Great two days of some elite folkstyle wrestling. We’re starting to gear up for Super 32 and then the season is here before you know it. Just some things to keep in mind through the recap:
Team Results
Dynasty 7-0
POWA 6-1
Carnage 5-2
Team Thunder 4-3
Pool A
Pool B
100/106:
Notes: Cassioppi set the pace among the 106 field. He went undefeated and picked up 3 wins over wrestlers I have ranked in the top 25. The best match of the entire bunch was probably the 16-11 battle with Ezekiel Witt. Witt entered the weekend with the highest ranking and taking the loss to Rocco and then one to Ballard doesn’t drop him too far. But the win for Ballard does get him into the mix heading into the Super 32 season. You could literally interchange the last 4 here in any order, I give Ballard the slight nod simply for having the best win (Witt) of the bunch. Noble is an incoming freshman who should continue to rise.
113:
Notes: So the standout was clearly Munaretto. He swept the field, including a pin over Uhorchuk. Aside from that, Uhorchuk was more than solid the entire event, including a tech fall over Cline and a major over Thomas. Thomas is the surprise here, losing 4 matches, 2 of them to kids currently unranked. He’s built up too much equity to drop out completely or anything, but making the move up from 106 where he was ranked before, it could take a little adjustment. Cline’s win over Thomas was a big one for the CA senior.
120:
Notes: Similar to Munaretto, another Illinois kid was the standout here. Mendoza picked up wins over Botero, Dillard, Mendoza, Sierra, and Miller. His closest match was with Moses (5-3) but otherwise wasn’t really challenged much. Dillard is someone I expect to get back into the top 10 but coming off this weekend, he slips a bit. Devon Miller is a name to watch. A greco stud, he held his own among this field. I’ll be interested to see how his season goes. Moses Mendoza is another monster from Gilroy, CA. His brother Daniel Zepeda just won Who’s #1, I wonder how often they battle for who’s #1 at the dinner table?
126:
Notes: Jax was the big favorite among this group coming in, and he leaves the same way. His closest match was 10-1 over Sement. Other than the loss to Jax, Eren also lost a heartbreaker to Hockaday, 10-9. Hocakaday himself lost decisively to DeGennaro. Sement picked up a win over Crapps and DeGennaro. It seems like these 4 could be slotted any which way. Right now, I’ll give it to Sement leading the four-some with a major decision over DeGennaro. Paino is acquitting himself well this month, sitting at 11-3 between Elite 8 and Waterway.
132:
Notes: Whew. You blink and you might miss it. 10 takedowns from Bo Bassett. He blitzed this field something fierce. 4 tech falls and a major. And the major was a 14-2 domination over Hilton. Hilton for his part picked up wins over O’Neill, Swensen, and NIninger. Gorman finished without a loss and a nice win over Nininger. O’Neill picked up wins over Swensen and Nininger.
138:
Notes: Unfortunately for us, none of the top 3 in the mix met up. So we got 3 undefeated wrestlers over the two days. Robideau was the most consistently dominant so he gets the top nod. There’s a good chance we see them all in North Carolina next month. Don’t be fooled – by the rocks that I got – but also Hunter Hollingsworth being down at 16. It’s probably a tighter gap than that between the top 5 and him. There’s just some really good kids all over this weight. His only loss here was a decision to Braun. Linsman had a rough outing, though his 5 losses were all to kids above him. He did pick up the head to head over Parkins to keep him among my top 25.
145:
Notes: After day 1, the highly anticipated match up across the field was Manville vs Joy. Manville came out on top there 10-5. He also added wins over Bouyssou, Hibler, Coates, Hickman, and Powe. Joy was highly impressive in his own right picking up tech falls wins over Ford and Paradice. Bouyssou fell in one of the bigger upsets of the weekend to Powe but picking up wins over Coates and Hibler, he doesn’t fall far. Powe makes the biggest move up with that win over Gabe and another over Ford. Paradice had the toughest weekend, finishing winless. 3 of those were to kids ranked above him, but the loss to Lorenzo Alston has him slide a bit.
