InterMat Staff

West Marshall

Steubenville

Cimarron

Liberty-Benton

Patrick Henry

Apple Valley

Ocean City

Lovejoy via Baker

Mililani via SW Oregon CC

Dallas

Central Crossing

Riverdale

High Point via Northern Michigan

Girard

Plum

Winter Springs

Montachusett Regional

Chaminade

Last night, new Utah Valley head coach Adam Hall announced a new addition to his coaching staff. He’s hired Timmy McCall as an assistant coach. Hall and McCall both were a part of Pat Popolizio’s staff at NC State. In 2015, McCall moved back to his home state to wrestle with the Wolfpack Wrestling Club. During his career on the freestyle circuit, McCall qualified for the 2018 and 2019 World Team Trials and captured a title at France’s Henri DeGlane Challenge. Prior to the 2019-20 season, McCall was named NC State’s volunteer assistant coach. Two years later, he was promoted to a full-time assistant. McCall was a member of the NC State staff as the Wolfpack finished as ACC champions in four-straight seasons - along with 15 All-Americans and 17 conference champions. McCall wrestled collegiately for the University of Wisconsin and he qualified for the NCAA Championships on two occasions. He was seventh in the B1G as a junior and earned the #12 seed as a senior. During his final NCAA Tournament, McCall was upset in the opening round but won three straight contests to advance to the NCAA Round of 12 - where he came up a match shy of All-American status. The addition of McCall brings a second assistant to Hall’s first staff at Utah Valley. In his interview with James Hackney last month, Hall stated he has brought in his former Boise State teammate, Andrew Hochstrasser, to handle an undefined role. Utah Valley is a squad that lost its only NCAA qualifier from 2024 (Evan Bockman) to the transfer portal and scored 22 points while taking 13th at the 2024 Big 12 Championships. The Wolverines went 2-7 in Greg Williams’ final season at the helm and had four placewinners at the Big 12 meet. Haiden Drury (141) and Bockman led the way in seventh place and Kase Mauger (133) and Chase Trussell (285) were eighth. Drury and Mauger are expected to return in 2024-25.

2024 NCAA champion Parker Keckeisen sits down with James Hackney to talk about the rise of Wisconsin high school wrestling and Askren Wrestling Academy. Parker discusses his feelings after winning his national title and how they were different from the previous season; however, in each instance he quickly moved on. The goal for 2024-25 is the Hodge Trophy, but Parker actually breaks out his chart of goals and explains them in depth. He also talks about mental preparation, his relationship with Lee Roper, wrestling for Doug Schwab, and much more!

May 24 Fury Pro Grappling 10* (UFC Fight Pass) Luke Fernandez (Elizabethtown) vs. Eryk Anders Pat Sabatini (Rider) vs. Andrew Kochel Andre Petroski (UNC/Bloomsburg/Kutztown) vs. Alex Myers Max Livingston (Drexel) vs. Nick Toscano Aidan Burke (Mercyhurst) vs. Nick Dingler Nieko Malone (Rider) vs. Nick DiGiacomo (Rowan) Nicholas Mancini (Millersville) vs. Cameron Scalio (Kutztown) Parker Kropman (Binghamton/Drexel) vs. Tyler Carroll *Grappling event May 24 Tuff-N-Uff 137 (UFC Fight Pass) Justin Jaynes (Olivet) vs. Tsogookhuu Amarsanaa May 25 Anthony Pettis FC 11 “Fight Fiesta” (UFC Fight Pass) Garrett Carlson (UW-LaCrosse) vs. Danny Morales Mason Lind (Lakeland) vs. Shane Jackman May 25 Urijah Faber’s A1 Combat 21 (UFC Fight Pass) Urijah Faber (UC Davis) vs. Jeff Glover* Chris Mecate (Old Dominion) vs. Jaleon Reid Martine Sandoval (Wartburg) vs. Chris Paez Nick Fishback (UW-Parkside) vs. Josh Dim Brian Benevidez (Northwest College) vs. Cyrus Povoor *Grappling match June 1 UFC 302 (ESPN Pay Per View) Alexander Romanov (World University bronze) vs. Jailton Almeida June 6 Fury FC 91 (UFC Fight Pass) Freddie Rodriguez (SIU-E) vs. Paris Moran* Austin O’Connor (North Carolina) Camden Fontenot June 7 LFA 185 (UFC Fight Pass) Richie Lewis (Rutgers) vs. Kagan Gennrich (Wisconsin) June 8 UFC Fight Night (ESPN+) Punahele Soriano (Wartburg) vs. Miguel Baeza Cody Stamann (Grand Valley State) vs. Taylor Lapilus Julian Marquez (Missouri Valley) vs. Zachary Reese John Castaneda (Minnesota State Mankato) vs. Daniel Marco June 13 PFL 4 2024 (ESPN+) Tyrell Fortune (Grand Canyon) vs. Daniel James June 15 UFC Fight Night (ESPN+) Alex Perez (West Hills) vs. Tatsuro Taira June 21 PFL 5 2024 (ESPN+) Josh Silveira (Arizona State) vs. Rob Wilkinson Alex Polizzi (Northwestern) vs. Antonio Carlos Junior June 22 UFC on ABC 6 (ABC/ESPN+) Khamzat Chimaev (Swedish national champion) vs. Robert Whittaker (Australian national champion) Kelvin Gastelum (North Idaho) vs. Daniel Rodriguez June 28 PFL 6 2024 (ESPN+) Logan Storley (Minnesota) vs. Laureano Staropoli Brennan Ward (Johnson & Wales) vs. Magomed Umalatov Bubba Jenkins (Penn State/Arizona State) vs. Gabriel Braga Jordan Oliver (Oklahoma State) vs. Isaiah Hokit (Drexel/Fresno State) June 29 UFC 303 (ESPN PPV) Michael Chandler (Missouri) vs. Conor McGregor

