Cincinnati Moeller's Chalmer Frueauf (Photo/The Guillotine)Normally one goes to Rivals, Scout, or ESPN's Recruiting Nation to get good high school football coverage. However, for one last time this year, we'll mention the football success of some elite wrestling teams.
No. 22 Allen, Texas has its football team playing in the Division 5A1 state quarterfinals this weekend. In all likelihood, this will preclude three of the key wrestlers -- No. 3 Oliver Pierce (160), No. 18 Nick Cobb (195), and state placer Stone Drulman (220) -- from participating in their four most important national-level competitions this year.
Thursday night, Allen travels to No. 21 Broken Arrow, Okla., for a triangular meet with No. 16 Tuttle, Okla., and the host Tigers. Then the Eagles will compete in the Mid-America Nationals hosted by Tulsa Union on Friday and Saturday. The succeeding two weekends see Allen making trips to the Kansas City Wrestling Classic and the Zinkin Invitational hosted by Buchanan, Calif.
Two nationally ranked New Jersey wrestling squads -- No. 39 Bergen Catholic and No. 43 Don Bosco Prep -- had their football teams meet up in the state semifinals on Friday night; it was Bergen Catholic avenging a regular season loss, and ending an 11-game losing streak in the rivalry, with a 28-14 victory. Bergen Catholic's state title game is this weekend, with wrestling seasons in New Jersey beginning next weekend.
It becomes highly unlikely that No. 5 Johnny Sebastian (182) and state qualifier Carmine Goldsack (285) will be with Bergen Catholic for their season-opening tournament at Pittsburgh Central Catholic. More importantly, it is an open question that the two will be a part of the team for their December 18 dual at No. 27 South Plainfield, N.J., or at the Beast of the East that weekend. For Don Bosco, it makes it much more likely that they'll have the services of state champion Razohn Gross (195/220) and Zach Chakonis (220/285) for their opening tournament and the Beast of the East.
Finally, let's recognize No. 28 Cincinnati Moeller, who had six starting wrestlers as part of a state championship winning football team in Ohio's big-school division this past weekend. Without those wrestlers, the Crusaders went 3-1 at the Moeller Duals suffering a 35-32 defeat against a Marysville, Ohio squad that returns five state qualifiers. Winning that event was Marmion Academy, Ill., with match victories in the "top" round-robin: 43-24 over Marysville and 33-24 over Oregon Clay, Ohio.
Online registration for the Walsh Ironman this weekend lists all of those young men -- 2011 state placer Dean Meyer (160), state placer Dakota Sizemore (170), state qualifier Quinton Rooser (182), 2011 state placer Jerry Thornberry (195), two-time state placer Chalmer Frueauf (220), and Max Swoboda (285) -- being slated to compete, which would qualify as a surprise to me.
Events to watch this coming weekend
There are many key events with multiple national ranked teams on the docket for this weekend. Most will have some combination of a separate event preview article on the InterMat feed or be mentioned within the course of this column.
Arguably the best in-season tournament in the nation will be held this Friday and Saturday at Walsh Jesuit High School just southeast of Cleveland, Ohio. Thirteen nationally ranked teams are among the field: No. 1 Blair Academy, N.J., No. 2 St. Edward, Ohio, No. 3 Wyoming Seminary, Pa., No. 6 Canon McMillan, Pa., No. 10 Montini Catholic, Ill., No. 17 St. Paris Graham, Ohio, No. 25 Kearney, Mo., No. 27 McDonogh, Md., No. 28 Cincinnati Moeller, Ohio, No. 30 Massillon Perry, Ohio, No. 33 Colonial Forge, Va., No. 34 Christiansburg, Va., and No. 35 Hermiston, Ore.
In addition, the following top ranked wrestlers in their respective weight classes will be in the field: Austin Assad (Brecksville) at 106, Zahid Valencia (St. John Bosco, Calif.) at 113, Nathan Tomasello (CVCA, Ohio) at 120, Joey Dance (Christiansburg, Va.) at 126, Dean Heil (St. Edward, Ohio) at 132, Zain Retherford (Benton, Pa.) at 138, Bo Jordan (St. Paris Graham, Ohio) at 160, Eric Morris (Wyoming Seminary, Pa.) at 182, Domenic Abounader (St. Edward, Ohio) at 195, and Kyle Snyder (Good Counsel, Md.) at 220. Note that Abounader will actually be competing at 182 pounds this season, which sets up a No. 1 vs. No. 1 matchup in that weight; Abounader ranked No. 20 overall in the senior class, Morris 21st.
