Easily the main event of the festivities, Rocco Welsh from the host PA squad takes on Josh Barr. Now this one here is notable for a few reasons.
First, Welsh will be spending his college years in Columbus competing for the Buckeyes of Ohio State. Barr is traveling east from Michigan to compete for the Nittany Lions of State College, PA. As far as teams go, they aren’t rivals per se, for one thing Penn State has no rival currently, but OSU has a bona fide rival in all things called Michigan. However, they are rivals in the sense that teams in the same conference see each other that way. Welsh will be doing what he can to get the Buckeyes back on top of the conference and Barr figures to be there for the Nittany Lions to keep that from happening. So, whatever rivalry there already is between them figures to continue and combat sports feed off rivalries.
Second, they already have established a rivalry between themselves. They’ve met twice. Barr won in Fargo (which is freestyle) and Welsh won at Who’s #1. We might say Welsh enters as the slight favorite based on the fact that Barr’s victory was in a different style of wrestling and Welsh’s is more recent. However, it is safe to say that neither wrestler has had this level of test all season. Rocco did compete at Ironman and Powerade whereas Davison didn’t compete there so you would have to say his regular season was a bit more robust. But, in the end it not’s a huge issue because the only real threat to either one is the other one.
Anyway, we’ll find out tomorrow night who wins the rubber match and heads into the freestyle season with the upper hand.
Before the first whistle, be sure to check out the interview I did with Rocco prior to the PA state finals -> https://thetakedown.media/2023/03/rocco-welsh-umma-do-me/
(note: PWC and the event organizers are missing an opportunity to showcase this match. Promo should be everywhere and I don’t see any anywhere really.)
This won’t be the first time Team USA enters as the favorite and we’ve seen over the years that making the trip to Western PA doesn’t always turn out in favor of the visiting squad. But we can’t ignore that coming into this event, the PA team is only the favorite on paper at 172. And as we just discussed that’s as slight a favorite as it gets.
On the other hand, you would be wise to predict bonus for Team USA at 133, 189 and possibly at 285 as well.
Now, we all know how much rankings really mean, and we just saw a historic upset at NCAA’s. No win here would be anywhere near that level so I don’t want to exaggerate the discrepancy. But, it is just a fact that the USA squad is ranked higher at every weight but 172, and I’ll throw 139 in there since Kasak hasn’t been included in rankings once he stopped competing in the HS season, and where the opponents have history they mostly favor the visitor as well.
121 gives us PA state champion Cael Nasdeo, newly ranked nationally, taking on a top 3 staple in MAM. Nasdeo is the rare PA kid staying in-state for the Nittany Lions. I say rare because you see all these kids in the PA line up heading elsewhere. Does Cael even recruit the best wrestling state in the country? McGowan is headed to Princeton where he might be next in line after NCAA champ Glory.
127 features #6 Davis vs #7 Kilkeary in a battle of state champions. They have some history between them as Kilkeary was able to beat Davis in the Super 32 finals a few years ago. That was at 106. Like Welsh and Barr this is a battle between a future Buckeye and Nittany Lion. And just like with the other one it is the PA kid traveling west to OSU and the Michigan kid heading east.
133 sees top in the country Cael Hughes take on unranked Jayden Pepe. Hughes is headed to Oklahoma State to take over for Daton Fix presumably. Although Fix has another year left, if we assume Hughes redshirts it times up well for them. Pepe is committed to Harvard. I’ve heard of it. They wrestled like 4 years ago in a freestyle match, does that even matter? If it does, Hughes won by tech fall. Hughes hasn’t gotten worse we would imagine.
139 is the other PA kid staying home to wrestle for PSU. Tyler Kasak hasn’t been competing in the HS season – I actually think that should be a requirement to compete here – but he’s obviously an elite talent. Block is staying in-state for the Hawkeyes so this sets up another possible collegiate Big 10 rivalry. They’ve wrestled twice before, splitting them 1-1.
At 145 future Wolfpack of NC State Buesgens takes on future Hokie Mac Church. Church is coming off a PA state runner up finish while Buesgens was the state champion and carries a top 1 national ranking. They’ve met up head to head three times, with Buesgens winning the most dominant of the three as well as the most recent.
152 is a PA state champion in Watters taking on Michigan – another kid from Michigan, this is basically PA vs Michigan with a couple Stillwater kids for good measure or something. Anyway, Gilcher is the Michigan state champion and they are currently ranked #2 and #3 nationally. Who’s 2 and who’s 3? Flip a coin. Watters is headed to West Virginia while Gilcher is staying home for the Wolverines in Ann Arbor. This may be the last time they meet up for awhile.
160 is another PA state champion. Ooo wee, let’s rehash the Evans vs Taylor state finals ref debacle. Or, let’s not. He’ll be staying close to home and attending Pitt in the fall. Stiles is a bonafide hammer who will be making the move from Illinois to Nebraska for his college years. They met in Fargo last Summer and Stiles pinned him. Doesn’t mean he pins him again but this is one of those that heavily favors Team USA.
The single best wrestler in this field is probably Thompson at 189. Of course it’s always a difficult thing to gauge and there’s a lot of subjectivity in such pound for pound rankings but he did beat a top 10 wrestler while giving up 30 pounds so how much more pound for pound can you get? Any time you get to see a kid of that caliber it’s worth tuning into. He gets Jacob Jones who comes into the weekend of a 5th place finish in the state. Jones is headed to Ithaca while Thompson will join Hughes in Stillwater at Oklahoma State.
215 is a battle of top 10 kids in the country. Gavin Nelson is one of those beasts of a human being that you wonder how is that a HS kid. Meanwhile Sonny Sasso with his height and frame and signature floppy hair looks a little like Pau Gasol. I’m sure he wouldn’t be too pleased with that comparison but I’m just saying dude has the frame to end up at the next weight class up for the Virginia Tech Hokies. Nelson is staying in the state of Minnesota hoping to help the Gophers build a truly competitive Big 10 squad.
285 is another one of the bigger mismatches on paper. Matt Moore comes in ranked in the top 10 and will be headed to Nebraska. Schmick is outside the top 20 and will be wrestling for East Stroudsburg. Don’t get me wrong, heavyweight is sometimes where you see the biggest surprise, or upset, happen. And it could very well happen here. They haven’t faced each other prior to this weekend so who knows.
Girls (164): Destiny Rodriguez is quite possibly the best girl in the country. She’s probably the biggest favorite of any match in the line up.
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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!