Some has been written about the disappearance of the top-level wrestlers from this tournament, especially at the Junior level, and especially among the graduated seniors whom are college bound. However, the field in Fargo still is the deepest and strongest that will be seen at any event on the yearly calendar.
Here are 10 other reflections and discussion points about the events of the past week.
1. Power programs, powerful results
There are eight high school programs by my count that had four or more All-Americans this past week in Fargo that will be returning to their respective rosters in the 2010-11 season. Please note that this does not mean all of them will necessarily be able to make the lineup, or that developments may arise such that other programs could be added to this list later on.
Leading the way with eight returning All-Americans is Blair Academy, NJ. This total includes a pair of incoming freshman who won Cadet National Greco-Roman titles in Joey McKenna and Patrick Coover. An additional incoming freshman is PJ Klee, who placed in the Cadet freestyle tournament. Rising sophomore Brooks Black swept titles at Cadet 285 pounds to go three-for-three in Fargo to date; Black was unable to compete in Cadet freestyle last year due to injury after winning the Greco-Roman title at 215 pounds. Juniors-to-be Mark Grey and Todd Preston were All-Americans in the Junior freestyle competition, with Grey also placing in Greco-Roman. Evan Silver and Austin Ormsbee validated their place among the top Class of 2011 (senior) wrestlers with finals appearances in Junior freestyle; Silver took second, while Ormsbee took the title in his weight class.
One of the two teams to share the title according to Amateur Wrestling News in the 2009-10 season brings back the next most All-Americans; Apple Valley, MN had seven wrestlers earn All-American status during the past week in Fargo. Incoming freshman Gannon Volk was an All-American in Cadet Greco and freestyle. Rising junior Dakota Trom was a Cadet freestyle runner-up, while fellow Class of 2012 wrestler Jordan Kingsley earned All-American status in Junior freestyle. A quartet of rising seniors, all of whom were ranked among the top sixty wrestlers in the Class of 2011 earned All-American honors in Junior freestyle. Destin McCauley, ranked as the top wrestler in the class, was champion at 152 pounds; Matt Kelliher was runner-up at 130 pounds, and also finished eighth in Greco-Roman; while Steven Keogh and Jake Waste placed at 160 and 171 pounds respectively.
Next in line was another elite program -- Brandon, FL which had six total All-Americans during the past week. The Eagles were anchored by a trio of wrestlers placing in both the Junior Greco-Roman and freestyle tournaments. Junior-to-be Tyler Liberatore was champion in both styles at 130 pounds, rising sophomore Kevin Norstrem placed at 125 in both events, while senior-to-be Wally Figaro earned placement finishes in both styles at 160 pounds. Class of 2012 wrestler Rossi Bruno was champion in Junior Greco-Roman, fellow rising junior Clark Glass earned All-American honors in Junior Greco, while rising sophomore Travis Berridge was a Cadet Greco All-American.
Like Brandon, another program that earned attention with superlative performance in Greco-Roman was Roseburg, OR which had five wrestlers earn All-American honors in that style. Incoming sophomore Reed Van Anrooy placed in the Cadet tournament while incoming seniors Drew Van Anrooy, Seth Thomas, Dylan Fors, and Devan Fors earned All-American honors at the Junior level in Greco-Roman.
There were four additional programs that came in at four All-American finishers each -- Marmion Academy, IL; Oviedo, FL; St John's, MI; and Wisconsin Rapids, WI. All four of Marmion Academy's placing wrestlers were Cadets, which means that they will be a very formidable squad in both the short and medium term. Incoming sophomore Ben Whitford earned titles in both styles at 125 pounds; incoming junior Angelo Silvestro was fourth in freestyle at 135 pounds; while rising freshmen Jered Cortez and Bryce Brill were both finalists in the freestyle competition, Cortez won the title at 112 while Brill was second at 119.
Oviedo loaded up with strong performance in the Greco-Roman competition, as all four of its All-American finishers did so in that tournament. Tyler Meltzer was an All-American at the Cadet level, while Lee Wildes and Jay Taylor earned that status at the junior level. In addition, Doug Vollaro was a finalist in both styles at Cadet 285 pounds -- finishing as runner-up to Brooks Black in each of the competitions, after also losing to Black in both finals at FILA Cadet Nationals.
