98: Both returning All-Americans in this weight class earned those honors in both styles at the Cadet level last summer. Colton Howell (Missouri) also was a double All-American at the FILA Cadet Nationals in April, and the other referenced wrestler is Nkosi Moddy (Illinois). Two others to watch in this weight class are Jan Rosenburg (New Jersey), who went 9-1 at the Junior Duals, and Bobby Nachreiner (Wisconsin).
105: A trio of wrestlers in this weight class was double All-Americans last summer at the Junior Nationals: Ruben Navejas (Washington) was a finalist in both styles, champion in freestyle, and ended the scholastic season ranked 13th at 103 pounds, Kevon Powell (Illinois) ended the scholastic season ranked 16th at 103 pounds, and Manny Marin (California). Yet the probable favorite in this weight class is Freddie Rodriguez (Michigan), a champion in both styles at the FILA Cadet Nationals, and ended the scholastic season ranked 18th at 112 pounds.
112: Evan Silver (Maryland) ended the scholastic season as the top-ranked 112 pound wrestler in the country, and is ranked as the 10th best wrestler in the Class of 2011. Five other wrestlers in this bracket finished the scholastic season ranked in their respective weight class. Tyler Fraley (New Jersey) -- finalist in both styles at the Cadet Nationals last summer, runner-up in freestyle -- finished the scholastic season ranked fifth at 103 pounds, Nashon Garrett (California) was an All-American in both styles as a Cadet last summer, and ended the scholastic season eighth at 103 pounds, Cory Clark (Iowa), a FILA Cadet All-American, ended the season ranked 10th at 112 pounds, while Steven Hopkins (Washington) and Jordan Conaway (Pennsylvania) were ranked ninth and 14th respectively at 103 pounds. There are two additional returning All-Americans in this weight class, one from the Cadet level and one from the Junior level.
119: Carson Kuhn (Utah) enters this week as the pre-tournament favorite in this weight class coming off a third place finish last year in the Junior 112 weight class. He finished his senior season ranked 11th at 119 pounds, and 86th in the Class of 2010. Three of the wrestlers nipping on the heels of Kuhn are ranked as top 100 recruits in the Class of 2011, and all had just one loss from at least ten matches at the Junior Duals last month. Bricker Dixon (Missouri), a returning Junior freestyle All-American, is ranked 44th, Robert Deutsch (New Jersey) is ranked 60th, while Conor Youtsey (Michigan) is ranked 62nd. Joey Dance (Virginia), ranked 10th in the Class of 2013, was a Cadet finalist in both styles last summer -- champion in freestyle -- and is one of four returning Cadet freestyle All-Americans. The others are Brenden Campbell (Indiana), Eric Devos (Iowa), and Courtland Hacker (Colorado). Nathan Kraisser (Maryland) was a FILA Cadet All-American in both styles, and is ranked 47th in the Class of 2012. Other wrestlers to watch include 2007 and 2008 Cadet double champion Hayden Zilmer (Minnesota), returning Junior freestyle All-American Cody Wheeler (Pennsylvania), and Randy Cruz (Pennsylvania).
125: In a very balanced weight class, the slightest of favorites may be Mark Grey (New Jersey), who was a double finalist in both years as a Cadet. His only loss in Fargo to date was last year's controversial freestyle final match. Additionally, Grey placed third at the FILA Cadet Nationals, and seventh at the FILA Juniors, he is ranked fifth in the Class of 2012. Three other wrestlers in this weight class are ranked among the Class of 2012 top 50: Rossi Bruno (Florida) is ranked 11th, while returning Cadet All-Americans Alec Mooradian (Michigan) and Eddie Klimara (Illinois) are ranked 29th and 43rd respectively. A pair of wrestlers in this weight class are ranked as top 100 recruits in the Class of 2011: Johnni DiJulius (Ohio), undefeated at the Junior Duals, is ranked 21st, while 2008 Cadet National double champion Cody Brewer (Missouri) is ranked 57th. Notable college-bound wrestlers in this weight class are Brock Banta (Idaho), who ended the scholastic season ranked 17th at 125, Junior National double All-American Patrick Myers (Pennsylvania), and Junior freestyle All-American Shane McGough (Arizona). Another bona fide title contender is Kevin Norstrem (Florida) -- a FILA Cadet runner-up, Cadet National double All-American, who is ranked fifth in the Class of 2013.