The University of Michigan’s already-impressive Class of 2025 got even better on Friday as California heavyweight prospect Nicholas Sahakian (St. John Bosco, CA) committed to the Wolverines. Sahakian is currently ranked #41 overall in the Class of 2025 and 10th in the nation at 285 lbs by MatScouts in the final rankings cycle that included graduating seniors. In the first set without the Class of 2024, Sahakian is ranked #1 in the nation. In July of 2023, Sahakian committed to Arizona State University, but was obviously too young to sign a National Letter of Intent, and has now flipped to Michigan. In three years of high school competition, Sahakian has placed three times in California’s single-class state tournament, each time at an upper weight. As a freshman, he was third at 220 lbs. He’d win that weight in 2023. This year, Sahakian moved up to 285 lbs and fell by a point in the state finals to Cody Merrill, the #2 overall prospect in the Class of 2024. Against national competition, Sahakian has placed six times at the UWW U17 World Team Trials. Last spring, he earned a spot on the Greco-Roman world team and was a finalist in freestyle competition. After making the Greco team, Sahakian went to the Pan-American U17 Championships and took gold in both styles. He would also compete at the U17 World Championships and was beaten in the bronze medal matchup. Before his junior year of high school, Sahakian won a championship belt at the Super 32. He had placed seventh the year before. In 2022, Sahakian won a 16U Greco title in Fargo, which marked the third career Fargo placement for him. It’s hard to argue with a heavyweight choosing Michigan as former Wolverines, Mason Parris and Adam Coon, are going to the Olympic Games in freestyle and Greco-Roman, respectively. We’ll have to wait and see how this recruiting class shakes out for Michigan. They already have commitments from #11 Jude Correa (a 285 lb prospect) and #20 De’Alcapone Veazy (a 197 lb prospect). The Wolverines certainly need help at both weights as it’s uncertain who will be the long-term starter at either weight. With all three potentially in the same class, there could be a high-level prospect who sees little mat time. With Sahakian’s commitment, Michigan now has verbals from five of the top-56 rising seniors in the nation - three of which fall in the top-20. To check out Michigan’s current Class of 2025

St. John Bosco

Last night, a ruling came down that essentially means colleges can now fully pay their athletes. Sure, we can go through all the same tropes associated with it. Good for the athletes gotta get that bag. Or, college sports are no longer college sports. We’ve heard it all. Either way, you look at it, the game has changed. And I’m not sure it will be beneficial for wrestling. But it’s the first holiday weekend of Summer, so let’s not worry about that now. What is a match-up you'd like to see at a Beat the Streets-type event? Jeremy Eusterwiemann I tell ya, and it won’t happen any time soon because of logical reasons, But Spencer Lee against Vito Arujau is kind of the next big supermatch that would put butts in seats. It likely will never happen as Vito may be done with 57 kg and you don’t exactly see Spencer showing up at all-star events. We will get to see Andrew Alirez and Jesse Mendez mix it up at the next Beat the Streets and that is excellent booking. Who is interviewing for the Columbia job? Push Wrestling Your guess is as good as mine. We really haven’t heard a thing on the Columbia or Hofstra front as far as hiring a coach. I mean, I’ll take either job if nobody else wants to do it. I’m sure we will hear some rumblings soon. But it is a bit worrisome when a head coach leaves to be an assistant. Like they know something we don’t know. Is it true that Flo offered you a 250k NIL deal to perform Jaggerblasts exclusively for Flo? Rhino Oh, it’s true, it’s damn true. And let me state for the record that it's absolutely not true. I don’t want to get slapped with a libel suit over here. Biggest beef: 1) The inner dialogue of "anyone but Iowa, go LensCrafters!" fans watching Spencer Lee vs rooting for US gold at 57 2) Vecchiomania vs The World 3) PSU fans who were present for the creation of the sport of wrestling in 2011 vs Traitor David Taylor. Thicccolas I honestly have no idea what most of this means. It certainly will be weird for a few fanbases if Spencer faces a Micic or a Roman Bravo-Young. Personally, I'm thrilled about it. Not that I dislike him in any way, but some of Spencer’s biggest college rivals are Rivera, Glory, and Suriano and I’m usually on the side of the Jersey guy. Now I get to just go full fanboy on the biggest stage. Can you let the Virginia people know that they can only claim either Devin Carter or TJ Stewart, not both? Carter was in NJ until HS , Stewart in Virginia until HS then wrestled 4 yrs in NJ , yet these 6 state championships having Jabronis claim both. Also, who does Jagger pick? Jimmy McNulty’s Bar Tab I don’t know, it kind of seems like they can claim both as neither wrestled in the NJSIAA. I’ll take Stewart since he was smart enough to get as far away from Earl Smith as possible and come north. Any chance Levi Haines takes a RS and follows Taylor? The Inside Trip Nah. I think he just knocks out his last two years with no redshirt before gearing up for a run at 74 kg in 2028 where he might be the favorite. In fact, I don’t see any of the current guys leaving Penn State for Stillwater. At least not their top stars. Nobody wants to be the first to make that bold move. Speaking of movements, yours is probably done. Enjoy the holiday weekend, everyone. Be safe as always.