There are two other additional tournaments being held over the week as well. Friday is the opening day of USA Wrestling Cadet & Junior National Folkstyle Championships in Cedar Falls, Iowa. Competition will continue through Saturday's medal matches. In addition, the second annual FloNationals will commence from Walsh Jesuit just outside of Akron, Ohio on Saturday with its finals being conducted Sunday evening.
Across the competitions, many nationally ranked wrestlers will be on the mats. This includes the following number one wrestlers -- Evan Silver (Blair Academy, New Jersey); Jason Tsirtsis (Crown Point, Indiana); Alex Dieringer (Port Washington, Wisconsin); and Bryce Hammond (Bakersfield, California). Silver and Hammond will be taking to the mats of the NHSCA Senior Nationals at 112 and 160 respectively; Tsirtsis, ranked first at 140, will be down in the 135 pound class at the FloNationals; while Dieringer, ranked first at 145, will be up in the 152-pound class at the Junior Folkstyle Nationals.
Only in two weight classes will even half of the wrestlers that are nationally ranked be competing during the upcoming week (and weekend) -- ten nationally ranked wrestlers will be scattered across the competitions at 140 and 189 pounds. Three other weight classes -- 112, 119, and 145 -- are slated to have nine of their ranked wrestlers in competitions this week as well.
The one weight bracket across the seven championship events that is projected to be the most populated with ranked wrestlers is the 145 pound weight at the NHSCA Senior Nationals. This weight is slated to feature No. 3 James Green (Willingboro, New Jersey); No. 4 Edwin Cooper (Providence Catholic, Illinois); No. 6 Pete Baldwin (Osceola, Florida); No. 9 Charlie Lynch (Archbishop Spalding, Maryland); and No. 10 Blake Roulo (Matoaca, Virginia). In addition, a pair of wrestlers -- No. 3 Lex Ozias (Southern Garrett, Maryland) and No. 4 Colby Kloetzer (Caldwell, Idaho) -- are slated to drop from 152 down into this weight bracket as well.
Even though it seems that not particularly many ranked wrestlers are in these fields, that does not mean each tournament lacks high quality wrestlers. There tend to be more high quality wrestlers than there are national ranking positions. Therefore, this will be a weekend for all wrestlers competing to gain the increased attention of national ranking analysts, as well as -- even more important -- collegiate coaches. The final end of season weight class rankings will be released the early part of the week of April 11, with updated graduating class rankings to follow very soon thereafter.
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