Carter Neves is ranked third in the nation and downed No. 5 Sampson Stillwell (St. Michael The Archangel, Missouri), by a major decision, 8-0, in the finals.

Blair placed five others on the awards stand, No. 19 Billy DeKraker was third at 138, placing fifth were No. 11 Paul Ognissanti (157) and No. 3 William Henckel (165), Vincenzo Anello was sixth at 106 as an honorable mention wrestler, and No. 16 Logan Rozynski was seventh at 144. Anello shocked No. 2 Ignacio Villasenor (Pomona, Colorado) in the quarters, 3-2 in the ultimate tie-breaker period.

Pennsylvania crowned three champions with none being from the same school. Super freshman, No. 1 Joe Bachmann (Faith Christian Academy) tore through his bracket with his closest match being in the finals with Regan, whom he defeated for the third time since Super 32, 5-2.

No. 2 Bo Bassett (Bishop McCort) won Super 32 at 132 lbs but decided to move up to 138 for Ironman. Bassett was up to his usual antics in getting to the finals with four technical falls and a pin before going the distance with No. 14 Omar Ayoub (Dublin Coffman, Ohio) in the title match, 5-1.

State College’s No. 1 Pierson Manville beat No. 2 Jack Consiglio (Malvern Prep, Pennsylvania), 7-2, in the 144lb final.

No. 3 Ben Davino (St. Charles East, Illinois) was given the No. 1 seed here as a returning champ. Still, in light of a Super 32 loss to No. 2 Sergio Vega (Sunnyside, Arizona) and No. 1 Marcus Blaze’s (Perrysburg) recent win over Purdue’s Matt Ramos, Davino had to be considered a slight underdog versus Blaze. Davino came out on top of Blaze, 3-2 UTB, to put another Ironman crown on his resume.

No. 1 Angelo Ferrari (Melissa, Texas) won perhaps the toughest weight at Ironman that featured the top four guys in the nation, plus the number six wrestler. In the finals, Ferrari won a nailbiter in overtime versus Sealey, 2-2 UTB. In the semis, Ferrari got by No. 6 Ethan Birden (Dublin Coffman), 5-1.

At 157, No. 15 Landyn Sommer (Stillwater) upset No. 10 Aaron Stewart (Warren Township) in the finals, 3-2.

No. 5 Gage Wright (Parkersburg South, West Virginia) took out the number one man in the land in the 175lb semis, 3-2 TB1, Tyler Eise (Ponderosa, Colorado), and used the momentum to pin No. 11 Colin Kelly (Mt. Carmel, Illinois) in the third period of their finals meeting, 4:52.

No. 11 Cade Ziola (Skutt Catholic, Nebraska) also registered a fall in the finals, in the third period as well over Seminary’s Dailey, 4:44. Ziola authored a mild upset of returning Ironman finalist, No. 7 Jarrel Miller (St. Edward, Ohio), 7-4, in the semis.

Gilroy tops the field at the Webber Lawson Classic

No. 10 Gilroy, California won the Webber Lawson Classic at Fremont High School over No. 30 Clovis, California, 3345-209.5. In all fairness, Clovis entered a mostly “B” squad.

Claiming gold for Gilroy were Gavin Pongasi (106), Dominic Bozniac (120), Moses Mendoza (126, No. 9 at 120), Isaiah Cortez (132, No. 3 at 126), Elijah Cortez (138, No. 11 at 132), Moses Mirabal (150), and Daniel Zepeda (157, No. 5 at 150).

Bozniac won a close one with Clovis’ Zander Schaefer, 4-2, and Zepeda posted a 10-6 win over Noah Reynolds (Clovis), but the others won their titles with dominating victories.

Two other wrestlers who reside in our rankings staked their claim to gold at this affair, too, No. 24 Mark Marin (Clovis) decked John H Pitman’s Jeremiah Mora in 40 seconds at 215. Brokton Borelli (Los Banos, honorable mention) also used a pin for his glory at 190 in 3:53 over Carter Vannest (John H Pitman).

Poway flexes its muscle at Eastvale Invitational

No. 5 Poway, California flexed its muscle at the Eastvale Invitational at Eleanor Roosevelt High School in California this weekend piling up 450 points. The Titans crowned nine champions and had a finalist in every weight.

Claiming top spots for Poway were No. 20 Edwin Sierra (120), No. 25 Billy Townson (132), Gavin Navida (138), Paul Kelly (144, No. 7 at 138), No. 13 Laird Root (150), Aliaksander Kikiniou (165), No. 15 Angelo Posda (175), Dominic Dotson (190), and Adam Farha (285).

Close matches were contested by Kelly with a 4-0 win over teammate Marco Carini, Kikiniou 2-1 in TB 1 over Etiwanda’s Evan Manzo, Posada 6-2 versus Palm Desert’s David Alonso (who is just outside of the SB Live National Rankings), and Dotson who got by Nick Tatar (Palm Desert), 9-6.

In addition to Carini, the following Titans finished second, Elias Briones (106), Arseni Kikiniou (113), Robert Jones (126, HM), Jack Estevez (157), and Colin Finney (215). Jones fell to Martin Luther King’s Mateo Ochoa, 5-3, in his finals match.

