Top 10 Teams:
1 | Wyoming Seminary (PA), PA | 268.0 |
2 | Blair Academy, NJ | 174.5 |
3 | Edmond North, OK | 146.0 |
4 | St. Edward, OH | 121.0 |
5 | Bishop McCort, PA | 120.5 |
6 | Malvern Prep, PA | 113.0 |
7 | Faith Christian Academy, PA | 107.0 |
8 | Stillwater, OK | 104.5 |
9 | Lake Highland Prep, FL | 83.5 |
10 | Perrysburg, OH | 78.0 |
As we usually see, 4 of the top 10 schools are from the prep ranks. Out of those 4, 2 are the top 2. And of course, Sem is expected to be highly dominant this season and so far so good on that. They had 7 finalists and 4 champions.
When we look at the 268 team points, we immediately ask, where does that rank all-time at this tournament? So we shall see. First off, last year Blair Academy won with 190.5. That would have been good enough to win this year, had Sem not existed or something. We’ll also look at where the 93.5 point gap between 1 and 2 ranks as well.
The top historical team point totals:
1 | 1999 St Edward | 297 |
2 | 2001 Blair Academy | 287 |
3 | 2008 Blair Academy | 282 |
4 | 2018 Blair Academy | 276 |
5 | 2003 Blair Academy | 273 |
6 | 2023 Wyoming Seminary | 268 |
7 | 2000 St Edward | 264 |
8 | 2006 St Edward | 260 |
9 | 2011 Blair Academy | 252 |
10 | 2007 St Paris Graham | 247 |
10 | 2017 Blair Academy | 247 |
Ok so, Blair Academy is just different. That’s crazy. The Buccaneers have 6 of the top 11 team point totals. No one is close to that. But this year’s Blue Knights definitely held their own from a historical perspective with the 6 highest score ever.
As for the winning margin, as you would imagine, Blair is going to win that again most likely.
1 | 2018 Blair Academy | +100 |
2 | 1999 St Edward | +97 |
3 | 2023 Wyoming Seminary | +93.5 |
4 | 2003 Blair Academy | +90 |
5 | 2016 Blair Academy | +69 |
6 | 1997 St Edward | +56 |
7 | 2017 Blair Academy | +53 |
8 | 2008 Blair Academy | +48 |
8 | 2012 Blair Academy | +48 |
10 | 2001 Blair Academy | +46 |
So yes, once again the Blair Bucs dominate this list. However, the 2023 Blue Knights can walk away knowing they were one of the most dominant teams in this tournament’s history.
As for the 7 finalists and 4 champions. Again, we assume Blair will lead the way. And in fact, the 2001 Blair team finished with 6 champions which is tied with 1997 St Edward for the most. As far as medalists overall, the 2003 Blair team is the only to date to have 14 (the max possible now) reach the podium. Oddly, they only had 1 champion that year.
So, we didn’t see any records broken by the nation’s #1 team, but we did see a level of domination we expected. I mean you take an already stacked line up and add 3 PIAA state champions, what do you expect to happen?
So now we get to the weight recaps.
106
Top 8:
Coming in, we had a possible clash between #1 Joe Bachmann and #2 Ignacio Villasenor. We could have seen this one at Super 32 but Villasenor medical forfeited out of that and instead it was Bachmann against Rocco Hayes of Illinois. Now, assuming Villasenor was healthy, we were set up for a classic.
We still did get a classic in the finals as it would be round 3 of the Bachmann vs Shamus Regan series. They went 1-0 in the Super 32 semifinals, 7-4 in a dual last week, and ultimately 5-3 here. All results in favor of Bachmann.
The reason we didn’t see Villasenor (assuming he would have then got past Regan in the semifinals) is that yet another star freshman from Blair Academy – Vince Anello – outlasted him in a 3-2 UTB thriller. Coming into the event, Anello was ranked by yours truly and no one else. However, anyone the least bit familiar with the youth wrestling scene wouldn’t be shocked that he sort of announced his arrival on the HS scene with a 6th place finish.
