While the potential match between No. 1 Apple Valley, Minnesota (also champions of The Clash the last two years) and No. 4 Brandon, Florida is the talk of the national wrestling community, there is much more to discuss heading into The Clash IX this coming Friday and Saturday in Rochester, Minnesota. Thirteen schools in the 32-team field are ranked in the Fab 50, while there are 30 individuals in the field that are also nationally ranked.
During the last five editions of The Clash, the tournament committee has awarded $1,000 college scholarships to approximately five deserving wrestlers -- in addition to recognizing the top performing team and individuals during the course of the two-day competition. That will continue this coming year as well.
Wrestling on the first day of the Clash, which is tomorrow, is split into four 8-team brackets that are wrestled during two sessions. Brackets "A" and "B" are wrestled during the morning (9 a.m., 11 a.m., and 1 p.m. Central Time), while Brackets "C" and "D" are wrestled in the late afternoon (4 p.m., 6 p.m., and 8 p.m. Central Time). Teams will wrestle in three dual meets to determine their position for the three matches of round-robin wrestling on Saturday.
Round-robin wrestling on Saturday is split into the same morning and late afternoon time blocks. Teams that earn a top four finish wrestle in the late afternoon against those with the corresponding finish on Friday; while those in the bottom four wrestle on Saturday morning. A top four finish is guaranteed by winning the opening dual match on Friday.
The following teams appear in the Fab 50:
Bracket A: No. 1 Apple Valley, Minnesota; No. 21 Roseburg, Oregon; and No. 39 Bettendorf, Iowa
Bracket B: No. 4 Brandon, Florida; No. 35 Glenbard North, Illinois; and No. 44 Grand Island, Nebraska
Bracket C: No. 10 Wisconsin Rapids, Wisconsin; No. 42 Kasson-Mantorville, Minnesota; No. 46 Montini Catholic, Illinois; and No. 48 Carl Sandburg, Illinois
Bracket D: No. 6 Simley, Minnesota; No. 13 Waverly-Shell Rock, Iowa; and No. 45 St. Michael-Albertville, Minnesota
The following individuals are ranked in their respective weight classes:
103: No. 16 Kyle Gliva (Simley, Minnesota)
112: No. 19 Jordan Kingsley (Apple Valley, Minnesota)
119: No. 5 Thomas Gilman (Skutt Catholic, Nebraska) and No. 14 Eric Devos (Waverly-Shell Rock, Iowa)
125: No. 11 Kevin Norstrem (Brandon, Florida); No. 13 Dakota Trom (Apple Valley, Minnesota); and No. 20 Tanner Werner (Waverly-Shell Rock, Iowa)
130: No. 11 Joey Gosinski (Glenbard North, Illinois); No. 12 Mark Hall (Apple Valley, Minnesota); No. 13 Rossi Bruno (Brandon, Florida); and No. 15 Ben Morgan (Forest Lake, Minnesota)
135: No. 4 Tyler Liberatore (Brandon, Florida) and No. 9 Matt Kelliher (Apple Valley, Minnesota)
140: No. 4 Jake Sueflohn (Arrowhead, Wisconsin); No. 6 Jake Short (Simley, Minnesota); No. 10 Brandon Kingsley (Apple Valley, Minnesota); No. 16 Brian Murphy (Glenbard North, Illinois); and No. 20 Bo Schlosser (Bettendorf, Iowa)
152: No. 1 Destin McCauley (Apple Valley, Minnesota); No. 6 Stephen Robertson (Montini Catholic, Illinois); No. 9 Cody Caldwell (Waverly-Shell Rock, Iowa); and No. 13 Clark Glass (Brandon, Florida)
160: No. 4 Steven Keogh (Apple Valley, Minnesota) and No. 6 Wally Figaro (Brandon, Florida)
171: No. 6 Jake Waste (Apple Valley, Minnesota) and No. 16 Austin Gabel (Ponderosa, Colorado)
189: No. 4 Devin Peterson (Wisconsin Rapids, Wisconsin)
285: No. 1 Cody Krumwiede (Waverly-Shell Rock, Iowa); No. 12 Brodie Berrie (Bettendorf, Iowa); and No. 13 Chris Lopez (Carl Sandburg, Illinois)
For First Day Brackets: http://www.clashmn.com/Clash9/Clash9Brackets.htm
Direct Link to the event as it happens: http://www.trackwrestling.com/teamtournaments/VerifyPassword.jsp?tournamentId=396009
"Team advancement" -- The original: the 31st Virginia Duals
For the 31st time, the Peninsula Wrestling Association will host the Virginia Duals at the Hampton Coliseum in Hampton, Virginia. The event will again feature two divisions of college, three divisions of high school, and new this year is a middle school division. This is the seventeenth year for the National high school division, and the sixteenth year for the American and Black & Blue high school divisions.
