2023 Illinois Super 32 Preview

I feel like Illinois has brought more wrestlers out to NC in years past. Maybe that’s just perception because the state always has some of the most elite anywhere. And this year that’s also true, even if a few others like Kannon Webster and Sergio Lemley have moved on. 

It also stands to reason the kids really serious about football, like Dillan Johnson for example, wouldn’t be making the trip either. Still, there are some very strong belt contenders and as always a few sleepers, if you can even call them that.

{Seed; *Rank; Name; School; State; Grade}

*Ranking = mine

106 Top Contenders: 

So, we have 3 Illinois kids ranked in the top 25 who will be in this bracket. It’s hard to say between 5 and 15 at any weight how much difference there really is. So while we have Rocco Hayes ranked the highest of this trio, they’re all quite close. 

Hayes is the veteran of the group, a junior coming off a 3rd place finish in the state last season.

Cassioppi has been perhaps the busiest of all this Summer, notably picking up a couple ranked wins at Elite 8.

Noble might have the most upside and showed already at Fargo he’s no shrinking violet on the big stage.

Quarterfinals:

Noble is slated to meet Shamus Regan in the quarterfinals here. Regan himself is our #7 nationally and the 4 seed. As is the case with most potential match ups that would be stellar. Regan holds a recent 5-2 win over Noble at Tulsa this past Winter. But that was neck and neck the whole way.

As the 7 and 10 seeds, the Rocco’s are slated to wrestle each other in the round of 16. I can’t find any recent history between them***, so if someone has that, feel free to share with me. For now, I have this as a toss up, not just on the journey to the Super 32 podium, but also for supremacy among kids named Rocco in Illinois. That might even mean more. The winner of this one would face Grey Burnett more than likely. He’s 2 seed and currently 3rd in the country. Gotta favor him but stranger things have happened for sure. Neither one would be terribly outmatched.

Semifinals:

Should Noble win his quarter, he’d get the winner of Joe Bachmann and Ezekiel Witt. Bachmann is expected to win that one and then would be favored over Noble, but not by as much as those outside Illinois might think.

On the other side, a win over Burnett in the quarters would likely have a battle with Ignacio Villasenor in the semis. I mean that’s a rough stretch but that’s what Super 32 is all about. From the round of 16 on, you’re likely going to get stronger competition than you will in the state season, even the finals.

Finals:

Is there a universe out there where Noble and a Rocco make the Super 32 finals? I think so. A lot would have to go right of course. But upsets are only upsets based on rankings on paper. The wrestling happens out there, on the mat. And a kid like Noble could well be the best 106 in the country by season’s end. So I’m not predicting that but I’m saying these light weights have tons of chaos and almost always some super early surprise result.

Conclusion/Prediction:

With all three seeded in the top 10, the odds say one is almost locked into a medal here, with another being projected, and a 3rd not long off the odds either. The way I have them ranked, they’d be the 6, 7, and 9 seeds. It doesn’t get much closer than that, folks. And it could certainly be that as the 5 seed, the path for Noble opens up for him early. 

Predicted order of finish: Noble, Cassioppi, Hayes

 ***Turns out Cassioppi and Hayes met up just this past week in a 4-0 decision for Cassioppi. I think that deserves a slight change in the rankings coming in, and it’ll be Hayes with the possible chance at revenge here.

113 Top Contenders:

The top contender at this weight is none other than Dom Munaretto. I mean that much is clear. He’s our #3 in the country and enters as the 4 seed in this bracket. 

Nick Garcia is also up from 106 and comes in solidly within the top 20 and a 12 seed. He finished 4th in the state as a freshman and should be a tough out for anyone.

There’s nothing “other” about the other Cassioppi, unless you say Bruno is otherworldly. He’s every bit the equal of Rocco and might blow this whole bracket up. I have him ranked 14th at 106. But prior to this weekend, I’m taking a wait and see approach since he’s unseeded. Without knowing what line he’ll be sitting at in the bracket, I can’t really say who he might face in any round. Just know, he’s liable to beat everyone here, including the top seed Seidel.

Quarterfinals:

Should Munaretto do what we expect, he’ll run into Dru Ayala from Iowa. Of course Ayala is following in his brother Drake’s (now at Iowa) footsteps and will be a challenge. However, the St Charles East sophomore is the favorite here to make the semis.

What’s interesting for Ayala is that as the 5 seed, to get to Munaretto in these quarters, he’ll have to go through Garcia in the round of 16. Which means to get to the quarters, Garcia will have to get through the 5 seed first. If he does, then it’s IL on IL violence with Munaretto.

