High School Stars Shake Up World Team Wrestling Trials: PJ Duke Dominates

Nation’s top-ranked high school wrestlers, including PJ Duke and Jax Forrest, shine at USA Wrestling’s Senior World Team Trials and Regional Qualifiers, setting up thrilling matchups for Final X

Minisink Valley's PJ Duke won gold at 70 kilograms at the World Team Wrestling Trials, defeating two former NCAA champions in the process. / John Meore/The Journal News / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

USA Wrestling activities were in full swing over the weekend of May 16th- 18th with the Senior World Team Trials and the Central Region taking place in Louisville, Kentucky at the Norton Healthcare Sports & Learning Center, and two more regional qualifiers for Fargo, the Southern Plains in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma and the Frank E. Rader Southeast Regional in Duluth, Georgia.

The big news out of the World Team Trials for high school wrestlers came from New York’s PJ Duke, from Minisink Valley High School, winning the gold at 70 kilograms. Duke, who is ranked number one at 157 pounds in the High School on SI national rankings, placed third in the world in U20 Freestyle at 70 kilograms last summer, and won a bronze at these World Team Trials a year ago.

Duke secured his gold medal with a 4-1 decision of Bryce Andonian, a 2021 World Bronze Medalist, in the finals. To reach that bout, Duke had to take out two former NCAA Champions. The first, Antrell Taylor, fell in the quarterfinals to a 9-6 count. Duke edged Ridge Lovett in the semis, 3-2.

Duke was up at 172/175 pounds for the high school season but dropped down to 70 kilograms (roughly 154 pounds) for the U.S. Open, where he won an U20 Freestyle championship over Pennsylvania’s No. 3 Melvin Miller, and will be staying here at least through Final X.

Final X will decide the Senior World Freestyle Team on June 14th at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey. If Duke is to make that team, he will need to pull off the biggest of his life as he is set to face four-time NCAA champ and 2022 World Silver Medalist, Yianni Diakomihalis.  

Another high schooler, Pennsylvania’s No. 1 Jax Forrest, won the title at the Senior U.S. Open at 61 kilograms and will also be at Final X, gunning for a world team spot versus Victor Arujau, who was a 2023 World Champion and two-time NCAA champ.

While Ohio’s Marcus Blaze did not win the 65-kilogram bracket (roughly 143 pounds), he did provide fans with an all-star matchup during the consolation semis in a battle of national number ones with Pennsylvania’s Bo Bassett (No. 1 at 144), Blaze holds that honor at 138.

Blaze hit a takedown then rolled Bassett across his back for a four point move that would ultimately decide the 5-1 match. Blaze downed Carter Young, 4-0, in the consolation final and 9-4 in the round of 16. In the quarters, Blaze was upended by two-time NCAA gold medalist, Jesse Mendez, 4-1. Once in the consolation rounds, Blaze got by Aden Valencia, 2-1.

Bassett lost in the semis to NCAA runner-up and three-time All-American, Brock Hardy, 12-7, but did beat three-time NCAA placer, Beau Bartlett, 1-0, in the quarterfinals.

Central Region

Running concurrently with the Senior World Trials gave those fortunate enough to participate in this region an opportunity to see some legends of the sport up close and personal. It was also a chance for them to have a bit more of the spotlight than usual at one of these regional tournaments. As we did in our last notebook, we will focus on wrestlers who appear in the High School on SI National Rankings.

Bassett’s little brother, Keegan, was in the house and won the 106-pound final in a nationally ranked showdown as Bassett is rated tenth at 106 and Illinois’ Michael Rundell came in as the No. 24 guy. Bassett posted a 10-0 technical fall of Rundell for the 16U Freestyle glory. Rundell took top honors in Greco Roman.

Miller was also here but doing his work in the Junior Brackets at 157 pounds where he locked down the crown with a 10-0 tech of Indiana’s Silas Stits. A 10-2 win was the result when Miller encountered Michigan’s Blake Cosby (No. 3 at 150) in the semifinals. Cosby came back to place third.

No. 13 Tyler DeKraker wrestled this year for Chantilly in Virginia but had his state of residence listed as Pennsylvania for this affair. DeKraker took the 138-pound Junior Gold with an 11-0 tech of Bodie Abbey (Michigan) in the finals. The nomadic DeKraker, who spent his freshman year with Blair Academy in New Jersey, also used a tech in the semis over honorable mention Mason Rohr of Ohio, 10-0. Rohr ended in the third spot.