152:
Notes: In the famous words of Mugatu, that Ballante is hot right now. He was 6-0 at Waterway a week ago and followed that up with a 4-0 sweep over 3 top 20 and 1 just outside the top 25. Now, all his matches were close but this was a tough, evenly matched field for the most part. It also happened to be highly relevant to the state of CA. Also weirdly a lot of CA vs OK here. So, Root, Contino, and Barbosa all fell to Bellante. But then Root and Contino both defeated Barbosa. Root and Contino didn’t run into each other. They did also both beat Oklahoma state champ Giddens. All 3 of them beat Mara. Barbosa also took out another ranked OK state champ in Layton Schneider.
160:
Notes: Birden went seven for seven with four top 25 wins in the mix. The 6-2 victory over Guffey stands out, while the tech fall over Hodge was his most dominant performance. Guffey comes into the season as the top 160 in CA and picked up some nice wins over Schafer and Champman. Schafer and Chapman had almost identical weekends. Both suffering just 1 loss, both to the same person (Guffey). They both beat all the same people as well. The difference being one extra match for Schafer against Marines. Norman’s 5 losses speaks more to the quality of his competition than it does to him. They’re all sitting ahead of him. Hodge got the head to head over Marines so for now he gets he edge.
170:
Notes: Blanchette came in as the favorite to sweep the weight class, but appeared to get hurt in his first match and was done. Burton then picked up the slack to match fell New Jersian, Bellante, with the undefeated weekend. He finished with wins over Bambinelli, Holland, Thomas, and Penton. Save the loss to Burton, Bambinelli was pretty dominant in his own right. Holland and Penton had very similar weekends, with Holland getting the 1-0 head to head win. Tough sledding for Reyes as he falls to Thomas, McCloskey, and Penton.
182:
Notes: Let’s just get this out the way, Harvey Ludington was a man amongst boys. Not much else to say about his weekend. We’ll also say that 11-20 are all really close, maybe even toss ups. We did get a lot of cross-over, round robins between them so we have a little idea of a pecking order. But we also have some of those, this guy beat this guy but that guy beat the first guy type of cycle too. So, Wilder had the shortest weekend going 1-0. But it was a dominating pin over Jake Stacy. CHL picked up a tech over Stacy, so Wilder’s performance was on par with that quality. I didn’t have Veazy as high as others going into the weekend, so his place here isn’t as much of a fall as it seems, for me. He picked up a great win over Westphal but the two losses to Woodward and McCollom loom large. Ziola stays right about where he was coming in. Solid wins over McCollom, Posada and Woodward. Losses to Ludington and CHL not bad, but then a 3-1 defeat to Stacy an upset for sure. But like I say, the entire lot of them appear to be very close. The only thing not up for debate, Harvey Ludington. Sheesh😮💨.
195:
Notes: Karson Tompkins was one of the most dominant wrestlers at any weight. He had one 9-4 decision against Franco and the rest were all techs or pins. Harris got the close win over Henry and a tech over Franco which was his most impressive performance. Henry had a war with Harris and was upended by Jones. That gets Jones into the mix, Henry doesn’t suffer too much at this point. Franco gets the CA head to head over Whitworth and a win over Jones. Also giving Tompkins his biggest test counts for something. Whitworth had the toughest weekend picking up 5 losses, but 4 of them came to the guys ahead of him. The real head scratcher was the loss to Ben Bomberger.
220:
Notes: Well, this was one of the most shallow weights ranking wise over the weekend. Platt entered with the highest ranking and did nothing to question that, but there weren’t a lot of opportunities for big wins here. He did get Wenzel for a solid win. Morgan is poised for a climb. Wenzel should stay right around the 22-30 range all year.
285:
Notes: First of all, Aden Attao was in this field. I don’t know what his plans are but he was class of 23 as far as I know. So, I tried not to factor in any losses kids took to him since he’s not among this year’s wrestlers. But I did give credit to Herrera for beating him because that’s a high quality win. Lanosga on the other end, lost to Attao but wins over Effendian and Ferrell were great. Ferrell got the head to head with Herrera so I give him a slight advantage. Effendian is climbing. Win against Ferrell was big.
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