Heseperia’s Paulo Valdez (HM) won the 113lb final 12-1 over Arseni Kikiniou.

Southeast Polk conquers the field at Baltzley Invitational

No. 16 Southeast Polk, Iowa figured they’d be battling No. 41 Bettendorf, Iowa for the team crown at Johnston High School, but in the end, it was Indianola, Iowa who was second with Bettendorf finishing fourth.

Southeast Polk had champs in half the weight classes, Indianola had none, and Bettendorf saw two wrestlers reach the top position.

Regarding the national rankings, there were zero upsets at the Baltzley Invitational, which is odd when this level of talent gathers.

Champions for the Rams were Nico DeSalvo (106), No. 23 Carter Pearson (120), Maximus Riggins (126), Logan Trenary (150), Brent Slade (190, HM), Holden Hansen (215), and No. 18 Cooper Martinson (285).

DeSalvo downed Dylan Munson (Prairie, Cedar Rapids), 8-5, and Hanson had a two-point win over Mason Roethler (Johnston), 3-1. The rest of the Rams cruised to easy victories.

Bettendorf’s two champs were Timothy Koester (No. 24 at 126), who won the 132lb crown with a 7-4 win over his teammate, Jayce Luna. Cody Trevino won a 3-2 match in the first tiebreaker over Wil Oberbroeckling (Southeast Polk) for the 138lb gold.

Norwalk’s Tyer Harper (No. 9 at 106) moved up to 113lbs and captured that title with a 5-2 win over Fargo placer Mac Crosson (Indianola).

Waukee Northwest wins Council Bluffs Wrestling Classic

Staying in Iowa we move to the Mid-America Center and the Council Bluffs Wrestling Classic won by Waukee Northwest, Iowa over Fort Dodge, Iowa 427-416.5.

Twelve different schools took titles home with only two winning multiple titles, Fort Dodge and Millard South, Nebraska. Waukee Northwest’s lone champ was No. 23 Koufax Christensen who pinned Brenyn Delano (Columbus, Iowa) in 5:00 for the 126lb gold.

Fort Dodge’s Koy Davidson won a 2-1 encounter with Waukee Northwest’s Carter Freeman at 138. No. 7 Dreshaun Ross needed overtime, 3-1, to gain his edge over No. 14 Cy Kruse (Totino-Grace, Minnesota).

Millard South’s unranked Kiernan Meink claimed the 120lb wall chart with a 7-0 shutout of No. 22 Dru Ayala (Fort Dodge) in the biggest upset of this tournament. His teammate Logan Glyn joined him in the winner’s circle with a 2:59 fall of Danny Kinsella (Treynor, Iowa).

No. 7 Navarro Schunke (Brandon Valley, South Dakota) won the heavyweight title with a 13-5 major over Orion Parker (Plattsmouth, Nebraska).

Other notable finals matches involving wrestlers on the periphery of the national rankings were all won by Iowans. At 106, Lewis Central’s Weston Porter downed Cole Caniglia (Creighton Prep, Nebraska), 8-4, who has appeared in the 106lb rankings.

Iowa City West’s Alexander Pierce (113) won a battle of Fargo Greco-Roman placers over Cadyn Coyle (Bennington, Nebraska), 3-2. Glenwood’s Matt Beem defeated Easton Broxterman (Washburn Rural, Kansas), 3-2, at 132. Ame’s Danarii Mickel staked claim to the 190lb championship with a 6-2 decision of Adonis Bonair (Creighton Prep).

Dundee outpaces the field at Grappler Gold Invitational

No. 50 Dundee, Michigan hosted the Grappler Gold Invitational this weekend and improved their national stock by outpacing fellow Michigan squads No. 39 Lowell and No. 34 Hartland. In fact, the rankings were inversed with Dundee (186) keeping the title in their house, Lowell being second with 174 and Hartland in the third spot with 161 points.

This was another tournament that had no upsets that impacted the individual national rankings.

Dundee’s champions were Bryan Sterling, who beat his previously ranked teammate (at 106), Mason Haines, 3-2, at 113. Blake Cosby (No. 23 at 138) won the 144lb weight with a 5-0 showing over Lowell’s Owen Segorski. Donny Beaufait won the 150lb title over a familiar foe, Dundee’s Trey Parker, 3-1. Kole Katschor beat Hartland’s Vinnie Abbey, 5-2, for gold at 157.

Lowell left the building with two titles in hand, Jarrett Smith (106) and Casey Engle (190). Hartland’s Bohdan Abbey (126) was his squad’s lone champ, and he needed overtime to get it done, 4-3, over Dundee’s Kade Kluce.

Two more finals matches involved wrestlers who have been ranked or are very close to that designation. Fargo placer Nicholas Sorrow (Hudson Area, Michigan) found himself in a tight match with Jack Guerrero (Allendale, Michigan) at 120lbs and came away with a 2-0 victory.

At 175, Max Macklem (Goodrich, Michigan) throttled James Butzier (Hartland), 14-3.

Add us as a preferred source on Google