On the other hand, all four of the All-American finishers for St. John's, MI placed in both styles. The obvious anchor for that group is Taylor Massa, the top ranked wrestler in the Class of 2012, who was fourth in Greco-Roman and third in freestyle at 152 pounds. Fellow rising junior Travis Curley placed fifth in both styles at Cadet 145 pounds. A pair of rising sophomores joined Massa and Curley as double All-Americans: Jacob Schmitt made the finals of both tournament at Cadet 105 pounds, champion in Greco-Roman and runner-up in freestyle; while Josh Pennell was runner-up in Greco and fourth in freestyle at 125 pounds.
The eighth of the teams with four or more All-Americans is Wisconsin Rapids, WI which is anchored by Devin Peterson -- one of the top wrestlers in the Class of 2012. Peterson, twice a state tournament runner-up during the high school season, was the Junior Greco champion at 171 pounds and placed fifth in Junior freestyle up one weight class at 189 pounds. Fellow rising junior Zak Benitz and senior-to-be Jason Munoz joined Peterson with All-American finishes in Junior Greco; while another Class of 2012 wrestler Ryan Cone was a Cadet freestyle All-American.
2. Land of Lincoln, Dominion of Dominance
Team Illinois success was one of the major stories over the week of Fargo. Wrestlers from the Land of Lincoln scored team point titles in Junior freestyle, Cadet freestyle, Junior Greco-Roman; and finished second in the Cadet Greco-Roman competition. This followed up very strong performances at the Cadet and Junior Duals -- championship in Junior freestyle, runner-up finishes in Cadet freestyle and Junior Greco-Roman, and a third place finish in Cadet Greco-Roman.
Much credit for this success goes to the USA Wrestling organization in the state of Illinois -- Illinois Kids Wrestling Federation (IKWF) -- which is headed up by the great leadership of Jim Considine, Mike Urwin, and many others. Another important piece of the puzzle is the tremendous coaching staff led by Directors Mark Gervais (Greco-Roman) and Griff Powell (freestyle), along with designated head coaches Bryan Medlin (Greco) and Steve Marianetti (freestyle).
The ultimate piece of the puzzle is of course the wrestlers who competed in Fargo, putting it on the line, and delivering with great results. This includes national championships won in Greco-Roman by Jordan Lind and Zane Richards (Cadet), Dylan Reel (Junior); Jered Cortez and Brian Murphy (Cadet), Eddie Klimara (Junior) in freestyle; and Ben Whitford as a Cadet double champion.
3. Affirming the ranking, and creating separation
Heading into the Fargo week, there was some debate as to whether or not Destin McCauley and Morgan McIntosh were truly the best two wrestlers in the Class of 2011 -- the group that will be seniors this coming scholastic season. However, the week in Fargo answered that question in the clear affirmative. McCauley and McIntosh dominated the competition in their respective weight classes on the way to Junior freestyle titles. Of the two performances, the one by McIntosh was slightly more impressive; after shutting out his first seven opponents, McIntosh dominated one of the stars from the Class of 2010, Tyler Beckwith, to the tune of an 8-5, 7-0 result before pinning Matthew Riley in the final.
4. Two sides of the ranking coin, Class of 2011
As covered above, the performances by McCauley and McIntosh were clear validations of their position in the rankings. On the other hand, there were other performances that could call into question positions in the ranking -- yes, these do come from both directions.
Looking at those whom were ranked, that competed in Junior freestyle, but did not muster a winning record. Jeromy Davenport (Oklahoma), ranked 14th nationally, went 1-2 at 152 pounds; both losses coming in three periods. Devin Aguirre (Oklahoma), ranked 46th nationally, went 1-2. Nathaniel Brown (Pennsylvania), ranked 53rd nationally, went 2-2 at 171 pounds; however, he did also finish fifth in Greco-Roman. Kory DeBerry (Arizona), ranked 82nd nationally, went two-and-out at 152 pounds. Drake Stein (Indiana), ranked 100th nationally, finished 1-2 at 189 pounds; however, he did earn a runner-up finish in the Greco-Roman tournament.
There were also four Top 100 prospects that entered the freestyle tournament that exited the tournament early with injury defaults. Three of these wrestlers were All-Americans in the Greco-Roman tournament contested earlier during the week -- 13th ranked Jahwon Akui (Illinois), 42nd ranked Travis Himmelman (Colorado), and 94th ranked Jay Taylor (Florida). Also a victim of injury default was 25th ranked James Green (New Jersey); he won his first match, lost his second match to University of Minnesota bound Dylan Ness, and then bowed out of the tournament.