130: In what seems like a wide open weight class, the slight favorite is the college-bound Josh Keszler (South Dakota). The 2008 Junior freestyle All-American ended his senior season ranked eighth at 125 pounds and 76th in the Class of 2010. Right behind him are six wrestlers ranked in the second half of the Class of 2011 top 100: Cadet freestyle All-American Matt Kelliher (Minnesota) is ranked 56th, Cadet freestyle champion Terrell Wilbourn (Missouri) is ranked 66th, FILA Cadet All-American Joey Gosinski (Illinois) is ranked 71st, Steven Rodrigues (New York) is ranked 74th, Cadet freestyle All-American Jameson Oster (Illinois) is ranked 78th, and Daniel DeShazer (Kansas) is ranked 99th. Another three wrestlers are ranked among the top 50 in the Class of 2012: Alex Shaffer (New Jersey) is ranked 24th, Tyler Liberatore (Florida) is ranked 28th, and Cadet freestyle All-American Todd Preston (New Jersey) is ranked 46th. Two additional returning Cadet All-Americans in this weight are Lou Mascola (New Jersey) and Trevor Melde (New Jersey).
135: The University of Iowa-bound Josh Dziewa (Pennsylvania) is present to defend his Junior National freestyle championship. Dziewa ended the scholastic season as the top ranked 135-pound wrestler, 16th overall in the Class of 2010, and was a FILA Junior runner-up just under four months ago. The wrestler best positioned to challenge Dziewa would probably be FILA Cadet freestyle champion Jason Tsirtsis (Indiana), a Cadet runner-up last summer who is ranked third in the Class of 2012. Three wrestlers in this weight class of top 100 recruits in the Class of 2011: Austin Ormsbee (New Jersey) is ranked 11th, Jake Sueflohn (Wisconsin) is 35th, while Bo Schlosser (Iowa) ranks 86th. Two other college-bound wrestlers ended their seasons in the weight class rankings: Seth Lange (South Dakota) was 14th at 130 pounds, while Kade Moss (Utah) was 17th at 135 pounds. In addition to Tsirtsis, two other wrestlers are ranked among the top members of the Class of 2012: Nate Skonieczny (Ohio) is ranked 17th, while FILA Cadet All-American Quentin Murphy (New York) ranks 27th. Other wrestlers to watch include Zach Tanenbaum (Kansas), Jordan Rinken (Iowa), and Ty Davis (Ohio).
140: A pair of Cadet freestyle champions move up to the Junior level in this weight class -- Edwin Cooper (Illinois) was also a FILA Junior All-American and is ranked 26th in the Class of 2011, while Alex Dieringer is ranked 31st in the same class and seeks a triple crown after winning the Junior folkstyle title over Dylan Ness in early April. However, the arguable favorite in this weight class is returning Junior All-American Jacob Ballweg (Iowa), who ended his senior season ranked third at 140 pounds and 27th in the Class of 2010. Three other wrestlers in this weight class are top 100 ranked in the Class of 2011: Travis Himmelman (Colorado) is ranked 42nd, Lex Ozias (Maryland) is ranked 54th, while Chris Dowdy (New Jersey) ranks 95th. The Iowa State bound Luke Goettl (Arizona) ended his scholastic season ranked 15th at 135 pounds. Blaise Butler (Illinois) and Matthew Cimato (Pennsylvania) were both FILA Cadet All-Americans in April.
145: Life really starts to get unkind for the competitors in this weight class as the talent is brutally deep. Five impact college-bound wrestlers anchor the weight class: Dylan Ness (Minnesota) and Steven Hernandez (Nevada) were All-Americans in both styles, Ravaughn Perkins (Nebraska) won Greco and was positioned to place in freestyle but was removed from the tournament, while Colin Shober (Pennsylvania) and Kaleb Friedley (Missouri) were freestyle All-Americans. Their respective rankings in the Class of 2010 were 26th, 57th, 33rd, 37th, and 66th. Eight wrestlers ranked among the top 100 recruits in the Class of 2011 populate this weight class as well: James Green (New Jersey) is ranked 25th, Blake Roulo (Virginia) ranks 38th, Ryne Cokeley (Kansas) is ranked 43rd, Colby Kloetzer (Idaho) ranks 51st, Joey Kielbasa (Illinois) is ranked 64th, Lucas Smith (Illinois) ranks 76th, Caleb Ervin (Kentucky) ranks 87th, and returning Junior All-American Henry Carlson (Alabama) is ranked 92nd. There are two ranked members of the Class of 2012 also in this weight class: Cadet double All-American Zach Brunson (Oregon) ranks 41st and Clark Glass (Florida) is positioned 45th. Among the afterthoughts in this weight class are Cadet freestyle champion Jordan Wohlfert (Michigan), FILA Cadet runner-up Chris Castillo (Washington), three Cadet National double All-Americans, two additional Cadet freestyle All-Americans, and a FILA Cadet All-American.