Semifinals:

I like Munaretto to get past either Ayala or Garcia when it’s all said and done. That sets up a match against top seed #3 Aaron Seidel. Seidel is a junior with two PA state titles to his name. He also has a head to head win over Munaretto at this event last year. We’d favor Seidel ever so slightly in a rematch.

Since they are both on the top half of the bracket, there is no scenario where both Munaretto and Garcia make the semifinals.

Finals:

If Munaretto flips the script, which does happen quite a bit, he’d likely be taking on 2 seed and #1 Paul Kenny. Kenny also holds a head to head win over Munaretto, so if one of Illinois best young wrestlers is to come away with the belt around his waist this weekend, he likely has to get a double dose of revenge. I don’t think it happens, but I’m not ruling it out.

Conclusion/Prediction:

Munaretto is one of the country’s very best. He’s been the world’s best to boot. He should absolutely place here and place high. He finished 6th last year, I think at least 4th is the expectation now. I’d be surprised if either of the other two placed this year, but who knows.

I also want to just mention Brayden Teunissen, Anthony Alanis, and Tyson Waughtel. They might be longer shots to string together 5 or 6 wins to place, but they could certainly knock off a top contender. Teunissen was the 3A runner up to Munaretto last year while Alanis and Waughtel were the 2A and 1A state champions respectively. 

Predicted order of finish: Munaretto, Cassioppi, Garcia

120 Top Contenders:

Three Illinois state champions are in this field this year. However, Seth Mendoza is the only one with a seed and the only one with a really solid chance of walking away with the title. The others joining him here are Drew Davis and Dean Wainwright. I personally was impressed by Wainwright at the state tournament but we haven’t really seen him take that big step on the national stage.

Quarterfinals:

I have Mendoza coming in ranked 5th in the country and the 3rd highest ranked in this bracket. The top two are deadly and we’ll get to that in a minute. Here in the quarterfinals, he’ll likely get Porter Matecki. That’s a Missouri state champion we have ranked 19th and he’s as high as 14 elsewhere. Should be a solid challenge for Seth.

Semifinals:

Assuming he makes it past that one vs Matecki, his next battle will be 2 seed Christian Castillo. Castillo is a Super 32 champion, well-established on the national and world scene, and has a win over Mendoza in their most recent match. I think Castillo probably gets him again, but Mendoza is tough as nails man. For a 120 he’s a bulldog out there. It’s actually an interesting contrast between these two.

Finals:

So, Mendoza pulls that minor upset and for the trouble he gets Anthony Knox. That’s another Super 32 champ and runner up, and a whole host of other accolades. And he could pull this one out too. But like I said the round before, I think he falls right into his seed and takes 3rd.

Conclusion/Prediction:

If Seth can run the Castillo, Knox gauntlet he would solidify the top spot in the country in my opinion. 

Not a state champion, Deven Casey of IC Catholic might scare a top seed.

Predicted order of finish: Mendoza.

126 Top Contenders:

There’s no ranked Illinois wrestlers at this time. And that’s ranked by me, Mat Scouts, Flo, or anyone else I’m aware of. Just how the weight has shaken out so far. But it can change. This weekend, it looks like Colby Crouch has the best chance to make a possible run.

Crouch was last year’s 2A runner up to Bobby Conway (someone who also appears to be highly underrated across the country). He’s got the 16 seed here, which means he’ll see top seed Jax Forrest in the round of 16. Huge test. That’s like taking the SAT, ACT, LSAT, and GMAT all at the same time. As someone who loves tests, yeah I’m weird like that, sounds great. For most normal people, not so much.

But let’s just say the unthinkable happens. Crouch upsets one of the best in the country at any weight. Up next, winner of Mason Ziegler Noah Nininger. Another tough task. And after that, the Nik O’Neill Jake Crapps winner. At their best, they are tough to beat. More power to the Triad High senior as he tries to back up the win over Jax with top 10 and top 20 wins.

Now, in the finals, JJ McComas, Jake Hockaday, truthfully I think we see Israel Borge here. But in any case, could he make it 4 for 4?

Magical runs, like the sort Crouch would need to pull this out, do happen. And if it does, we’ll definitely want that story.

132 Top Contenders:

It might be easy to say this is Ben Davino and everyone else. And I get it, Davino is him. Ben Him-vino. But, there are some other very worthy competitors here as well. Notably, state champ Gauge Shipp and runner up Justin Wardlow. 

Neither Wardlow nor Shipp are ranked or seeded but like a couple others in the earlier weights, could be a real battle for some unsuspecting top 8 seed.

Circling back to Davino, he leads the way in a bracket that probably has the best top 3 around. He’s the top seed, and deservedly so. But man the finals between him and the Kyler Larkin Bo Bassett winner will be the main event most likely. He beat Larkin at Who’s #1 and it was actually a lot more competitive than I anticipated. Not much to say about Bassett that hasn’t already been said.