On the other hand, there were a number of unranked Class of 2011 wrestlers that raised their visibility and stock with performances during the past week in Fargo, ND. There were 10 that earned All-American honors in both styles at the Junior Nationals but entered the tournament outside the Top 100 recruits. Look for some of these names to populate the updated Top 100 list, which will be published sometime during the month of August. Tyler Fraley (New Jersey) and Taylor Moeder (Kansas) were Greco-Roman champions at 112 and 135 pounds, and also placed in the freestyle portion of the event. Holden Gagner (Montana) and Ruben Navejas (Washington) were All-Americans in both styles at 105 pounds; Earl Hall (Florida) placed in Greco-Roman at 112 pounds, and in freestyle at 119 pounds; Ronnie Garbinsky (Pennsylvania) was runner-up in Greco at 130 pounds, and also placed during the freestyle event; Mark Pinero (Louisiana) placed in both events at 135 pounds; Chris Mayolo (Washington) earned All-American honors at 140 pounds in Greco, and at 145 pounds in freestyle; while Wally Figaro (Florida) was a double All-American at 160 pounds.
5. Revisiting the incoming freshmen
In the tournament preview, there was a discussion about the Cadet Nationals serving as an annual platform for incoming freshmen to make a statement that they would be significant players in scholastic wrestlers during the coming season and over their four years of high school. This year was no different.
While the Greco-Roman tournament did not go to perfect plan for Chance Marsteller (Pennsylvania), it was still a positive event for him with a fourth place finish. However, the top ranked Class of 2014 wrestler put on a show in the freestyle tournament on the way to a title at 145 pounds. In the eight matches prior to the final, Marsteller gave up points in only one period while securing victories by pin or technical fall in all the matches. In the final against an elite Class of 2013 wrestler Coleman Hammond (California), Marsteller lost the first period 6-0, but came back to dominate the last two periods (5-0 and 6-0) to win the title.
Ranked second nationally among incoming freshmen, returning Cadet freestyle runner-up Jered Cortez (Illinois) put on a show of his own. In nine matches prior to the final, Cortez gave up one total point in dominating his opposition. After losing the first period of the final to Greco-Roman champion Jack Hathaway (Iowa) 1-0 on the leg clinch, Cortez rallied back to take the last two periods 4-1 and 1-0 to earn the title.
Four other incoming freshmen mustered titles in one style during the week in Fargo. Hayden Tuma (Idaho) won the Greco-Roman title at 119 pounds, and earned sixth place in freestyle; Brent Fleetwood (Delaware) was champion in freestyle at 84 pounds, after finishing third in Greco-Roman; while Coover (Pennsylvania) and McKenna (New Jersey) were Greco-Roman champions at 140 and 98 pounds.
6. Riding the bye
Another topic discussed in the tournament preview as the concept of “riding the bye” -- in which a wrestler with an earlier loss in the tournament would advance to All-American status during a round in which they were assigned a “bye”. This event occurred 36 times in the 2009 tournament (in just over 28 percent of the weight class pools). During last week's tournament, the circumstance arose in 40 of the 128 weight class pools (just over 31 percent).
It occurred most often in Cadet freestyle, 13 out of a possible 34 (just over 38 percent). The Junior freestyle tournament saw exactly one third of its weight class pools -- 10 out of 30 -- have a wrestle “ride the bye” into All-American status. It occurred 10 out of 34 possible times in Cadet Greco-Roman (39.4 percent). The event occurred least often during the Junior Greco-Roman event, only 7 times out of a possible 30 (23.3 percent).
7. Lucky losers
The nature of the vertical pairing system is such that wrestlers can make the final, and even win a Fargo championship, having lost a match during the course of the competition. There are two possible ways for this to happen: (1) the three wrestlers in the round robin split matches, which means the pool comes down to a classification point tiebreaker (2) the wrestler loses a match to an opponent that is eliminated from championship consideration prior to the round-robin or one match play-in. At least one wrestler in all four competitions won a weight class championship despite losing earlier in the tournament.