Wisconsin crowned four campions in Junior Freestyle with three of them pulling upsets to do so, Haakon Peterson (150), Sullivan Ramos (165) and Tyson Martin (285). Kellen Wolbert (No. 11 at 138) was favored to win the 144-pound title and did that with a 13-0 tech fall of Michigan’s Grayson Fuchs.

Peterson is ranked 19th at 144 pounds, so his 5-4 win over Illinois’ No. 17 Justin Wardlow qualifies as a mild upset. Ramos shined even brighter than last week when he upset Iowa’s Honorable Mention Maximus Dhabolt at the Northern Plains Regional by surprising Michigan’s No. 11 JayDen Williams, 16-8, in the semis. Ramos’ gold came versus Minnesota’s Colton Loween by tech, 10-0. Loween beat honorable mention Owen Segorski (Michigan), 10-0, in his semi. Williams beat Segorski in the third-place match.

Martin needed to author two unexpected wins to gain his gold. The final bout resulted in a 10-0 tech of honorable mention Maximus Forrester of Indiana. Another 10-0 tech preceded that over No. 26 James Hartleroad also from Indiana. Hartleroad won the Greco Roman title. Williams also secured a Greco gold.

Ohio had two junior freestyle gold medalists that are rated in the top ten of their weight designations, No. 10 Rylan Seacrist (113) and Grey Burnett (126, No. 6 at 120).  Seacrist won by tech over Illinois’ Daniel Goodwin, 10-0, in the finals. Goodwin, who won the title in Greco, shocked Loc Webber (No. 8 at 106) with an 11-10 semifinal win. Webber came back for third.

Burnett was down at 55 kilograms for the U17 U.S. Open and won the gold with one of his wins coming over Oklahoma’s No. 3 Ignacio Villasenor but moved up in weight here and won his finals bout with Indiana’s Dominic Brown on criteria, 2-2. A third gold medal came from Danny Zmorowski at 215 pounds with a fall in 1:00 over Missouri’s Carter Brown in the finals and a 3:38 pin of Illinois’ Joseph Favia. Brown won the 215-pound Greco title.

Illinois went home with two junior champs as No. 5 Jimmy Mastny (190) and Kaleb Pratt (120) reached the top of the podium. Mastny did so twice, as he also locked down the Greco Roman title over the same foe, Maryland’s No. 28 Victor Marks-Jenkins. In Freestyle, Mastny won with a 13-2 tech, but in Greco he found himself in a 6-4 dogfight.

Pratt used an upset over Ohio’s Scotty Fuller (No. 28 at 113), 9-7, then finished as a runner-up in Greco to Michigan’s Matthew Quigley, 17-13. At 132, Ohio’s Blaze Van Gundy downed Michigan’s Wyatt Lees (No. 26 at 120), 6-2, then fell to Nicholas Sorrow of Michigan in the finals, 7-5. Sorrow also defeated Van Gundy for the Greco glory, 5-1.

Indiana had two ranked grapplers win 16U championships, Noel Verduzco (120) and Kameron Hazelett (285). Verduzco is ranked 22nd at 113 and posted a 6-0 decision of West Virginia’s Chad Artman in the finals. Hazelett, who resides on the honorable mention list, claimed his gold with a 10-0 tech of Jericoh Powe (Michigan).

Southern Plains

The Oklahoma City Convention Center was the setting for four nationally ranked Oklahomans to secure Junior Freestyle golds with the highest rated being Villasenor, who beat his state mate, Eric Casula, 12-2 for the 126-pound title. Cason Craft (113), Thomas Verrette (144) and Jake Miller (150) can be found amongst the honorable mention grapplers in our national rankings report.

Craft’s crown came on a 13-2 tech of Texas’ Dylan Ota. The two would run it back in the Greco finals with the same winner, also by tech, 9-1. Verrette also doubled up on titles but over different opponents as the Freestyle win was 8-2 over Missouri’s Roman Stewart and the Greco conquest came against Kansas’ Julian Glover, 8-0. Miller’s collecting of gold was limited to Freestyle with a 6-5 decision of Jet Brown (Missouri).

