USA Storms Back After Early Split, to Survive Pennsylvania Push to Win Pittsburgh Wrestling Classic

Pennsylvania taking down the USA All-Stars, at the Pittsburgh Wrestling Classic, has happened a few times over the years, going back to the Dapper Dan Days, but the 2026 version at Peter’s Township High School in McMurray, Pennsylvania on Saturday evening would end with another win in the book for Team USA, 23-19.

USA Turns Mid-Match Surge Into Winning Edge

After splitting the first four matches, leading to a 6-6 tie, USA won five straight to go up 23-6 and then held off a late rally where the home state won the last three on the card, but not with enough bonus points to overtake the USA squad.

Pennsylvania’s Late Rally Falls Just Short

The match ended with three consecutive Pennsylvania victories, but PA needed bonus points in the final three bouts. Faith Christian’s No. 2 Adam Waters edged Lawrence North’s No. 1 Michael White of Indiana, 8-7, but left Pennsylvania without enough points available to overcome their deficit.

White is an explosive wrestler, capable of putting points up in bunches, but Waters was able to slow him down in the first frame. White gained a late takedown when he finished off a sweep single with about 10 seconds left. Waters chose down, and got an escape point, some hands to the face preceded a shot from Waters, that in our opinion, should have been whistled dead after Waters inadvertently poked White in the eye. With White calling for timeout, the referee allowed the action to continue, and Waters easily put him on the mat to tie it at four.

White went down for the third and hit Waters with a reversal. Waters would escape and then gather the winning takedown on a reattack to a double for an 8-6 advantage. White would get free but could not add any more points in an 8-7 Waters win.

Their only meeting prior to this one occurred at Fargo, where Waters jumped out to an early lead before suffering a hamstring injury. He tried to work through it but was hobbled and White came back to take the lead before Waters threw in the towel on an injury default. Waters fell to Delbarton’s No. 3 CJ Betz in the semis and did not get a chance to face White in the Ironman Finals. White beat Betz to claim the number one ranking.

Jayden James Tested, Responds Like a Champion

World Champ, No. 1 Jayden James (Delbarton, NJ) has been a bonus point machine this year, even taking down the number two guy in the country, Birmingham, California’s Slava Shahbazyan by tech fall in the 165-pound Doc Buchanan Final. So, it was reasonable to expect more of the same when James took on No. 9 at 157 pounds, Reagan Milheim (Warrior Run) at 160 pounds.

It seems Milheim did not agree to keep that script going and instead challenged James like he hadn’t been challenged this year, wrestling to a 10-10 tie in the third period that contained two takedowns earned by Milheim.

It looked like it would be a normal showcase for James as he started off in his typical manner and began to do the “take ‘em down, and let ‘em up” thing, building to a 6-2 count when Milheim surprised his foe with a dump to the back, although he was not able to secure back points, but was now only down by one as the first closed, 6-5.

The second period began with James back to attacking but he was held to just one takedown as Milheim, buoyed by his big move at the end of the first, was wrestling with renewed vigor. It was 9-7 at the start of the third, James got an escape point and then Milheim countered a shot from James with a simple spin behind to electrify the crowd.

Would they see James fall for the first time in two years to a high school grappler? With 1:21 left to go, James got it together and shut down Milheim, scoring a takedown on a spin behind of his own then adding three back points for the final, 17-10, tally.

Bonus Points Fuel Pennsylvania’s Final Push

No. 5 Elijah Brown of Belle Vernon put on the kind of display we’re used to seeing from James in his encounter with Valiant Prep, Arizona’s Kal-El Fluckiger. Valiant wrestlers don’t wrestle a high school schedule, so they are removed from the rankings during that period.

If Fluckiger was in the report, he would have been number five pushing everyone else down (Brown to six). The reason for that being Fluckiger won a Super 32 Belt and beat DuBois’ Kendahl Hoare there. Hoare dished Brown his only loss this year in an early season dual meet, 10-8.

Brown hit a blast double immediately and then started piling up back point going up 7-0 after 17 seconds. Two more sets of tilts would propel Brown to a quick, 15-0 tech of Fluckiger in 1:12.