A pair of dual meets on Friday night in Minnesota will showcase the Gopher State's four Fab 50 teams. No. 18 Kasson-Mantorville travels to No. 4 Apple Valley, while No. 8 Simley travels to No. 5 St. Michael-Albertville.
It is opening weekend for wrestling in the state of Michigan. No. 15 Detroit Catholic Central was scheduled to host No. 46 Davison on Wednesday afternoon; however, the death of a student at Detroit Catholic Central overnight Monday into Tuesday caused that to be postponed indefinitely. Then on Friday and Saturday, Davison and No. 9 St. Johns appear in the same tournaments. On Friday, both teams are slated to compete in the Owosso Invitational; while on Saturday each team will send competitors to a pair of tournaments, one of which for each is the East Kentwood Tournament.
No. 11 Clovis, Calif., is the main attraction in the Clovis West Shootout on Friday and Saturday. On Friday, each of 16 teams will compete in five dual meets. The eight "home" teams include squads such as Clovis, Clovis West, and Buchanan; while the eight "away" teams include teams such as Collins Hill, Ga., and Henley, Ore. The home and away teams will compete against teams from the other cluster.
Then on Saturday, there will be an individual bracket event. The top 8 wrestlers compete in a gold bracket, while the bottom eight in a silver bracket. The featured weight of that competition could be at 120 pounds with No. 5 Ronnie Bresser (Henley), No. 12 Jonas Gayton (Clovis), and No. 18 Ryan Millhof (Collins Hill) all potentially in this class.
It's also a big weekend for wrestling in the Sooner State. On Thursday night, No. 21 Broken Arrow will host No. 16 Tuttle, Okla., and No. 22 Allen, Texas. Then, on Friday and Saturday, Tulsa Union hosts its annual Mid-America Nationals tournament -- an event which features Tuttle, Allen, and No. 14 Collinsville, Okla. among other teams including a very solid but unranked Edmond North, Okla., squad.
No. 32 Bettendorf, Iowa and No. 36 West Delaware Manchester, Iowa will be among the 16 teams competing in the Cedar Rapids Duals on Saturday. A couple of non-ranked teams to watch in this event are Linn-Mar, Iowa and Waverly-Shell Rock, Iowa.
Saturday also marks the Cleveland Duals in Tennessee, an always excellent showcase of some of the best wrestling talent in the southeastern United States. That field includes two nationally ranked teams -- No. 46 Pope, Ga., and No. 49 Christian Brothers, Tenn.
Welcome back to the rankings, Southeast Polk
Despite ending the 2011-12 season ranked No. 13 in the Fab 50 rankings, Southeast Polk, Iowa was excluded from the initial team rankings of this season. The Rams made their position about that loud and clear with a championship at the GEHS Invite in Kansas on Saturday in which they out-pointed previous No. 20 Broken Arrow, Okla. 252-234. It is evident that they have bounced back from having to replace superstars Cory Clark and Will Miklus, as well as state finalist Bud Smith, due to graduation.
The Rams were led by a trio of champions on Saturday in Nolan Hellickson (106), Bryce Fisher (220), and Jacob Scanlan (285). Runners-up included Briar Dittmer (132), Tim Miklus (160), and Dylan Blackford (170); while Dylan Buchheit (138) and Colin Strickland (145) finished third.
Their balance was enough to upend the seven finalists for Broken Arrow, including five championships coming from Markus Simmons (120), Zach Edwards (132), Tanner Bailey (145), Paden Bailey (152), and Brock Warren (182); while Nathan Clark (126) and Christian Vaverka (195) finished as runners-up. However, the Tigers did not have a wrestler entered in the 220 or 285 weight classes.