There was a little Illinois drama going on at this weight as Rocco Cassioppi would ultimately take 5th with wins over instate foes, Caleb Noble and Caden Correll. Along with Hayes, who wasn’t here, 106 in Illinois should be exciting.
The surprise performance of the weekend at 106 goes to Gilman School’s Liam McGettigan. Somewhat off the radar, he walks away with a 7th place medal, one of only 2 from the Chesapeake Bay State to do so. The highlight of his tournament run was probably the 3-2 battle with Regan in the quarterfinals.
113
Top 8:
While I didn’t have Motyka winning the whole thing, I did say that his veteran savvy and just overall toughness could prove to be the difference between him and what is still a relatively young bunch. Of course Munaretto came in a fairly big favorite, having won this tournament a year ago and coming off a Super 32 championship in October. Though Buckeye State native Rylan Seacrist would send him to the consolations in the quarterfinals. Munaretto would then suffer another defeat to Indiana’s Revin Dickman before closing out with a 7th place finish and win over fellow Illinois wrestler Nick Garcia.
Seacrist for his part looked like a definite viable title contender in that quarterfinals. It was 7-3. He was in control through the whole thing. He had the crowd behind him. Unfortunately he would suffer an injury I and was unable to finish the tournament.
To get to the finals, Motyka was going to have to get by one of those fantastic freshman in Grey Burnett and then a fellow senior in PIAA state champion Ayden Smith. That’s where I thought his title hopes might end. Being that Smith is every bit the veteran of Motyka so wouldn’t be outmuscled or anything. And the match between them was a great one, 3-1 in sudden victory for Motyka. For now the Blue Knight gets the edge, but if they meet again, who knows.
With Munaretto out of contention and Seacrist out of the tournament, it was Missouri’s Hunter Taylor who would ultimately reach the finals from the top half of the bracket. There were some surprising finalists this weekend, perhaps none more so than the Liberty Blue Jay. He came in carrying among the lowest average national ranking of any finalist, I had him 25th and that was the highest of anyone. Needless to say, he’s moving up after this weekend’s performance. Though he didn’t have many dominating moments, it was a workman like journey to the finals for him. He’s also yet another senior, just sort of showing that sometimes the experience can overcome the sheer talent.
Aside from Taylor, the surprise performance here probably goes to Revin Dickman. He’s consistently been in that top 20 or next group out range but to come in and finish 5th including the #1 in the country is definitely impressive.
120
Top 8:
When it comes to 120 this year, Leo DeLuca is in a class with Beric Jordan, Nate Desmond, and of course Anthony Knox. And while Knox is the current king of this weight, DeLuca gave him all he wanted at Who’s #1 and showed he’s right there with the Garden State beast. I have it on good authority that Knox is at 126 for Beast this weekend, so for now, that’s where I have him ranked. That means DeLuca comes out of this weekend sliding up to the #1 spot in the country. Picking up 3 top 10 wins over Jordan, Rivera, and Gill puts Leo’s Ironman journey up there among the toughest of the 14.
There were tight battles throughout this bracket, championship and consolation sides. Jordan over Desmond 3-2 in the semis. DeLuca over Gill 6-3 in the quarters. Mauger 4-3 over Isaiah Jones. Gill 4-2 over Dillard. Mascaro 3-2 over Mauger. The gap between that group after those top 4 is not big at all. And we have tons of contradicting round robin results to prove it. So, we kind of just keep everyone where they were and wait for the next round between them.
The biggest surprise of course was Karson Brown of St Edward. We’re always on the lookout for an Ohio kid to outperform at Ironman, and Brown was it at this weight. He came in unranked and picked up a top 10 win over Ethan Rivera, a top 15 win over Mauger, and only two respectable defeats to Gill and Desmond. He’d ultimately finish 4th in a bracket where he was the 9 seed and not expected to make the top 5. Well done for him.