Oklahoma’s honorable mention Trae Rios took home a Greco Roman gold at 175 pounds with a 13 second pin of Texas’ Jared Remington. Rios placed sixth in Freestyle, forfeiting his last matches after being pinned by the eventual champion from Texas, Jadyn Johnson (No. 17 at 165).

Aiden Cooley is a Texan that won titles in both disciplines at 215 pounds. Cooley, who is fresh off a fifth-place finish in U20 Freestyle at the U.S. Open, won the top prize in freestyle with a 24-14 tech of Oklahoma’s Jackson Blackburn. A different Oklahoma wrestler was Cooley’s Greco Roman victim as Camden Crew was disposed of by an 8-0 tech fall.

Nebraska produced a two-way champ at 165 pounds in Logan Glynn (No. 21 at 157). The same wrestler was defeated in the finals of both with Oklahoma’s Hayze Ivey losing by fall in Freestyle, 1:24, and by tech in Greco, 10-0. Glynn beat No. 29 Steel Meyers of Texas in the freestyle semis, 5-4.

No. 13 David Gleason (Missouri) was crowned the 157-pound champ after posting a 10-0 tech fall of Oklahoma’s Garon Kaiser. South Dakota’s Elijah Schunke slapped a quick fall, :37, of honorable mention Kyler Kuhn (Missouri) onto the final line of the junior heavyweight bracket.

Southeast

Iowa’s Bas Diaz scripted the greatest upset amongst those that slayed the favorites in their title quests as he came in unranked nationally at 157 pounds and walked out of the Gas South Convention Center as the Junior Freestyle champ after decking South Carolina’s Blake Butler 24 seconds into their finals match. The huge win for Diaz came before that with No 14 Dallas Russell of Georgia and a 6-6 win on criteria. Russell bounced back for third. Diaz added a Greco crown to his title haul.

Armand Williams (150 pounds) comes in second regarding his upset in the pecking order as the unranked Floridian squeezed by North Carolina’s Bentley Sly (No. 16 at 138), 7-6, in the junior brackets. No. 5 Michael Mocco stuck Illinois Justin Powell in 50 seconds at heavyweight for Florida’s second junior title in freestyle.

Florida had a grappler grab two golds in the 16U Division, Honorable Mention Jovani Solis (138). Solis beat the same guy, Virginia’s Reza Massjouni, in both finals, 10-0 in Freestyle and 11-2 in Greco.

Georgia’s DJ Clarke had a 6-2 win in the 132-pound Junior Freestyle finals win over Virginia’s Colin Martin (No. 22 at 126). Two of the Mills Brothers won 113-pound freestyle titles for Georgia, Teequavious in the junior ranks and Ariah with the 16U crowd.

Ariah is the top-ranked 106-pounder in the nation and teched South Carolina’s Montero Royal 10-0, only to be shellshocked by Royal, 8-0, in the Greco finals. Teequavious (No. 15 at 106) put a 9-2 decision on the board over Tennessee’s Tanner Tran (No. 21 at 106) in his final. Tran won the Junior Greco title at 113.

The final champs we will discuss all came in the junior slate. At 120, No. 10 Mason Jakob won an all-Tennessee freestyle final with Jose Cordero, 10-0. Honorable Menton Blake Bartos (Ohio) won the 138-pound freestyle crown with a 10-0 tech versus South Carolina’s AJ DeLaCruz.

Alabama’s Cody Kirk won a NHSCA Championship, beating a number of ranked wrestlers, but migrated down in weight for a few subsequent events, including the U.S. Open, before we could add him to the rankings. Kirk was back at 190-pounds here and carried two wall charts out the door with his belongings on the strength of a 10-0 freestyle tech versus Georgia’s Steele Brown and an identical count versus another Georgian, Dylan Reel, in Greco.

California’s Vinnie Gutierrez (No. 20 at 138) was up at 150 pounds and won the Greco championship on a 6-0 decision with Florida’s Adlan Dzhabrailov. Gutierrez was third in freestyle after suffering an upset loss to Tennessee’s William Emendorfer, 8-8. Emendorfer lost his next match to Virginia’s Elliott Crews by fall, 1:33. Gutierrez decked Crews in 50 seconds in the consolation semis. Emendorfer did not reach the podium.