National team rankings: Balancing act
As always, the results of the first "true" weekend lead to conclusions being made about the team rankings. Some of these questions do come with merit -- certain teams are "under-ranked" and others are clearly "over-ranked". However, certain situations have a bit of nuance to them.
Is a team missing wrestlers from their lineup? Are they "key" ones? What is the format of the event: dual meets, small tournament, medium tournament, mega-tournament, etc.?
A couple of these scenarios showed up in the opening weekend:
Broken Arrow remains above Southeast Polk despite finishing second to them at the GEHS Invite, partly because the Tigers had five champions to the Rams three, and the Tigers did not have a wrestler in the upper two weight classes. For example, in a bigger field event -- the GEHS Invite had just 16 teams -- those champions would be more likely to relatively maintain performance, while the Rams' "success by volume" approach may not hold up.
Bettendorf, Iowa -- now ranked No. 32 nationally -- finished second at the Keith Young Invitational -- to unranked North Scott, Iowa by 1.5 points. However, the Bulldogs were missing three starters from their lineup in the 16-team field event. They also led the tournament in terms of champions with four from five finalists, while North Scott only had a pair of champions.
Christiansburg, Va. -- now ranked No. 34 nationally -- lost a dual meet 45-26 against unranked Gilmer, Ga. at the Lake Norman Duals. However, the Blue Demons have a quartet of nationally ranked wresters in Coy Ozias (113), J.R. Wert (120), Joey Dance (126), and Zach Epperly (170). They are a squad that will more than thrive at the Walsh Ironman and Beast of the East this month. However, with the relative inexperience and youth around them, there will be some growing pains in dual meets and/or small tournaments.
Ranked Wrestlers Results Analysis
The "true" opening weekend of high school wrestling saw a series of matchups involving nationally ranked wrestlers that merited further attention.
No. 4 Aaron Assad (Brecksville, Ohio) was upset 6-0 in dual meet action at 113 pounds by Dustin Warner (Claymont, Ohio). Warner was a state qualifier last year at 120 pounds, which was up two weights due to the presence of multiple-time state placers in the lineup at 106 and 113.
Also at 113 pounds, No. 13 Ke-Shawn Hayes (Park Hill, Mo.) upended No. 11 Jaret Singh (Kearney, Mo.) in the final dual meet at the Park Hill Duals. Also in that meet, No. 19 Seth Brayfield (Kearney) outlasted two-time state placer John Erneste 5-3 in overtime at 120, and No. 14 Grant Leeth (Kearney) defeated three-time state runner-up Russell Coleman 10-3 at 140. In terms of the dual meet, No. 24 Kearney defeated Park Hill 31-27 with a pin from Dillon Grime at 285 even with the absence of two key starters.
The Ray Oliver Invitational finals offered a pair of interesting results. At 160 pounds, No. 6 Josh Llopez (St. Mary's Ryken, Md.) left with a 6-5 overtime victory over No. 10 (at 152) Myles Martin (McDonogh, Md.). Then at 182 pounds, it was an upset as Tyler Patrick (McDonogh, Md.) upended No. 16 Troy Murtha (Georgetown Prep, Md.), 5-3.
No. 4 Garrett Ryan (Wyoming Seminary, Pa.) was upended by post-graduate McZiggy Richards (St. Benedict's Prep, N.J.) 8-5 in the 220 pound final at the Caruso Invitational on Saturday. Richards was a state placer as a senior at 182 pounds in New York State last year and placed in Fargo on multiple occasions.
Marist: The Schedule Warriors
Through the first two weekends in Illinois, Marist has already competed in dual meets against a pair of nationally ranked teams. Thanksgiving weekend, the Red Hawks lost to No. 12 Oak Park River Forest 26-25, while this past weekend they lost to a short-handed Montini Catholic team 31-27. Marist was without state placer Peter Andreotti (160) in both matches and two-time state placer Mark Duda (120) against Montini.
Over the next two weekends, they have dual meets against solid teams like Lockport, Ill., Lowell, Mich., and Marmion Academy, Ill. Then, before Christmas they'll be in the Dvorak Memorial Tournament, and the Red Hawks travel to The Clash National Wrestling Duals after Christmas.
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