The National division is the premier high school bracket, and features sixteen -- more or less -- elite high school programs from across the country. This year, there are six nationally-ranked teams: No. 10 Wyoming Seminary, Pennsylvania; No. 26 Canon-McMillan, Pennsylvania; No. 27 Christiansburg, Virginia; No. 31 Cox, Virginia; No. 40 South Plainfield, New Jersey; and No. 41 Nazareth, Pennsylvania.
These six teams are also the top six seeds. Wyoming Seminary is the top seed, with Canon-McMillan and South Plainfield seeded fourth and fifth respectively. In the bottom half of the draw, Christiansburg is the second seed, while Nazareth and Cox are seeded third and sixth.
St. Mark's, Delaware (seeded eighth) will be seeking to defend the championship; Nazareth was runner-up last year, and tournament champions in 2007; while Christiansburg had been in five consecutive Virginia Duals championship matches prior to last year (champions in 2008 and 2009).
The following individuals are ranked within their respective weight classes:
112: No. 1 Anthony Ashnault (South Plainfield, New Jersey); No. 3 Conner Schram (Canon-McMillan, Pennsylvania); and No. 9 JR Wert (Christiansburg, Virginia)
119: No. 7 Joey Dance (Christiansburg, Virginia) and No. 8 Dominick Malone (Wyoming Seminary, Pennsylvania)
130: No. 2 Zach Horan (Nazareth, Pennsylvania); No. 7 Brandon Jeske (Cox, Virginia); and No. 20 Solomon Chisko (Canon-McMillan, Pennsylvania)
145: No. 8 Blake Roulo (Matoaca, Virginia); No. 15 Henry Carlson (Cox, Virginia); and No. 17 Nick Catalano (Canon-McMillan, Virginia)
152: No. 19 Eric Morris (Wyoming Seminary, Pennsylvania) and No. 20 David Wesley (St. Christopher's, Virginia)
285: No. 18 Terrance Jean-Jacques (Wyoming Seminary, Pennsylvania)
National Division Bracket: http://virginiaduals.org/2011_NationalHS_Bracket.pdf
American Division Bracket: http://virginiaduals.org/2011_American_Bracket.pdf
Black & Blue Division Bracket: http://virginiaduals.org/2011_B&B_Bracket.pdf
Results will be available on Track Wrestling throughout the competition tomorrow and Saturday
A tournament almost as old as high school wrestling itself
Twenty-four teams from Oklahoma, Texas, and New Mexico will convene upon Geary, Oklahoma for what has to be the nation's oldest high school wrestling tournament. The 67th annual Geary Invitational features many unique traditions that are as old as the event itself. Two of those in particular would be the fact that there is no seeding, which means the expected feature matchups can happen at any time; and there is the opportunity for wrestlers that take third to challenge for true second place, if they did not compete against the defeated finalist earlier in the tournament.
