Mills Brothers Make History And Stars Emerge at Massive NHSCA Nationals in Virginia Beach

The boys’ version of the NHSCAs Wrestling Nationals in Virginia Beach, Virginia is monstrous in size. Essentially, they ran four incredibly large tournaments over the course of three days that culminated in Sunday Morning’s 10 a.m. call for the Championship Finals.

With four boys’ matches and a girls final all unfolding at once, it was impossible to stay up to date. We chose finals matches we wanted to catch live then spent the rest of yesterday into Monday watching the finals we wanted to see but had not been able to view live.

That many matches and finals means it would take us the length of a scroll to inform you of all the happenings from the weekend, so for times sake, yours and ours, we are just going to spotlight the wrestlers who reached the finals and appear in our Final National Rankings.

Antonio Mills Gets 4th NHSCA Title, Ariah his first, as Mills Brothers Star

Georgia’s Mills Brothers, specifically, Antonio stole the show, as he went home as a four-time NHSCA National Champion (winning a crown in each grade level), and Ariah put the first of what he hopes will be four as he put the 113-pound freshman classification on his ledger with a 17-2 technical fall of Pennsylvania’s Logan Worth, that included three takedowns and two sets of points from a tilt in a ridiculously quick, 1:12.

Antonio’s senior entry was a bit harder than that to acquire as he went the distance with No. 3 JoJo Uhorchuk (TN) in the 126-pound final. Antionio, who is rated second at 132, used a blast double to gain both of his takedowns, in the first and final frame of a 6-2 match where Uhorchuk’s tallies came on a hand to the face call against his foe and a stalling call.

The Peach State had one more champion that graces our national rankings, No. 26 Harrison Murdock, and he did his damage in the sophomore side at 160 pounds. Murdock took No. 28 Thomas Schechterly (PA) down twice with a single leg and used a two-on-one tilt in the first period to gain three back points for his 9-2 win.

Konopka is Three-for-Three, Will Be Back for Four

Connecticut’s No. 3 Maximus Konopka had to work into overtime to lock down his third crown, but he’ll be heading back to the Greens Farms campus with another NHSCA Bracket after getting by No. 14 Carter Brown of Missouri in the 220-pound junior finals.

It was nothing but escapes in regulation and overtime as the 2-2 bout went into the ultimate tiebreaker. Konopka chose to go down and was working on his escape route when Brown kept his hands grasped in the wrong way long enough to draw the winning technical violation point for the 3-2 outcome.

Moore and More Lake Highland Prep

A wrestler who earned his second NHSCA Crown, No. 5 Zeno Moore, will not be adding to that count as his came in the senior division on a 10-5 decision at 160 pounds versus Utah’s Tucker Roybal (No. 10 at 165).

Roybal put the first takedown in the book in this one and was up 4-2 after Moore gave him a free pass to begin the third. It all started flowing for Moore when he converted a back door finish off a single leg to take his first lead, 5-4, two more were added on a Crab Float tilt before Roybal escaped. Moore picked up a late takedown to go up 10-5, where it would end.

Two more of Moore’s ranked Lake Highland Prep teammates left with titles in hand, No. 8 Charlie DeSena (152 pounds) and No. 22 Colton Bell (220 pounds).

DeSena got a gold in his final shot to do as he crossed paths with No. 9 Bentley Sly (NC) in his senior final and won an opening scramble for a takedown in the first. At the start of the second, DeSena hit a single and took Sly to his back and ended his morning at the 2:56 mark of the second period. Bell used a second period escape to author a mild upset of No. 21 Bruno Pallone (MT) in the sophomore 220-pound final.

Nadav Nafshi is an age eligible senior, who had already completed four years of high school wrestling in Pennsylvania before arriving in Florida. As such, he can participate with high school kids in open tournaments but was out of regular season eligibility as you can only compete for four seasons as a 9th through 12th grader.

Nafshi faced off with fellow Highlander, Jackson Angelo (No. 41 at 190) and put him away quickly at 170 pounds with a cradle shortly after the opening bell as the whole thing was over in just 49 seconds.

Unexpected Champs

Senior Caleb Hutchinson from Kansas came in here unranked and he appears in this recap not because of his 13-1 win over Arizona’s Gunnar Ortiz in the finals, but for his earlier win over No. 8 Yandel Morales (FL), 6-2, in the quarterfinals.

Montana’s Cael Floerchinger stepped on the junior finals mat as 126 pounds as the number 15 guy in the nation and was set to face No. 10 Owen Marshall out of Washington. Floerchinger posted takedowns in the first and third periods in a 6-3 win.

One of New Jersey’s two champs was of the surprise variety in junior Joey Monticello as he took on Ohio’s Zack Aquila (No. 30 at 165) in the 160-pound final. Monticello’s big move that helped with the 5-3 win came on a second period single leg takedown. Another Jersey Junior, No. 44 Brock Oizerowitz gained the 170-pound title on a 5-2 decision of Missouri’s Luke Hayden.

