Ten Things to Watch at 2023 Senior Nationals

Tomorrow, USA Wrestling’s Senior Nationals will get underway from the Fort Worth Convention Center in Fort Worth, Texas. The event is a qualifier for the 2024 Olympic Trials in State College, Pennsylvania. The top-five placewinners at each weight, in each discipline, will earn a spot at the Trials. In some cases, there are wrestlers who have already qualified for the Trials but have decided to compete anyway. Here are ten interesting items to keep in mind as you follow the tournament over the next three days: Spencer Lee/Nick Suriano It’s simply the most anticipated potential match of the tournament, regardless of style or weight class. Spencer Lee and Nick Suriano have crossed paths many times during their wrestling careers; however, they’ve only met three times in competition. The pair split matches at the 2012 and 2013 Super 32 finals, with Suriano winning the first and Spencer Lee taking the rematch. They would meet again in the 2018 NCAA finals. Lee won his first NCAA title with a 5-1 victory over Suriano. The two were not in the same weight class again and each would go on to win two additional titles. It appeared that we’d get round number four of this rivalry earlier this year at the US Open as both advanced to the semifinals at 57 kgs. Lee ended up withdrawing, while Suriano was stunned in the finals by Zane Richards. Since then, Lee has gone on to secure his place at the Olympic Team Trials with his performance at the Bill Farrell November. Regardless of the outcome this week, there’s a good chance we’ll get to see another meeting between these two at the Olympic Trials. That would be a treat considering we’ve waited five years in between matches two and three and three and four. *****Editor's Note: Nick Suriano was not among the preseeds for the tournament and is not expected to compete***** 65 kg changing weights (Gross, DeSanto, Pantaleo) One of the most unfortunate things about wrestling in the Olympics is the lack of weight classes. In non-Olympic years each style has ten, but they are condensed to six in the lead-up to the Games. That leads to plenty of wrestlers having to make the choice to either move up or down from their ideal weight. This can lead to uncharacteristic performances from great wrestlers. During the last Olympic cycle, we saw two-time World medalist James Green cut down to 65 kg (from his customary 70 kg) and was not nearly as effective at the lower weight. From a fan’s standpoint, these matches we’re not used to seeing can make for some intrigue leading up to the event. This year’s 65 kg weight class in men’s freestyle has plenty of those “tweeners” that have had some success at 61 or 70 kg. Moving up to 65 are Seth Gross and Austin DeSanto. So is promising freestyle prospect Michael McGee, a third place finisher for Arizona State in 2023 at NCAA’s. The biggest name moving down from 70 kg is Alec Pantaleo, who has won the US Open, the Henri Deglane, and the Matteo Pellicone at the weight. In 2019, he went 74 kg for Senior Nationals and was eighth. Provided these competitors can cut down or put on the proper amount of weight, it’ll be fun to see them scrap against 65 kg mainstays like Joey McKenna, Pat Lugo, Anthony Ashnault, Luke Pletcher, and Andrew Alirez. The Future is Now Events like the Olympic Trials and its predecessors like Senior Nationals aren’t limited to just athletes who have finished college and are focused solely on making a team. Not only are each of the brackets flooded with current collegiate stars, but there are also some high-quality high schooler’s looking to achieve their dreams ahead of everyone else’s schedule. In the 2016 Olympic Trials, we saw high schooler Aaron Pico push the eventual Olympic fifth-place finisher Frank Molinaro to the brink. The last Trials had a pair of young high school women (Kennedy Blades and Kylie Welker) who made the finals opposite world champions Tamyra Mensah-Stock and Adeline Gray. The kids continue to get better at a young age, so we should see a handful of pre-collegiate wrestlers make an impact at Senior Nationals and, in turn, the Olympic Trials. On the men’s freestyle side, future Penn State wrestlers Luke Lilledahl and Joseph Sealey have registered. California native Aden Valencia has already had success at the Senior level. Earlier this year, he was seventh at the US Open (at 61 kg). Lilledahl notched some quality victories at the Bill Farrell before running into a Spencer Lee buzzsaw. Not so Big Tone It certainly wasn’t a surprise to see 2021 U23 World Champion and two-time U23 world medalist Tony Cassioppi amongst the Senior National registrants. Cassioppi has already shown he can compete with the best in the nation (and world). Earlier this year, he grabbed a win over Demetrius Thomas at the World Team Trials Challenge Tournament. There he wrestled respectably against long-time contender Dom Bradley. So, seeing Cassioppi’s name on the entry list wasn’t a shock, but you probably did a double-take after seeing he signed up for 97 kg! We’ve seen Cassioppi transform his body during his career at Iowa. He went from a normal-looking, large heavyweight to being relatively ripped over one offseason. Now, he’s shedded even more weight to get down to 97 kg. How will he fare at the lower weight? Who knows? We don’t really have a frame of reference for him anywhere, but 125 kg (285 lbs in college). 