There weren’t very many other surprises of note. The cream here all rose to the top.
126
Top 8:
Had Marcus Blaze stayed down here for the weekend, this would have been in a tight race with 165 for the best bracket of the event. Even with him up at 132, we still had 10 of the top 25 including 7 of the top 11. At the very top of this were the #2 and #3 wrestlers, Lilledahl and Forrest respectively, who have seen each other more than seen myself in my selfie cam… and I take an embarrassing number of selfies.
Last year, these two faced off in the 120 finals and this year it would be at 126. Of course there were plenty of obstacles, landmines, hoping to interrupt this Lilledahl Forrest collision. While they were ultimately unsuccessful in doing so, Mendoza and McComas in particular showed – continue to show – they are right there neck and neck with the top 2.
The final four matches in this weight were ALL instant classics. From a scoring standpoint, Lilledahl Mendoza was the most explosive, but you had that one, Forrest McComas and then Mendoza McComas for 3rd all go into Sudden Victory. And the finals – the one of this group that didn’t need extra time – was a 2-1 thriller. Folks, this weight alone was worth the price of admission.
Outside of that top 4, Walker and Martin were having their own little battle, for what would turn out to be 5th and 6th. On the frontside, Martin got Walker 2-1 in the round of 16. Walker would turn the tides in his own 2-1 win in the placement match. Walker would also get the best of Raney, while Martin knocked off Binni.
Binni was the surprise medalist of the top 8. He’s Canon-Mac’s top dog coming into the season and after the weekend will give them their lone nationally ranked wrestler.
Cole Evans is the Ohio kid on the rise after the weekend. He had a pair of wins against fringe top 25 guys and this weekend scored a big win over Sebastian DeGennaro. That one gets him into the top 25 yet again.
And once again, if you didn’t see it, go back and watch Lilledahl Mendoza.
132
Top 8:
Marcus Blaze was perhaps generating the most buzz around HS wrestling after he entered the same Clarion Open bracket as Jax Forrest and not only won that, but then took out last year’s NCAA runner-up Matt Ramos who was ranked #1 coming into this season. Even if Ramos has taken a couple other losses since then, he’s still a solid AA candidate and the win is still an impressive feather in the cap of ole Blaze.
With Bo Bassett up at 138, Blaze slid right into the top spot at 132 coming into the weekend. With last year’s 126 champ, Ben Davino, in the field, we were certainly anticipating that one. And we would get it. And it lived up to the hype. A 3-2 UTB result for Davino as he was able to escape in the 30 second period and get the win. Perhaps if they wrestle again, Blaze gets first choice, gets the first escape and gets to choose down in the final stanza and he wins it. Who knows. What we do know is how painfully close these two are. But it was Davino walking away the back to back Ironman champ.
O’Neill finishing 3rd is a noteworthy performance. He took a very surprise loss, by fall, to Jayce Paridon, in the round of 16 only to come alllllll the way back for 3rd. I probably would have predicted he finish 3rd going into the weekend. I wouldn’t have predicted the path he took to get there. In the end, it’s all the same and it shows Army is getting someone with a lot of heart.
Botello had a really nice tournament, highlighted by a 7-2 win over Jordyn Raney to get to the consolation finals. Though he would fall there to fellow prep rival O’Neill, he’s on his way up for sure.
Speaking of Botello and Raney, and adding Dillon Campbell to this group, they gave us one of those ole round robins that make rankings so frustra— I mean fun. Botello beat Raney who beat Campbell who beat Botello. Yay!
Rounding out the top 8, you have a really interesting match up. Gibson had been hurt for awhile, not competing. Orine left Sem and headed home to Missouri. Some people suggested to me he may have even left the sport. So here they were embroiled in a battle for 7th at Ironman. Gibson came out victorious but both should remain in the top 25 throughout the year.