In the junior ranks, Oklahoma saw Legend Ellis pick off No. 37 Dominic Way (WV) in the 152-pound final on a 4-2 count where all the scoring was on escapes and penalties of some sort. At 120, Van Smith (No. 16 at 126) won a 6-1 tiebreaker with Illinois’ Preston Waughtel, who was riding the hot hand after taking down No. 11 Dom Morrison (PA).

Unranked Landyn Shaffer earned a crown for New York when he pulled off a 4-1 overtime upset of Utah’s Austin Ellis (No. 36 at 145) in the junior 138-pound finals. Shaffer finished off his winning move with eight seconds left in the first overtime frame. Shaffer also dropped No. 25 at 144, Josh Kerr of Kansas in the semis.

Empire Seniors Rule

Two Empire State Seniors in our report left the beach as National Champions, both ranked 14th nationally at their weight classes, Dunia Sibomana (120 pounds) and Christopher Noto (132).

Sibomana was a runner-up a year ago and got to the top with a 9-6 win over Missouri’s Kaison Schreier. Noto won a 4-2 final over Washington’s Justyce Zuniga (No. 18 at 138), where he gained the deciding takedown in the third.

Keystone Gold

There were five from Pennsylvania that have homes in our report and hit paydirt at NHSCAs, No. 7 Kai Vielma (145 pounds), sophomores No. 23 Nathan Schuman (106 pounds) and No. 31 CJ Caines (126), and freshmen No. 25 Lee Dreshman (106 pounds) and No. 36 Alex Marchetti (126).

Vielma dominated the junior brackets all the way through the finals where he teched Colorado’s Deven Lopez, 19-3, who was a top ten grappler before he disappeared from the rankings. Caines had a stress-free final with Virginia’s Graydon Martin with an 8-2 win

Schuman, on the other hand, was pushed to the edge by Arizona’s Andres Rambo Lopez, who scored first and was back in front when things turned badly for him. After falling behind 3-0, Schuman had an active rest of the first as he gained a reversal and two takedowns to take an 8-5 lead.

Lopez chose top to start the second and went to work with legs and a Guillotine and was awarded five near-fall points as Schuman tapped out while on his back. Upon the restart, with Lopez winning 10-8, Schuman was working on breaking free and caught Lopez flat for a moment and leaned into it to achieve the rare defensive fall in 3:13.

Dreshman used a third period takedown for his victory over Mason Keesecker (PA) and Marchetti was involved in a 7-2 decision that went his way against Florida’s Lucas Barrio.

Jason Dube is from Pennsylvania, but the sophomore has competed for Ohio’s Spire Academy both of his seasons and perhaps he has relocated as he was listed as repping Ohio here and reached the 152-pound final opposite No. 11 at 157, Marcus Killgore of Arizona. Dube throttled Killgore never relenting in almost gaining a tech but settled for a 13-2 major decision.

Paris and Telford

Utah got a senior champ, Austin Paris (145 pounds), and a junior, Tanner Telford (132), that appear in our ratings. Paris is ranked seventh at 157 pounds and dropped two weights down to 145 and handled Texas’ Dominic Wilson, 4-2, in the finals. Telford is the 33rd man at 132 and took down a Texan of his own, Cayden Rios, 7-2.

A Tough Way to Fall

It would have been better to see Minnesota’s No. 5 William Ward earn his 195-pound senior title in a different manner, and it seems many on hand, and even the commentators thought Maryland’s No. 20 Victor Marks-Jenkins was given a bit of a raw deal.

In the third period with the score 1-1, the two were going at it on their feet when Ward came charging hard, leaving Marks-Jenkins no option but to move back, there was no other way to move to avoid giving up a takedown. This drew a stall call and what would be the deciding point in the 2-1 match.

Rest of the Ranked

Wisconsin’s No. 18 Camden Rugg reached the junior 113-pound finals to see No. 22 Cooper Sandoval from Nevada standing across from him. Their closeness in the rankings was reflected in the 7-6 score that saw Rugg declared the victor.

Another final with guys in similar ranking spots occurred in the junior 195-pound final with West Virginia’s No. 33 Eli Knight taking on Utah’s Parker Hanssen (No. 31 at 215). Knight jumped out to a 5-1 lead with a takedown and back in the first and kept going to a 9-3 decision of Hanssen.

Maryland’s Noah Tucker is ranked 24th at 175 pounds but the NHSCA does not recognize that weight. It’s either 170 or 182 pounds for a guy like Tucker and he went for the 182-pound option and ran into a guy who came down from 190, No. 33 Everett Joyce of Kansas, in his junior final.

Tucker worked a single into a double to throw three up in the second period and then Joyce added an escape. A Tucker reversal in the third period that was more like a takedown led to another escape for Joyce and then he hit a slick inside trip to tie it up at five with seconds remaining. Recognizing the urgency, Joyce let Tucker up but couldn’t get him off his feet in the 6-5 win for the Marylander.

California’s Mason Ontiveros is No. 3 at 175 and also selected the 182-pound option and that treated him well as he improved on third and second place finishes with an 18-0 tech fall of New York’s Yanni Drapaniotis for his first NHSCA Crown.

Full results can be found at this link to brackets.