50 kg in Women’s Freestyle loaded! With the first two women’s weight classes included in the Olympics, wrestlers aren’t forced to choose between 50 and 53 kg. One would think many of the entrants would forgo cutting the extra couple of kilos and just go 53 kg. That isn’t the case in 2023 as 50 kg is absolutely stacked! You have vets like Alyssa Lampe and Erin Golston, ready to scrap against the younger generation Senior level stars like Emily Shilson and Sage Mortimer. Add in some even younger talent like Erica Pastoriza, Samara Chavez, Jaslynn Gallegos, Mia Palumbo, and many others, which makes for a meatgrinder of a weight class. At the US Open, we saw Audrey Jimenez come from behind to take out Lampe. Could the future be right now for the other young women in this weight? Haley’s Back We’ve discussed a couple of characteristics of Olympic years so far, limited weights, young kids shining; another one is stars of yesteryear coming back for one last run at an Olympic berth. That holds true at 53 kg as Haley Augello has thrown her hat in the ring, so to speak. Augello was a bit of a surprise Olympic team member in 2016 and went on to make the 2017 World Team and continued to be a domestic tenure before her retirement in the summer of 2020. Since her retirement, Augello has been instrumental in the Beat the Streets Chicago movement, getting young women involved with the sport. As we’ve said multiple times about other topics throughout this article, it remains to be seen how effective she’ll be after the layoff. With a long gap between competition, some wrestlers feel refreshed as their body has been able to recover more than at any point in their competitive careers. Working with kids and coaching likely has opened her eyes to some aspects of the sport she may have previously ignored while focusing solely on her own training. The flip side is there probably will be some rust. That’s to be expected; however, it’s not as if Augello has been completely away from the sport; just a break from competition. Jacarra’s at 57 kg In the lead-up to the 2020/21 Olympics, 2019 World Champion Jacarra Winchester was forced to make a decision for her Olympic run. Her world title came at 55 kg which is not an Olympic weight, so she had to choose 53 or 57 kgs. Winchester chose 53 kg and ended up winning the spot and came a match shy of an Olympic medal. In the years since the Olympics, Winchester has competed at 55 kg. With the 2024 Games looming, Winchester was faced with the same decision; 53 or 57? This time it appears she’s chosen 57 kg. That isn’t surprising since she is more than capable of handling the physicality of 55 kg. Getting down to 53 kg may not be possible again. Or it might be extremely uncomfortable. As mentioned earlier, plenty of great wrestlers have not performed well when choosing the lower of the two options. Wrestling at 57 kg in Texas will offer up some stiff competition with proven competitors such as Xochitl Mota-Pettis, Alex Hedrick, Cam Guerin, and more. Like the other weights, there are plenty of younger wrestlers hungry to make a name for themselves, as well. Looking ahead to the Trials, a possible matchup between Winchester and Olympic champion Helen Maroulis would be plenty enticing. 60 kg in Greco is loaded! Each style has that one weight which seems to be just a bit more stacked than the others. 60 kg’s could be that weight in Greco. Moreso than the freestyle disciplines, it seems as if more wrestlers who have already qualified for the Trials are still competing this weekend. Trials qualifiers like Sammy Jones, Brady Koontz, Dalton Roberts, and Ildar Hafizov have all registered. They’ll join top-notch competitors like Dalton Duffield, Taylor LaMont, and Hayden Tuma, who have been on the cusp of making past world teams. Others have excelled on the age-group level like Billy Sullivan, Dylan Gregerson, Phillip Moomey, Max Black, Randon Miranda, and Dylan Koontz. We could end up seeing a lot of these matches again in State College, no matter who prevails. Ok, 67 kg will be a lot of fun too! What makes 67 kg fun for me is the juxtaposition of young and old at the weight. You have youth in the form of Robert Perez III, Joel Adams, Chayse LaJoie, Justus Scott, and Peyton Omania (he’s young, right?). On the opposite end of the spectrum, there are veterans like Pat Smith, Alex Sancho, and Xavier Johnson. In between them, you have David Stepanian, Lenny Merkin, Ty Lydic, Aidan Nutter and more. Like the other weights, there are plenty of this group that have already qualified for the Trials (Smith, Sancho, Johnson, Omania, Scott). This weight was turned on its head at the 2023 US Open when pinned Sancho in the quarterfinals, then subsequently lost to Perez III and Stepanian. Things eventually got back to normal as Sancho prevailed over Scott at Final X and made the 2023 World Team. Another Round of Schultz/Coon One of the most anticipated Greco-Roman series’ at the US Open and Final X was at 130 kg with past world teamer’s Cohlton Schultz and Adam Coon squaring off. The Open bout turned out to be a rout with Schultz completing a tech fall in just over two minutes. Final X was closer, but still a sweep in favor of the Arizona State star. The wins for Schultz may not be all that surprising considering Coon just returned to wrestling in January of 2023. After the 2020/1 Olympic Trials and World OG Qualifier, Coon set his sights on an NFL career and focused squarely on the gridiron. Now, with almost a year of Greco-specific training under his belt, can he close the gap and regain the upperhand? While Coon was gone, Schultz was noticeably better, as well. At the last Olympic Trials, Coon prevailed to the tune of 10-1 and 3-3. Schultz went on to make the world team in each of the following years after falling in the Trials finals. He competed last month at the Pan-American Games and came away with a silver medal.

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