138
Top 8:
Alright so in following young Bo Bassett’s HS career so far this seems to be the trend. A series of impressive wins. Continued stepping up in class. A loss. A revenge tour and more dominance. Another stepping up, like in weight, a loss. Adjustments are made and he’s back to dominating. It’s hard to ever see when that next loss will come – maybe he’ll enter the Olympic Trials at 96KG? – but in all seriousness, there’s something to be said for his approach to the sport and the work he puts in. And this weekend it was all on display as he dominated his way through 138 pounds.
Ayoub is someone whose name I have to put a little more respect on. I generally had him a little lower than other outlets, and I definitely thought it would be Guerra to face Bo in the finals. So I’m happy to be proven wrong. He did just that. He would finish with 2 ranked wins and a 3rd over Mason Wagner who’s in that next group. Overall, a very nice tournament for the Dublin Coffman senior.
Not sure what happened to Guerra, but after the semifinals against Ayoub he medically forfeited out to 6th.
Dekraker picked up three nice top 20 wins and comes home 3rd.
The biggest surprise performance here was definitely unseeded Wyatt Medlin running all the way out to 4th. Now, the nature of this bracket was such that the ranked win opportunities were scattered. But a win over Jackson Tucker is quality, and then to battle to a 1-0 loss in the 3rd place match I think backs up his claim to a place in the top 25 now.
144
Top 8:
Pierson Manville has certainly done enough to be in that #1 in the country, top 2, conversation and after the weekend that’s exactly where he resides. We expected he’d come out the champion and he did. But, it definitely wasn’t without it’s scares and moments of uncertainty. The biggest coming in the quarterfinals against Blair’s Logan Rozynski. 2-1 decision in the tie break period. Manville is an absolute dog on top and used that to keep Rozynski from an escape and got the one point win there.
Consiglio and Miller already had a meeting at The Surge. At that time, the freshman Miller was fresh off a great Super 32 championship and Consiglio was the next big challenge following that. That would go Consiglio’s way. They would square off for round 2 this weekend and it also, ultimately, went for Consiglio. This could just be a matter of styles. The matches have been close. Perhaps the experienced mettle of the senior Consiglio helps him get to the finish line. In the end, Consoglio would fall to Manville in the finals. Miller would finish 3rd.
A big riser from the weekend is Jaydon Robinson. He’s sometimes a bit inconsistent but there are moments when he looks like a real top 10 type. And he was able to pick up a pair of top 15 wins and lose by 1 point each to Schneider and Miller. We had him in the top 25, he moves up from there.
Schneider and Rozynski also move up as they each took turns taking 1 point losses to champion Manville and then slotting into the top 8, with Rozynski’s best win being Tucker and Schneider’s best win being Robinson.
The surprise here has to be Brodie Dominique. Even though he wasn’t able to finish the tournament, he was on his way to possibly a top 3 finish, maybe an appearance in the finals, but he forfeited out after the quarters. Even still, he moves way up with wins over Van Hoven and Brogan Tucker.
150
Top 8:
The top 4 here are so close it’s crazy. Like you probably couldn’t select a group of 4 at any weight with less of a gap between them. And for those paying attention to this weight this weekend, you were treated to some of the absolute best of the tournament. So Rath beat Routledge in a 1 point OT battle. Bouzakis beat Joy in their own 1 point thriller. Then while Bouzakis and Routledge tangled to another 1 point finals match, Rath and Joy went all the way to ultimate tie breaker, where Rath held Joy down and took the win. That’s 4 total matches with a combined point differential of 4 total points. Like I say, it can’t get any closer than that.