152: While this weight is headlined by two of the absolutely dominant high school aged wrestlers in the country, there is no lack of depth behind them. Two-time Cadet double champion Taylor Massa is ranked first in the Class of 2012, and was also a FILA Junior champion three months ago. Destin McCauley (Minnesota), ranked first in the Class of 2011, was a Junior All-American last summer and finished third at the FILA Junior Nationals this past April. When these two last met, it was fifteen months ago at the Western Junior Regional, a match that McCauley won. A pair of college-bound wrestlers ended the year ranked in their scholastic weight class -- Matt White, a returning Junior freestyle All-American, was ranked 18th at 160, while Andy McCulley (Wyoming) ended the year ranked 20th at 152 pounds. In addition to McCauley, there are six other wrestlers ranked among the top 100 Class of 2011 wrestlers: Jeromy Davenport (Oklahoma) ranks 14th, Devin Aguirre (Oklahoma) is ranked 46th, Lorenzo Thomas (Pennsylvania) is ranked 67th, Brad Dolezal (Wisconsin) is ranked 73rd, Kory DeBerry (Arizona) is ranked 82nd, and Cody Caldwell (Iowa) ranks 85th. In addition to Massa, two other ranked wrestlers from the Class of 2012 are present: Justin Koethe (Iowa) is ranked 26th, and won both the Cadet Nationals last summer and the FILA Cadet championship just in April, while Dylan Reel (Illinois) is ranked 34th. Lost in the midst of this quality is a pair of Cadet freestyle runners-up in Brian Brill (Pennsylvania) and Dominic Prezzia (Ohio). Three other wrestlers in this weight class return as Cadet freestyle All-americans.
160: The presence of five impact college-bound wrestlers helps to boost the overall quality of the competition in this weight class, which is led by the presence of the University of Iowa bound Nick Moore (Iowa) -- who ended the season ranked second at 160, and 12th overall in the Class of 2010. Robert Kokesh (South Dakota) was runner-up in this Junior weight class last year, and ended his senior year ranked fourth at 160, and 39th overall. Yet another Hawkeye-to-be Michael Kelly (Iowa) was a Junior All-American last summer, and ended his senior season ranked 77th in the Class of 2010. The other two notables in the college-bound crowd are Parker Madl (Kansas), ranked 79th in the Class of 2010, and Junior freestyle All-American Nick Proctor (Illinois). Two wrestlers are ranked among the top 100 in the Class of 2011 -- Ian Miller (Ohio), undefeated at 152 in the Junior Duals, is ranked 41st, while Seth Thomas (Oregon) is ranked 79th. A pair of ranked wrestlers from the Class of 2012 is present in this weight class as well: Cadet freestyle All-American Jordan Thomas (Michigan) is ranked 13th, while Cadet double All-American and FILA Cadet double runner-up Kyle Crutchmer (Oklahoma) ranks 48th. An addition, a pair of Cadet All-Americans is present in this weight class.