No. 4 Dean Bechtold (Owen J. Roberts) followed Brown at heavyweight with an almost identical state line that culminated in a 15-0 technical fall of unranked Cliff Nicholson III (Medina, OH) in 1:31. Lake Highland Prep, Florida’s Tyler Dekraker is rated third at 144 pounds but competed here at 139 and dropped an 18-3 tech on No. 33 Dalton Wenner (Cranberry) in 4:23.

Trinity’s Will Detar (No. 12 at 132 pounds) provided the home crown a boost when he authored the first upset of the dual in his meeting with No. 9 Mason Jakob (Dobyns Bennett, TN) at 127 pounds.

Overtime Drama Highlights Competitive Night

Detar and Jakob took turns earning escapes but other than that just jostled for positioning over regulation. That changed in overtime as Detar got in on a low single and worked to the winning finish in the 4-1 win.

Bethlehem Catholic’s No. 4 Keanu Dillard followed Detar and also went into overtime to gain his win over Illinois’ No.7 Nicholas Garcia (Marmion Academy) at 133 pounds.

Like the previous bout, these two exchanged nothing but escapes during regulation. The similarities ended there as these two wrestled through a scoreless first overtime period and the Dillard took over with an escape and a spin behind following a poor shot from Garicia in the middle portion of OT. Dillard contained Garcia in the final frame for a 5-1 win in the tiebreaker.

Key Wins Spark USA’s Decisive Run

There were two 139-pound matches and in the first, No. 1 Moses Mendoza (Gilroy, CA) survived an early threat from No. 5 Camden Baum (Bishop McDevitt) to gain an 8-6 win and halt Pennsylvania’s streak at two and begin a run of five straight wins by the national squad.

Baum started off with a slick double leg and ended the first up 3-1. Mendoza started down in the second and hit a quick turn-in to a smooth single. After a Baum escape, Mendoza got right back in on a double for his final points. Baum added a third period escape to his total.

Oklahoma’s No. 4 Joseph Jeter (Edmond North) picked up the final USA win at the end of their five-match run with a 13-7 decision of No. 13 Gage Wentzel (Montoursville) at 172 pounds. It was all Jeter for two periods and after gaining four back points on an Assassin, he was up 11-0. Wentzel made a late charge in the third but was kept at bay.

A match between two guys who wrestled 150/152 pounds all season was held at 145 instead of having a second 152-pound bout as they did at 139. Wolbert (Oconomowoc, WI) is rated second and beat No.19 Michael Turi (Wyoming Seminary) 4-1 with the winning points coming in the first period.

At 121 pounds, No. 8 Alex Rozas (Teurlings Catholic, LA) greeted Chestnut Ridge’s Dominic Deputy (No, 12 at 132) in his match and kept the local grappler off the board in a 4-0 win where the big points came on a takedown in the final round on a heel pick.

The 152-pound matchup lacked the firepower of the others as the favorite, Hunter Stevens (Mt. Horeb, WI) was ranked 15th and was facing No. 30 Hudson Hohman (Grove City). Stevens’ 4-1 win came in the middle of Team USA’s winning streak.

Team USA 23, PA All-Stars 19

(match started at 121)

121-Alex Rozas (USA) dec Dominic Deputy, 4-0

127-Will Detar (PA) dec Mason Jakob, 4-1 SV OT

133-Keanu Dillard (PA) dec Nicholas Garcia, 5-1 OT TB2

139-Moses Mendoza (USA) dec Camden Baum, 8-6

139-Tyler Dekraker (USA) tech fall Dalton Wenner, 18-3 (4:23)

145-Kellen Wolbert (USA) dec Michael Turi, 4-1

152-Hunter Stevens (USA) dec Hudson Hohman, 4-1

160-Jayden James (USA) dec Reagan Milheim, 17-10

172-Joseph Jeter (USA) dec Gage Wentzel, 13-7

189-Adam Waters (PA) dec Michael White, 8-7

215-Elijah Brown (PA) tech fall Kal-El Fluckiger, 15-0 (1:12)

285-Dean Bechtold (PA) tech fall Cliff Nicholson III, 15-0 (1:31)