Within that group, maybe the biggest story coming in would be whether or not Rath and Routledge would get to run back their Super 32 finals where Rath got the win. And they did get to. And Routledge avenged the defeat. Bouzakis and Joy had their own stories of sorts. For Bouzakis it was how well he would bounce back from the loss to Will Denny at Super 32. He was the top seed in that bracket and it was one of the more surprising results when he lost that one. For Joy it was the move up from 144. He’s had tough battles where he’s competed, notably against Manville. How would we do against this new crop. Quite well as it turns out.
Outside of the these 4, Claudio Torres carried the highest ranking for us. He would ultimately fall out of the top 8 with losses to Rath, Bouzakis, and Mitch Younger. It’s the Younger result that will drop him a bit. Though he did get a nice win over Ty Wilson to keep him near the top 15.
Denny added to the Bouzakis win this weekend with top 25 wins over Maldonado, Wilson, and Younger. He’s on the move up again.
Younger is the surprise medalist. He’s from Ohio so fits that mold of outperforming his rank and seed in his home state. The 11 seed was propelled by the win over Torres to reach the podium.
On the flip side, Ryan Bennett came in as the 2 seed, consensus top 10. Lost twice to unranked opponents and did not place. I expect a huge bounceback for the Illinois commit but I’m guessing he’ll be happy to put this one in the rearview and get back at it.
157
Top 8:
Once we learned that both Joe Sealey and LaDarion Lockett would be up at 165, this weight become perhaps the most wide open. There really wasn’t a true favorite, rather a collection of guys who all had a legitimate shot at the top of the podium. I actually thought it could be Eddie Enright of Mt Carmel, IL and he ultimately didn’t place. Aaron Stewart was another Illinois kid in the field and he did reach the finals. And that finals was one of the best ones against Oklahoma state champ Landyn Sommer.
So Sommer and Stewart did well for themselves this weekend. And in the wide open bracket, Ognissanti and Harney were other ranked guys who more or less shot about par. The real story coming away from this one to me was Asher Cunningham. Clearly the work he’s been putting is… working. He pinned Enright in the round of 16, Evanitsky in the quarters, fell in a 4-3 burner to Stewart in the semis, and then finished it off with wins over Ognissanti and Ginter. He’s probably the biggest riser of the week.
If Cunnningham weren’t here doing his thing, we’d be looking at both Jeremy Ginter and Devon Magro. Both outperformed their seed by a decent amount. Ginter was the 9 seed, finished 4th. Magro was unseeded, finished 8th. Solid job by them.
We don’t like to venture into the negative too much, but aside from Enright not placing, 2 seed Evanitsky was also knocked out earlier than expected. Look for him to bounce back quickly. Sem is at Beast next week, it’s a great spot for him.
165
Top 8:
Heading to Cuyahoga Falls this weekend, it was all eyes on 165. 2 world gold medalists, a two-time Ironman champ, a finalist from last year who was ranked at the top of 165 to start the season, and an Ohio state champion who beat one of those world champions in this very tournament last year. So it was easily the best top 5. How it would ultimately turn out was anyone’s guess. My guess was Ferrari. But a guess of Sealey, Lockett, or Henckel or Birden was equally as valid.
As it turned out, it was Ferrari as the last man standing at the end, but it didn’t come easy. He got past Birden in a hard fought semifinals, 5-1, and then had an epic clash with Sealey in the finals. 1-1 as they traded escapes, they went into all the over times. Until ultimate tie breaker. That’s where Sealey got to choose down and Ferrari had to hold on. And he was able to and that’s how it would end. With the win, Ferrari picked up his 3rd Ironman title.
Sealey will probably go down as one of the best to never win it. And he came about as close as one could ever get this year. Lockett did win back in 2021, so he’s added to that title with 2 additional medals and will wrap up his Ironman career next year with one final chance at a 2nd win. Not much more to say about these two. They are elite level prospects and will continue to be so.
Henckel and Birden were the next pair rounding out this Fab Five. Probably considered a little more of underdogs when compared to the other 3, they would be top title contenders any other year. And they met in an OT heater in the quarterfinals. Birden picked up the 1 point victory there.