I do think ultimately Bassett wins this bracket. I can’t wait to see them get at it though.

138 Top Contenders:

So 138 is a weight where I’m a little more bullish on one Illinois wrestler in particular, Tyler Guerra. Maybe it’s because I saw him in person and respect the runner up finish to an absolute beast in Nasir Bailey or maybe I’m way off and we’ll see why no one else has him ranked. I don’t know.

What I do know is that as the 16 seed, he’s going to run into top seed Landon Robideau from Minnesota in the round of 16. Robideau is every bit worthy of the top 3 ranking he has. Well, that’s a chance for Guerra to show out.

And if he does, his path would take him to the Dalton Perry Sam Herring winner and then the Omar Ayoub Cooper Hilton winner in the semis. Needless to say, he could beat any one of these four, though he’d be the underdog on paper. 

Looking at his draw, Guerra is one of the livest dogs anywhere. Of course things change should he fall to Robideau in the round of 16 and then have to battle through the consolations against guys on the bottom half of the bracket who also dropped down.

I think what I’m saying here is, keep an eye on Tyler Guerra.

Always worth mentioning a state champion from a state like Illinois. To that end, Mason Tieffel can definitely play spoiler for someone.

With no seeds in 144 or 150, we’re skipping to 157*

(update: turns out I missed a couple 150s)

We know Denny is the 15, we can get some sense of his tournament ahead.

The test start pretty early with the round of 16 coming against Prep National Champ Claudio Torres of Lake Highland Prep. An uphill battle for sure, but if he got it done, his next foe on the chopping block would be 7 seed Ryan Ford. Ford is very solid national level kid, another tall task for Denny to get into the semifinals.

In those semifinals, we’re looking at Kollin Rath. Whoa. That just jumped a level. Rath is one of my favorites anywhere. And after Rath it would be Vince The Bazooka Bouzakis. If that’s not his nickname, they’re sleeping. He’s another PA stud.

With Mastny seeded at 157, but entering at 150, it’s impossible to know what his bracket run looks like. He’s a live challenger to someone, whoever that ends up being. He was a runner up at the MS event last year, placed at Fargo. The kind of kid deep down these brackets that highlight how tough it is.

157 Top Contenders:

A pair of state runner ups occupy the 14 and 15 spots. Neither is ranked nationally but will have a chance to change that for sure. The road ahead is long and arduous but that’s why they wrestle.

The 14 seeded Griffin will face 3 seed Cory Thomas in the round of 16 while 15 seed Eddie Enright will take on 2 seed Conner Harer. That’s a Michigan and Pennsylvania state champion respectively. Harer just recently came up with a huge performance at the True Power PA event against Collin Gaj. Gaj is the 5 seed at 150 this week. Thomas took 7th at Fargo beating Collin Guffey from CA (top 10 at 165). 

By any measure, these would be upsets but you never want to count anyone out.

If they win those, the 15 (Enright) would get the 7, Phil Lamka. The 14 (Griffin) would get the 6, Chris Crawford. The feeling here would have to be that the win to get to this round was more difficult so why couldn’t they win here? 

If they did, they would meet in the semifinals. It would also be the story of the tournament. 

It’s hard to realistically see the path to the podium for either Griffin or Enright but stranger things have happened long before that Netflix show.

165 Top Contenders:

I mean once you get past a certain number is it even still a “seed”? 21 is pretty far down there. Of course these brackets have over 200 in some of them so even being top 30 is saying something. But is it saying medal contender? Collin Carrigan certainly hopes so.

Being at that 21 slot, we’ll just look at the highest seed he’s in line to run up against.

In a world where 256 wrestlers were all seeded, in the opening round of 256, he’d get #236. He’d be expected to win that. Then he’d get #108 in the round of 128. Again, expected to win. He’d follow that up with a match against #44 in the round of 64. Getting closer but still favor him. He’s 3-0 and now in the round of 32. There he’d finally be the underdog on paper.

He’d get the 12 seed and hope that the hot start built up some momentum to pull out the best win for him to that point. Well, that 12 seed would be Noah Hall from Virginia. That’s a state champ. Solid kid. But by now, maybe beatable. So he gets upset #1.

Then he’s in the round of 16 and it’s the 5 seed, and that’s Jordan Chapman. Chapman at his best, probably a little too much. However, in tournaments like this you just never know who is going to be at their best every match out. He gets upset #2. Into the quarterfinals.

There, it’s Georgia champ Latrell Schafer. A very similar test as the round before. Tough, very tough, but Collin holds on for the narrow 3-2 win. Whoa, that’s a spot in the semifinals, a guaranteed top 6 finish. Who saw this coming? Nobody. But he believes, so he continues.