In fact, the Cadet Greco-Roman competition featured two weight classes in which both finalists had a loss earlier in the tournament. At 140 pounds, Patrick Coover (Pennsylvania) defeated T.J. Fox (Ohio); and at 145 pounds, Ryan Gartner (Wisconsin) defeated J.A. Jones (Alabama). Other Fargo champions with a loss were Tyler Fraley (New Jersey) at 112 pounds in Junior Greco; Ronnie Bresser (Oregon) at 91 pounds in Cadet freestyle; along with Eddie Klimara (Illinois) at 125 pounds, Logan Storley (South Dakota), at 171 pounds, and Greg Kuhar (Ohio) at 285 pounds in Junior freestyle.
A full one quarter of the Junior National finalists -- 7 in freestyle, 8 in Greco -- suffered a loss earlier in the tournament. Nine of 68 Cadet national finalists had lost prior to the championship final (3 in freestyle, 6 in Greco-Roman. An additional note is that T.J. Fox (Ohio) was a double finalist, and lost a match in each style prior to the final; he finished second at 140 pounds in the Cadet Nationals for both styles.
8. Age is just a number
Normally the above cliché is used in conversations about senior citizens as they get up in age, but are still able to maintain a positive attitude and a strong zest for life in general. However, the concept could be equally applied to scholastic wrestling. In looking through the biographies on finalists at the Cadet and Junior Nationals, some interesting observations arose.
Competing as a true freshman, Cornell's Kyle Dake, emerged as NCAA champion at 141 pounds. Dake did not turn 19 until either the 2010 portion of the collegiate season or just after it. On the other hand, there were some Fargo finalists that will turn 19 before the start of their senior year of high school and additional others that will be 19 by the end of their senior wrestling seasons. As a stark contrast to the older wrestlers, there was one finalist that is headed off for college but has yet to turn even 18 years old.
One other interesting nugget on this topic is that two of the Fargo finalists had the exact birthday (both date and year). However, the two wrestlers were two grades apart in school.
At the end of the day, no matter if comparing wrestlers by weight class, graduating class (i.e. grade), or age -- there are unique differences even among those with certain things in common. Everyone develops their skill levels -- physical, athletic, and mental -- at different paces and different times. However, the great thing about the sport of wrestling is that the vast majority of the population can legitimately compete.
9. Double the pleasure
For those involved in the whole week of Fargo, it is truly a grind. Among the groups that this is true for are those media present for the whole week, the coaching staff members that are there the whole week, the mat officials and pairing officials working the whole week, as well as all the event and support staff that work the whole week and beyond to make the Fargo tournaments go off without a hitch. However, this also is absolutely true for those wrestlers that compete in both styles.
Those earning All-American honors in both Greco-Roman and freestyle competed on five out of six consecutive days, wrestling in approximately 15 matches over the course of that time. In addition, there was three times they needed to make weight during the course of that time; an initial scratch weigh-in for Greco, another scratch weigh-in for freestyle three days later, and a scratch-plus-two weigh-in the following day.
Six wrestlers -- two Juniors and four Cadets -- swept championships in both styles. Freddie Rodriguez (Michigan) and Tyler Liberatore (Florida) won both Greco-Roman and freestyle at the junior level; while Ben Whitford (Illinois), Jordan Rogers (Washington), Mitch Sliga (Indiana), and Brooks Black (Pennsylvania) did the same at the Cadet level. Another five wrestlers -- four Cadets and one Junior -- were champions in Greco-Roman and runners-up in freestyle. Jacob Schmitt (Michigan), Jake Hathaway (Iowa), Tyler Coates (Washington), and Adam Coon (Michigan) at the Cadet level; while Dylan Ness (Minnesota) did the same at the Junior level. Three more wrestlers were champions in freestyle after finishing as Greco runners-up; Tanner Hall (Idaho) at the Junior level, and Austin Hood (Kansas) and Brandon Jeske (Virginia) at the Cadet level. T.J. Fox (Ohio) and Doug Vollaro (Florida) took second place in both styles at the Cadet Nationals.
10. Finally some attention to the un(der)-appreciated
Reflecting upon the week that was in Fargo, ND would not be complete without providing recognition to all those that make the Cadet and Junior Nationals possible. Remember that the event goes beyond the wrestlers and coaches. There are many other people who volunteer of their time and efforts to make an event of this magnitude possible. Mat officials, pairing officials, team leaders, table workers, runners, medical staff, and many more are also involved.
On behalf of all the competitors and family members, to all of you ... Thank you!
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