171: The bulk of the depth in this weight class comes from graduates of the Class of 2010, with six notables that ended the season ranked in their scholastic weight class. Nick Sulzer (Ohio), a returning Junior National and FILA Junior All-American, was ranked third at 160 pounds and 13th overall in the Class of 2010, Michael Moreno (Iowa) ranked seventh at 171 and 51st overall, Canaan Bethea (New Jersey) was ranked 12th at 171 pounds, Mikey England (Iowa) ranked 15th at 171 pounds, while Evan Knight (Iowa) and Stephen McPeek (Texas) were ranked 14th and 17th at 189 pounds respectively. Four seniors-to-be raked between 20th and 70th overall in the Class of 2011 help make this yet another deep Fargo weight: Logan Storley (South Dakota) is ranked 20th, Cadet National double champion Jake Waste (Minnesota) ranks 47th, Nathaniel Brown (Pennsylvania) is ranked 53rd, and Kris Klapprodt (South Dakota) ranks 68th. In addition, there is another Cadet National double champion from last year in this weight class, as Devin Peterson (Wisconsin) joins the fun ranked 12th in the Class of 2012. There are two other Cadet All-Americans present in this weight as well.
189: After the McCauley/Massa potential matchup at 152 pounds, there is the potential for arguably the most tantalizing Junior freestyle final to occur from this weight bracket between wrestlers ranked third in their weight class at the end of the scholastic season. Tyler Beckwith (New York) was a double All-American in the Junior Nationals last year, competed at 171 as a senior this past season, and was ranked 11th overall in the Class of 2010, while Morgan McIntosh (California) competed at 189 pounds, placed third at the FILA Junior Nationals, and is ranked second in the Class of 2011. Three wrestlers in addition to McIntosh are also ranked among the top wrestlers of the senior-to-be group: Cadet National and FILA Cadet champion Austin Marsden (Illinois) ranks 55th, Cadet National and FILA Cadet runner-up Lucas Sheridan (California) ranks 83rd, while Drake Stein (Indiana) is ranked in the 100th position. In addition to Beckwith, there are five other college-bound grapplers of somewhat high quality: Billy George (New Jersey), who ended the scholastic season ranked ninth at 189 pounds, Jace Bennett (Texas), Ethan Blackstock (Georgia), Spencer Johnson (Minnesota), Austin Morehead (California), and Matthew Riley (Iowa). There are two additional FILA Cadet All-Americans, and two additional Cadet National placers in this weight class.
215: As was the case in Junior Greco, this is one of the tournament's deeper weight class -- and a surprising one to be deep. It is anchored by wrestlers that finished the season ranked second through fifth in the nation at this weight class during their season of high school, and all of them were Junior All-Americans last summer: Spencer Myers (Pennsylvania), Trevor Rupp (Idaho), Scott Schiller (North Dakota), and Alex Polizzi (Wisconsin). Three additional college-bound wrestlers of note are Kyle Caylor (Kansas), who ended the scholastic season ranked 18th at 215 pounds, Donald McNeil (Massachusetts), winner of the most falls/least time award at the National Prep Championships, and Matthew Loew (New York). Five top 100 recruits in the Class of 2011 also populate the brackets of this weight class: Tanner Hall (Idaho) is ranked 15th, and was a FILA Cadet champion and FILA Junior All-American, Cody Krumwiede (Iowa) is ranked 32nd, Tank Knowles (California) is ranked 33rd, Nick Gwiazdowski (New York) is ranked 36th, while Jay Taylor (Florida) ranks 94th. Gage Harrah (Illinois) is the defending Cadet champion in this weight class, Curtis Berger (Oregon) is a returning Cadet runner-up, while three other wrestlers were freestyle All-Americans in Fargo, two Cadets and one Junior.
285: The pre-tournament favorite might have to be Austin Blythe (Iowa), who registered wins over two of the lead contenders at the Junior Duals in Niko Bogojevic (Wisconsin) and Donny Longendyke (Minnesota). Blythe was a Cadet freestyle champ in 2008, and ranks 40th in the Class of 2010, Niko Bogojevic finished third in Junior freestyle last summer, and ended his senior season ranked 10th at 285, Longendyke was last year's Cadet freestyle champion, and ranks 18th in the Class of 2011. Two other additional top recruits from the Class of 2011 are present in this weight -- Connor Medbery (Colorado) ranked 16th and Devin Pommerenke (Michigan) ranked 45th. Derek Papagianopolous (Massachusetts) was a Junior All-American last summer, a trio of wrestlers was Cadet freestyle All-Americans last summer, including runner-up Greg Kuhar (Ohio). Orry Elor (California) and Kuhar are two of the four FILA Cadet All-Americans in this weight class. An additional wrestler to watch is Travis Morgan (Oklahoma).
Recommended Comments
There are no comments to display.
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now