Now, it’s top dog Ethan Birden. You would think Birden wins easily but Collin’s got major momentum now. Every media outlet in the sport is trying to catch up with him. He rides the wave past Birden and into the finals. And if it’s the 2 seed, that’s Alessio Perentin. And he completes the journey, and the crowd goes wild.

He finished the weekend with wins over the 1, 2, 4, 5, and 12 seeds. Disney buys the rights to the story. He’s set for life.

The chances of this are obviously slim, but you can’t tell me you wouldn’t go along for the ride.

175 Top Contenders:

Jens is in a similar spot as Carrigan, only he’s a little closer to the top 25 at this weight and comes in seeded a little higher against the field. He was also a 2A state champion. 

There’s been a lot of flux within these weights and it seems 175 may now be settling into one of the shallowest fields in terms of ranked talent in the brackets. Maybe someone like Jens takes advantage of that. That’s not to say there isn’t still quality in the mix, but with the possibility of only 6 in the top 25 making it, someone is going to make some noise.

Picking up a Jens storybook run in the round of 16, he faces top seed Cole Han-Lindemeyer. He’s been busy these past few months, wrestling up at 182 where applicable. Battling with some of the top dogs at PNL, Elite 8, etc. He’s a deserving #1, especially with Louie Cerchio out, no Angelo Ferrari or Ty Eise. 

A win over CHL in the round of 16 would bring on Israel Perez or Jon Rocha in the quarters. Definitely winnable, especially riding a tsunami of an upset over #1. But then it’s Ryan Burton of New Jersey in the semis.

And Burton’s been hot right now. Like that damn Hansel. In fact, Burton might be my pick to win this bracket, especially if it’s true that Adam Waters is also a scratch. But, we’re still running this out to its conclusion.

After Burton in the semis, it’s set up to be Adam Waters. I don’t know where I heard he might be out, but we’re counting him in for now.

So, this would be a final four run for Jens of the 1, 8, 4, and 2 seeds. Really impressive if he makes it happen.

190 Top Contenders:

Man, Penovich is smack dab in the middle of one of the beastiest (it’s a word now) weights around. Especially the top 4. 

As the 18 seed, the promising youngster (finished 5th in the state last year) will get the 15 seed in the round of 32, that’s Danarii Mickell. Maybe a toss up. Then it’s the 2 seed, Rune Lawrence in the round of 16. Win that and it’s Marco Christiansen in the quarterfinals. Advance to the semis and it’s 3 seed Harvey Ludington. And wrapping up with a title bout against Aeoden Sinclair. Yeah, that’s not fun… at all…

I wish the young man good luck, may the odds be ever in his favor.

215 Top Contenders:

There’s quite a few top 25 guys scattered throughout this bracket. The issue for everyone is that one of those is Jude Correa. He’s a cut above the rest here in my opinion. Last year’s champion. One of the biggest favorites.

But, I do have Wenzel ranked, where others don’t, and see a path to the podium for the Dakota senior. To start, he gets the 13 seed, Anthony Harris in the round of 32. I actually have Wenzel ranked a couple spots ahead of Harris. This is a true toss up. But in a scenario where we’re trying to envision the 20 seed make a championship run, having a toss up in the round of 32 can go a long way.

Should he win that, it’s the 4 seed, Dillon Bechtold. Now, I would say this is where the road ends, but again these are just fun thought experiments for me to see how longer shots can make it happen. Catches Bechtold by surprise. He’s into the quarters.

That’s Missouri’s Rylan Kuhn. A state champ and two-time Fargo medalist, that’s no small task there. And now it’s time. Time for the showdown with top seed Jude Correa. Who’s going to the Super 32 finals? The heavy favorite. The prep school hammer from New England. Or the Illinois big little engine that could.

Whoever it is, they’ll have to contend with Dreshaun Ross. Iowa state champ. Top 5 in the country. Easy peasy.

285 Top Contenders: 

Definitely the weight with the fewest ranked kids in the bracket. I have 7 total in the top 25. Combine that with the nature of this weight being rife with upsets ALL THE TIME, and you have a recipe for disaster for some and sweet success for others. Perhaps one of those others is Ivanisevic.

He finished 5th last year in Illinois at 215. Maybe that means what he lacks in raw size he makes up for with natural quickness. We shall see.

As the 10 seed, a top 8 finish wouldn’t be surprising at all. To do that, he’ll have to go through the 7 seed Mark Effendian, the 2 seed Spencer Lanosga, and the 3 seed Parker Ferrell (last year’s champion), and then the 1 seed, Nick Sahakian. 

It’s actually not that impossible. Unlikely, sure. Crazy, wild, outlandish, insane? Nah. Not at all.