Drew Munch pinned his way to the finals before beating a ranked wrestler to win the title (Photo/Sam Janicki, SJanickiPhoto.com)The nation's top in-season high school wrestling tournament was contested this weekend at Walsh Jesuit High School in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio -- the 26th edition of the Walsh Ironman. Fifteen nationally ranked teams were among the field that contested the event on Friday and Saturday, while approximately 65 ranked wrestlers were in the competition. In such an elite event, there are a lot of observations to made, some of them are contained here.
A new national No. 1 team
The top two teams in the Fab 50 national high school team rankings in the field, they finished first and second in the standings. Leading the standings was No. 2 Wyoming Seminary (Pa.), while No. 1 Blair Academy (N.J.) finished second. The margin in the standings was 45.5 points, 234.5 to 189.
The absence of defending tournament champions Trevor Mastrogiovanni (126) and Shayne Van Ness (132) probably cost Blair Academy a net of 50-55 points; while the absence of Kyle Costello (195) and Jacob Kaminski (285) for Wyoming Seminary was about a 30-point net loss for the Blue Knights.
In terms of wrestling-related reasons for why the Blue Knights won the tournament, one can point to thee significant "above slot" performances. Unranked Drew Munch (132) pinned his way to the championship match and then beat a ranked wrestler in the finals bout; Lachlan McNeil (145) knocked off the national No. 1 in his championship match; and unranked freshman Gabe Arnold (160) beat a pair of ranked wrestlers on the way to a third-place finish.
Wyoming Seminary went 4-0 in semifinal matches on the way to three championships, while the other nine wrestlers they entered advanced to at minimum the consolation round of 12 with six of those wrestlers earning podium finishes. On the other hand, Blair Academy went 3-3 in the semifinals on the way to two championships but only placing seven wrestlers in total.
Dalton Harkins gets his hand raised after winning a title at the Walsh Jesuit Ironman (Photo/Sam Janicki, SJanickiPhoto.com)152 pounds of crazy
The 152-pound weight class bracket featured seven nationally ranked wrestlers entering the tournament: No. 2 Travis Mastrogiovanni (Blair Academy, N.J.), No. 5 Peyton Hall (Oak Glen, W.Va.), No. 6 Brayden Roberts (Parkersburg South, W.Va.), No. 8 B.J. Bailey (Thornton Fractional North, Ill.), No. 11 Connor Kievman (Wyoming Seminary, Pa.), No. 13 Bryce Hepner (St. Edward, Ohio), and No. 18 Noah Castillo (Lake Highland Prep, Fla.).
However, when the tournament was done, the champion was the unranked Dalton Harkins (Malvern Prep, Pa.), a wrestler that was not really even a consideration for the top 20 entering the tournament coming off a fourth-place finish last year in the 138-pound weight class at National Preps (he was third the two years previous). Harkins used a second period escape and a third period ride-out in which Bailey was hit with two stall calls to win 2-0 in the round of 16; he beat Cole Handlovic (Bethlehem Catholic, Pa.) 4-1 in the tiebreaker in the quarters; then it was a takedown and turn in the second period to key a 9-2 victory over Hall in the semifinal.
The championship match against Mastrogiovanni that went to overtime was interesting to say the least. Harkins did not score a takedown in regulation, while Mastrogiovanni had two. Harkins scored his points on an escape in each period, an unnecessary roughness penalty in the second period, and a second stalling call in the third period. The action leading to the pin in overtime was off a chin whip.
The front-side loss for the fourth and fifth place finishers in this weight class came to wrestlers that lost in the consolation round of 12: Castillo lost 2-1 in the tiebreaker to Derek Fields (Brunswick, Ohio), while Enrique Munguia (Elyria, Ohio) lost 10-7 to Hepner; while the seventh and eighth place finishers split matches during the course of the tournament, Handlovic won 4-3 in the round of 16 while Caleb Dowling (St. Joseph's Catholic, Pa.) 3-0 for seventh.
In summary, the order of placement went NR, No. 2, No. 5, No. 18, NR, No. 6, NR, and NR; No. 11 and No. 13 lost one match short of placement, while No. 8 fell two matches before placement.
Team revelation: Malvern Prep, Pa.
Entering the tournament ranked No. 27 in the country, people knew the Friars were a pretty talented team. However, top five standings type noise was not expected: (1) five teams ranked inside the national top eight were in the field (2) no wrestler entered the weekend nationally ranked (3) no wrestler was seeded above fifth (4) only four wrestlers were seeded in placement positions.
What happened was three finalists and six placers. 14-seed Harkins and six-seed Deery emerged as champions; while Feldman, the Friars' highest seed at fifth, finished as runner-up. Also placing were Jack Wehmeyer in sixth, while Thomas Link and Dayton Delviscio finished eighth. Of those six wrestlers, two are seniors, one is a junior, two are sophomores, and one is a freshman.
Malvern Prep amassed 126.5 points on the way to a third-place finish, 78.5 of which were scored by non-seniors; a total that would have placed just behind 10th place Waynesburg, Pa. Eleven of their fourteen starters are underclassmen, including nine freshmen or sophomores; and there is strong talent coming from behind for head coach Nathan Lautar through their youth/club infrastructure.
Best championship path of the tournament: Frankie Tal-Shahar
Though Outstanding Wrestler honors went to Lachlan McNeil (Wyoming Seminary, Pa.) for upending the national No. 1 at 145 pounds in the championship bout, the most impressive championship path in my opinion was had by Tal-Shahar. A runner-up in this event last year at 132 pounds, he entered this tournament off a DNP at the preseason Super 32 Challenge, though his consolation loss was in the tiebreaker to a Cadet World Team participant.
In the round of 16, a late takedown was the difference in a 3-2 victory over talented sophomore Gavin Brown (Legacy Christian Academy, Ohio); while takedowns in the first and third period propelled the national No. 10 to a 5-2 win over No. 5 Mick Burnett (Elyria, Ohio); a third period takedown was the difference in a 3-1 win over No. 16 Nick Moore (St. Paris Graham, Ohio); before his 3-1 overtime victory over national No. 1 Beau Bartlett (Wyoming Seminary, Pa.).
Low margins Saturday
The second day of the tournament saw a hefty number of close bouts. By round of competition, here was the accounting for bouts that were either decided by two points or less in regulation or had to go beyond regulation time to have a winner emerge.
Consolation round of 12
Semifinal
Consolation quarterfinals
Consolation semifinals
Championship finals
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