A pair of teams in the field is nationally ranked -- No. 19 Tulsa Union, Oklahoma, and No. 36 Broken Arrow, Oklahoma -- while a third team (Claremore, Oklahoma) was in the team rankings earlier this season. Four wrestlers in the field are nationally ranked, including a pair in the 160 pound weight class -- No. 7 Kyle Crutchmer (Tulsa Union, Oklahoma) and No. 16 Zach Skates (Broken Arrow, Oklahoma). Also in the rankings is No. 16 Calib Freeman (Claremore, Oklahoma) at 112 pounds and No. 13 Chase Ferman (Broken Arrow, Oklahoma) at 135. Another potential big-time match could happen at 119 pounds, with a pair of two-time state champions, both only juniors at present, possibly in the bracket: Josh Walker (Tulsa Union, Oklahoma) and Kyle Garcia (Choctaw, Oklahoma).
Best from the Golden State "Battle for the Hat"
With two of the traditional major in-season tournaments in the state of California both being contested next week, as opposed to one in each of the two weeks after this one, it will be the Doc Buchanan Invitational hosted by Clovis High School that serves as the ultimate pre-test for the best wrestlers and teams in California. The top seven teams in the December edition of state rankings compiled by The California Wrestler, including three nationally-ranked teams -- No. 7 Bakersfield, No. 9 Clovis, and No. 23 Oakdale -- are in this field.
The following nationally-ranked wrestlers are in the field:
103: No. 19 Isaiah Locsin (Live Oak, California)
119: No. 15 Stevan Knoblauch (Clovis West, California)
125: No. 4 Alex Cisneros (Selma, California); No. 6 Fabian Garcia (Turlock, California); and No. 7 Vince Rodriguez (Clovis North, California)
135: No. 18 Chris Mecate (Redlands East Valley, California)
140: No. 8 Nick Pena (Selma, California) and No. 14 Isaiah Martinez (Lemoore, California)
145: No. 18 David Ferry (Oakdale, California)
160: No. 5 Vinny Waldhauser (Oak Ridge, California) and No. 9 Justin Lozano (Selma, California)
171: No. 4 Bryce Hammond (Bakersfield, California); No. 12 Zach Nevills (Clovis, California); and No. 14 Nikko Reyes (Clovis West, California)
189: No. 7 Lucas Sheridan (De La Salle, California)
For further coverage of the tournament -- links to streaming video and updated results -- check out the Clovis Wrestling website, http://www.cloviswrestling.com. Competition on both days starts at 9:00 a.m. Pacific Time (12 noon in the east), with finals slated for 5:00 p.m. Pacific Time on Saturday evening.
Ohio State Duals
The Ohio High School Wrestling Coaches Association (OHSWCA) sanctions the unofficial dual meet state championship in the Buckeye State for each of the three divisions. Eight teams in each division will be after the championships, which will be held this Sunday at three different locations across the state.
No. 47 Wadsworth will be after a third consecutive State Duals championship in Division I; however, standing in their way will be No. 5 St. Edward and No. 18 Massillon Perry. The fifth-ranked Eagles are the top seed, and also pretty clear favorites to make the championship match. On the other hand, the two-time defending champion Grizzlies will have to be a very young, but formidable, Cincinnati Moeller squad in the opening round just to advance to a collision with Massillon Perry in the semifinal.
Perennial champions in Division II, No. 3 St. Paris Graham will yet again serve as hosts for this event and are the strong favorites. Nominal challenges should come in the semifinal from Walsh Jesuit and in the final from Oak Harbor, though the Falcons should claim yet another trophy. In Division III, there will be a new champion as Cuyahoga Hts. did not qualify for this year's event; however, the clear favorite is St. Peter Chanel, which is coming off a title at the Brecksville Holiday Invitational Tournament just last week.
Updated Fab 50 team rankings released
The updated national Fab 50 team rankings were posted yesterday. Apple Valley, Minnesota remains in the number one position after winning the Cheesehead with nine finalists but only one champion. Moving up to the second position, from the number three ranking, is Blair Academy, New Jersey. The Buccaneers had five champions in that tournament.
New to the Fab 50 this week is No. 41 Nazareth, Pennsylvania; No. 48 Carl Sandburg, Illinois; and No. 50 Crown Point, Indiana.
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