Of the top 8, Singer would be the most surprising. He was an unseeded and unranked freshman and picked up a top 25 win over Max Norman and wound up with a nice shiny medal for his mantle or trophy case or wherever he keeps them.
175
Top 8:
This weight was absolutely one of the deepest, most competitive, and actually open to many possible champions. Eise has been a consistent performer here and across the country at big events. Most recently, he pushed Angelo Ferrari at Who’s #1 in a way that I think opened some eyes.
Adam Waters is a sophomore from PA who picked up a first PIAA title last year, including top notch wins everywhere he went.
Gage Wright is an absolute tank of a human being. Someone with more knowledge than I said that once he gets his wrestling fitness in, he’ll be downright unstoppable. Pretty prescient words as it turns out.
Kelly was someone I was interested in watching this early season following a tremendous state finals match in Illinois last year. All of these were viable candidates to win this thing. In the end, it was Wright.
The matches between the top of this bracket were pretty salty. A few overtimes that could have gone any way: Wright over Eise, Kelly over Waters. Other tight contests: Eise over Waters, Waters over Westpfahl. And it all culminated in a huge finals result of a Wright win by fall over Kelly.
The biggest surprise here was easily Eddie Neitenbach. Probably the biggest surprise of the entire tournament. I believe he’s actually the only entrant of the entire thing to pick up 5 wins against the top 25 entering the event. His lone loss was to Waters but he’s skyrocketed into the top 10 as far as I’m concerned.
190
Top 8:
Of course things don’t always go as expected but what we expected here essentially is exactly what played out. This weight wasn’t as deep with ranked wrestlers as others – in fact there was only 1 in the top 10 (#10 Cade Ziola). But there were 4 all between 10 and 15. And the gap between them was that close, the gap between that group and the rest was pretty big. So it was our prediction that the champion would come from that group of 4 and that they would be the semifinalists, etc etc. Sometimes we get it right.
Having Ziola as the highest ranked of that top group of 4, he was our pick to ultimately win. Hey, look at that. He’s just been more active through the Summer into Elite 8, Super 32, PNL, name an event and this kid was at it. You can’t underestimate the impact that kind of sharpening has. And it proved itself this weekend. A weekend that ended emphatically, with a pin over Dailey in the finals.
Dailey being in the finals didn’t surprise me at all. He has made the move up from 157 to 190 and let’s just say he seems to have taken it on with gusto. A lot is often made when kids make 3 or 4 weight jumps, and that’s when the weights are like 106 to 126. But this is a fully grown man weight. Not for the faint of heart. But I think he brings a more attacking and active mindset to a group that often doesn’t have as many leg attacks and things like that to worry about. Plus, seeing him in person, he was often the bigger of the two. Like there should be no question as to whether he can weather this growth. I think he’ll continue to build on this performance.
Taylor has caused a bit of conversation for me as I get people messaging about rankings that such and such kid beat him. Or could have beat him under certain circumstances. I don’t know, I try not to deal as much in hypotheticals, I can just look at the results. He actually picked up a win over Dailey the week prior to Ironman in the Green Farms Sem dual. Dailey was able to flip that here. Say what you want, Taylor definitely belongs among the top 15 nationally.
Miller was the most highly regarded Ohioan in the mix. He’s been here before, he competes on a national level with St. Ed’s obviously. He was a favorite pick to win this and the 7-4 semifinals defeat to Ziola is worth your watch.
Outside of this top 4, it was Robert Kucjarszk of Lake Highland Prep who came from a poll position in the distance and made a run to 5th. He’ll move way up with 3 top 25 wins.
