The Breakdown - Episode 6 - Schoolboy Greco
Illinois won Pool A and then downed Oklahoma Red, New Jersey, Iowa, and finally Pennsylvania Blue 39-38 to claim the Schoolboy Greco title.
Already know the team results? Jump down to the bottom as we highlight some individuals that had a great 2 days in Greco.
SE teams congregated in Pool C - with the exception of Florida which was in Pool D. Interested in the brackets from Pool A and Pool B? Visit the trackwrestling page.
Tennessee downed Georgia 46-36 and Alabama fell to Iowa 67-10 all on the bottom side of the C bracket. Tennessee and Georgia traded wins for the first 7 matches before Tennessee went on a 5-0 run to put the dual out of reach. Georgia rebounded by downing Alabama 56-25 before losing to California 61-17. Georgia finished their day 2-2 with a win over Nebraska. Alabama got in th win column with a 57-24 win over Michigan Blue for 7th.
Tennessee lost to Iowa, beat Nebraska and then fell to California 60-20 to finish the day 2-2 and 4th (to put them into the Bronze/Copper Pool).
Florida came in as the top seed in Pool D, but dropped a very close 36-36 dual to Maryland I nthe opening round. Maryland really took control of the dual from 92-106 - winning all 4 matches and getting 17 points vs. Florida’s 1 (for those of you unfamiliar - if a losing wrestler scores - his team gets a point if the match is decided by a tech fall or decision … thus the 1 point earned by Tyler Gray at 97).
Florida rebounded and won a hard fought match vs. Pennsylvania Red 37-36. Landen Holley came up big for the Sunshine state at 130 with his fall of Deshonn Valentine to secure the win. Pennsylvania, like Maryland, took control from 92 to 119 lbs and that would prove to be a challenging spot in the lineup for Florida throughout Greco. They lost to Indiana Gold 49-33 and beat Oklahoma Blue 48-34 to finish 5th.
Day 2
Illinois, PA Blue, Minnesota Red, Iowa, New Jersey, Utah, Michigan Blue, and Oklahoma Red battled it out in the Gold/Silver Pool.
Tennessee was the only SE team to make it to the Bronze/Copper Pool (one below All American Status). Tennessee took some lumps on day 2 - losing to Indiana Gold 43-35, Ohio Gray 51-31, Wisconsin 53-28 and Maryland 48-24. Tennessee still had some outstanding individual performances, but struggled to pull together a team win on day 2.
Florida and Georgia dominated the Red/Blue Pool - each won all 3 of their duals as they met in the finals for the last match of Greco for each team.
Florida pulled it off with a 42-36 win. Florida won the final 4 weights (all by tech fall) and came back from a 34-26 deficit to get the dub. Everett Stephens, Uy’Kwon Wimberly, William Buckley, and Lincoln Sledzianowski sealed it for the boys from the Sunshine State.
Alabama finished their Greco tournament in the Green/Yellow Pool where they went 2-2 with wins over Colorado Blue and Michigan Red and losses to New York and Indiana Blue.
Five on the Rise from Cadet Greco
It should be noted that not all results in the duals are created equal. Because who you face on the second day depends entirely on how well your team wrestles in Day 1. So there are wrestlers with losses that make the list and others that went unbeaten that may not make the list. It is the nature of the beast as it relates to duals.
Also the difference between being a first-year or a second-year cadet is huge. I don’t know which “year schoolboy” each of the wrestlers are … but if any of the below are 1st-year schoolboys - you better lookout for next year.
These are the 5 that jumped off the screen … but the “other” listed below also had an outstanding two days of Greco:
71 - Everett Stephens (Florida) - 8-0 with 3 forfeits, but dominated at 71 lbs. - only giving up 3 points the entire tournament. Didn’t get to see him vs. Collins of Minnesota or Sontaz of New Jersey, but still Stephens looked great in the matches he had.
87 - Lincoln Sledzianowski (Florida) - 8-0 including a really good win over Evan Sanati of Virginia. Had 6 tech falls and a fall (plus the decision win over Sanati).
97 - Nathaniel Boger (Tennessee) - 7-1 with his only loss coming in a 21-16 barnburner with Jayden Rinken of Iowa. Really good win over Elijah Almarinez of California and dominated the rest of the field.
