Navy is coming off its third straight All-Academy Tournament title and sixth overall in 12 years. Four Navy wrestlers won individual titles and Navy edged past arch-rival Army by 10 points to claim the team title. Navy placed all 10 wrestlers in the top three of their respective weight classes.
Leading the Navy contingent was senior Tanner Garrett (Tulsa, Okla.), who won his third All-Academy title at heavyweight. Garrett became just the third Navy wrestler to win three All-Academy titles, joining former All-Americans Mark Conley and Greg Gingeleskie. Garrett currently sports a 37-2 record and has already moved into sixth on the school's career wins list with 108. The 37 single-season wins are the most in the country this year and the seventh most in school history. He needs just three more wins to become the second Navy wrestler to reach 40 victories in a single season. Garrett will have his hands full on Friday night as American's Adam LoPiccolo is ranked 10th in the country with a 17-7 record. Garrett defeated LoPiccolo, then a freshman, in last year's dual meet by major decision. The Navy senior captain has won 34 dual matches in a row, dating back to his sophomore season.
Sophomore 174-pounder Matt Stolpinski (Westfield, Mass.), junior 125-pounder Alex Usztics (Dauphin, Pa.) and freshman 133-pounder Joe Baker (Poway, Calif.) also won All-Academy titles for the Mids. The title was the second A-A win for Stolpinski and the first each for Usztics and Baker.
American is led by 184-pounder Josh Glenn, who earlier this week earned the nation's No. 1 ranking according to the NWCA / Intermat national polls. Glenn is 22-1 with 14 falls with his lone loss coming to Purdue's Ben Wissel at the Midlands Championship. Navy's likely 184-pounder, Jonny Kane (Portland, Maine) gave Wissel all he could handle in a 10-8 setback at the Lone Star Duals on Jan. 7.
American's other top gun is 165-pounder Muzaffar Abdurakhmanov, ranked fourth in his weight class. Abdurakhmanov is 17-0, winning 14 of his matches by extra margins. His likely foe will be Navy's Craig Dziewiatkowski (Aurora, Ill.).
The Mids lead the series with American, 3-0, having defeated the Eagles by a combined score of 100-29. However, in last year's meet, American won four matches, while Navy won six with three of them coming by forfeit.
PROBABLE LINEUPS (Navy listed first followed by American):
125 - Alex Usztics (15-9) vs. Matt Morkel (10-4)
133 - Joe Baker (5-1) or Sean Knapp (8-8) vs. Jordan Lipp (10-7)
141 - Spencer Maney (12-12) or Branden Beasley (8-8) vs. Jordan Zipkin (0-2)
149 - #19 John Cox (30-8) or Matt Gulosh (14-8) vs. Tom Kniezewski (17-6)
157 - John Jarred (31-8) vs. Christopher Stout (11-10)
165 - Craig Dziewiatkowski (15-8) vs. #4 Muzaffar Abdurakhmanov (17-0)
174 - Matt Stolpinski (25-6) vs. Dwayne Hash-Barberis (7-13)
184 - Jonny Kane (18-6) vs. #1 Josh Glenn (22-1)
197 - Chris Pogue (23-8) or Tyler Moyer (13-7) vs. Tyler Flatt (4-10)
HWT - #6 Tanner Garrett (37-2) vs. #10 Adam LoPiccolo (17-7)
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