215
Top 8:
A lot of times in this sport you hear about wrestlers “jumping levels”. The nature of this sport is that improvement is never out of reach and there’s always a chance something in training just clicks in a way that it didn’t before. Maybe it’s like Neo finally seeing the Matrix. In this case, we’ve seen that sort of thing with Rune Lawrence. And for those of us excited to see the steps he’s taken and improvement he’s made, we really wanted to see how true that was against Jude Correa. Correa is the last wrestler to beat Lawrence and has been among the cream of the crop nationally at this weight for years.
So, we didn’t get that match up in the finals because Lawrence tweaked his knee in the semis and forfeited to end it. For Correa, it was everything you would have expected: fall, fall, fall, and then a 4-2 win over Mocco. He’s won every sort of tournament you can imagine, so it was only fitting he’d add an Ironman title to the trophy case this year.
Lawrence got hurt in the semis when he was up like 10-1 on Max Shulaw. It was a pretty dominating performance he was putting on. And then he hurt his knee and had to hold on – literally – to the win. The final was 10-5 and it included a reversal against which he could put up no resistance and then 2 stalling points as he appeared unable to even move. Honestly, if the match had another minute he might have been stalled out. Thankfully for him it didn’t come to that. But it was unfortunate that he couldn’t back that up with another shot at Correa.
Shulaw came in as the defending Ironman champ. He was one of – maybe the only one actually who won every match by a major or more. This year’s bracket was a lot different. This was going to take a herculean effort to repeat. And while he was unable to do that, he came back for third in a dominating 15-3 win over Mocco. There was some pretty clear separation between the top 3 and the rest, and I think we saw that play out.
Mocco was a Super 32 runner up who followed that up with a very solid performance in Ohio. He came in as the 4th highest ranked and his only losses were to 1 and 3.
The surprise here was definitely Calcagno. He’ll go from unranked to top 20 with two nice wins over Clark and Kuhn.
285
Top 8:
More than any other weight Ironman benefits from the calendar when compared to Super 32. Rather than the middle of football season, it’s in the wrestling season and you get quite a bit more of the best the country has to offer. Carter Neves led this group into the Walsh Jesuit gym as the favorite once it became known that Joliet Catholic’s Dillan Johnson would be staying home. Johnson beat Neves to win this event last year and a rematch would have been among the best heavyweight bouts of the season.
Johnson just recently went up against Cole Mirasola at the Donnybrook. A finals match that Mirasola pulled out with a last second takedown. Gotta give Cole, usually a 215 pounder, credit for jumping up for that challenge and then coming away with the win. But talking with JCA’s head coach, they really have their sights on a match up with Hopke and want to make sure Dillan is in full wrestling shape for that coming off of football. Hence the decision to sit this one out.
That all meant that Neves was one of the biggest favorites to win his bracket. And that’s what happened. He had one non-bonus win, 6-3 semifinals over Ricky Thomas, and never really appeared threatened.
The rest of the field was really up for grabs. Fockler was the state of Ohio’s top contender, the 2 seed, and our 2nd highest ranked after Neves. That made him my pick but he would get the short end of the stick against Pavlechko. Pavlechko had himself a nice weekend with the win over Fockler, a win over Effendian, and then Ricky Thomas.
Fockler would also take an ultimate tie breaker loss to Thomas before beating Effendian for 5th.
Effendian finishing 6th outplaced his seed coming in. Led by a strong win over Spencer Lanosga.
As for the other finalist, Stillwell, he’s that heavyweight that doesn’t look like a heavyweight. We’re talking tall and has clearly lifted a weight or two in his day. His best win was Pavlechko in the semis.
I think Effendian is the biggest surprise here. But that’s a bit inaccurate as he was still top 15 coming in. So, maybe it’s more accurate to say there was no true surprise.
Based in Western PA. Right in the heart of WPIAL country, Todd brings an insider’s view from the country’s epicenter of wrestling. He’s excited to build on the TKDWN tradition of starting with the story first. The athletes, the coaches, their families and supporters, there is no shortage of stories to tell. And Todd will bring his unique perspective to help us continue to deliver top notch content for the world’s greatest sport!