106/110 - Zac Bosken (Tennessee) - Split time between 106 and 110 and finished 6-1. Looked to get matched up with the best from the other squad and really battled through some wins and his only loss (which was to Declan Koch 3-2 of Wisconsin). Really nice win over Wyatt Sandoval of California 2-1 and Khimari Manns of Ohio.
165 - Michael Mocco (Florida) - 8-0 with some really good wins including a 4-3 decision of Rojas of Indiana and a 13-8 decision of McMullen of Pennsylvania.
Others of note:
71 - Noah Watkins (Tennessee) - 6-2 - wrestled Gavin Pongsai of California tough in one of the losses. Nice wins over Alex Huddleston of Indiana and Manz of Iowa.
77 - Cooper McArthur (Georgia) - good tournament for Cooper finishing 6-2 with losses to Wimberly (Florida) and Ota (Texas Gold). Was really impressed with his 12-0 tech fall of Cordero of Tennessee.
77 - Will Atkinson (Alabama) - stepped up and competed at 83 for 5 matches. Finished 5-2 in Greco with both losses coming up at 82 vs Crosson of Iowa and a criteria loss to Merli of New York. Really good win over Quigley of Michigan Red (also up at 83).
77 - Uy’Kwon Wimberly (Florida) - 4-4, but a great win over McArthur of Georgia. Interested in scoring? Go watch the barnburner between Skin and Wimberly - Wimberly came out on the losing end, but it was fun to watch.
83 - William Buckley (Florida) - 6-2 and it was the close matches that really stood out … lost to Carlie of Maryland 8-5, but beat Meink of Nebraska 4-3 and Rankin of Virginia 7-4.
92 - William Phillips (Tennessee) - 4-0 and split time with Kellen Sanders. Really good wins over both Sievers of Georgia and Henderson of Indiana.
97/102 - Isaac Hoshide (Georgia) - love when wrestlers step up for their team and that’s what Isaac did in duals vs. Idaho and Oklahoma Blue … wrestled up at 102 and got two wins (10-7 and 6-2).
106/110 - Kiowa Vines (Alabama) - 5-1 wrestling at 106 and 110. Stepped up and took only loss in Greco to Quinonez of Colorado at 110. Looked superb at 106 including a good win over Braden Broderick of Michigan.
110 - Andres Digrigoli (Florida) - 7-1 in Greco with several hard fought decision wins that helped Florida win the Red Pool. Only loss was to Reagan Milheim of Pennsylvania.
114 - Phillip Jax (Georgia) - 5-3 in Greco with a 9-9 loss on criteria to Bradley Williams of Alabama. Jax had some nice wins over Judah Heeg and Findley Smout.
114 - Bradley Williams (Alabama) - outstanding tournament for Williams - finished 6-1 with his only loss coming to a very good Ybarra of Colorado. Had a nice hard fought win over Jax of Georgia - otherwise dominated at 114.
125 - Micah Wittenberg (Florida) - 7-1 in Greco with a close 9-8 loss to Lucas Boe of Indiana as his only loss of the tournament. Beat a good David Jewell of Georgia 8-6 … otherwise had tech falls, falls, and a forfeit.
130/136 - Gavin Isaacs (Florida) - 7-0 with 2 forfeits. Dominant at both 130 and 136. - yielding just 4 points in the tournament. Certainly made a case for the 5 on the rise by wrestling up at 136 despite weighing in at 130.
136 - Moose Bringer (Georgia) - 6-2 in Greco, but it was his win over Reza of California on criteria and his close loss to Huber of Texas that stood out.
149 - Matthew VanWettering (Georgia) - 6-2 and looked great in wins over Picallo (Florida) and Russell of Oklahoma.
149 - Cy Fowler (Tennessee) - 6-2 (5-2 with a forfeit). Absolutely dominant in his 5 wins. Loss two tough matches to Rodrigues of Maryland and Uyemura of California. There was some excellent competition at 149 and Fowler was right in the middle of it.
187/250 - Alexander Smith (Florida) - 7-1 with 3 forfeits - only loss came on a DQ to Romo of Kansas.
250 - Sebastian Garcia (Georgia) - finished unbeaten at 8-0 (with 3 forfeits). Garcia had a superb 3-1 win over Ceja of California