Hartselle (AL)

Head Coach: Joseph Hill (entering 2nd season)

Staff: Danny Timms, Joey Schutt

Hartselle returns 8 of their 12 State Qualifier including 2020 State Champ (and 2021 State Placer) Lincoln Bryant. Bryant, who is just a sophomore, will be tasked with leading another young squad in 2021-22. Of their returners they have just 2 Juniors, several sophomores, and a few freshmen. But they also have several that had multiple wins in Huntsville in 2021 and should be hunting a spot on the podium in 2022. Ethan England, Caden McDonald, Gage Roberts, and Payton Roberts are all capable of joining Bryant on the podium.

Keep and eye on Jacob Doshier and Jameyson Waits - both qualified a year ago and will look to make that happen again in 2022. Magnus Hanners and Austin Spivey will look to step in and have an impact in 2021-22 as well.

“We’re still very young, but coming off a solid year. Winning the region dual title, tying a school record of 12 state qualifiers and returning eight with one placer. After a solid summer I’m excited to see this team push themselves, with the confidence gained from last year, to have more success this year. ”

— Coach Hill

Benjamin Russell (AL)

Head Coach: Michael Ransaw

Staff: Connor Collins

Benjamin Russell returns a solid core group of wrestlers and will look to improve on their 22nd place at the 5A/6A tournament from a year ago. They do lose State Runner-up Damien Lawry to graduation, but return State Placers Jamarion Whetstone and Trace McCaleb - both of whom will look to make a run for the top of the podium in 2022. Benjamin Russell also returns Sandlin Pike, Lee Leonard and Savon Spradley - each won multiple matches in Huntsville a year ago and will look to make the podium.

The key to Benjamin Russell breaking into the top 10 in 2022 will be the continued development of State Qualifiers Kaleb Robinson and Isaiah Stamps. Keep an eye on Jartavious Burroughs as well.

Lake Highland Prep (Florida) weren’t the only SE hammers to venture to Spooky Nook (PA) this past weekend, but they are the only ones do so in force (taking much of their squad). SWAT (FL), Roundtree (GA), Raw (NC), The Master’s Academy (FL), Mat Assassins (SC), and others each had individuals go test their mettle against some of the top wrestlers in the Northeast and from around the country.

Winning the Journeymen is a big deal and comes with the coveted hammer - one of the best “trophies” you can win (in my opinion). But Coach Frank Popolizio runs a little different of a tournament - not your standard double elimination 16- or 32-man bracket. It is important to know the specifics when looking at the results below … Wrestlers are put into Groups (A, B or C) and then within pools in each Group. Wrestlers compete with everyone in their pool and then exit into their final “mini bracket”. It affords everyone that attends the opportunity to get multiple matches against similar level competition. Personally I am a big fan of the way Coach Popolizio runs it and the quality of matches each wrestler gets. Some of the weights had round robin (or pool) action for some of the best kids in the country.

So wrestlers in the “A” Group compete for the Hammer - but everyone is looking to win their group and get 4 or so matches during the day.

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Floridians Ethan Rivera and Mikey Tal-Shahar Take Home Hammers

(kind of)

As you can see by the Instagram post - the hammer was seized by TSA. Tal Shahar said “yeah it is back in Baltimore” when I asked him about it. Still some great wrestling this weekend by Tal Shahar, Rivera, and many of the other SE hammers that went north. Below is a breakdown of the action …

Ethan Rivera (FL) - 1st @ 113A Main Event

Rivera won Pool 4 in the 113A Main Event … beating Joseph Sciarrone 5-0, Emmitt Sherlock by forfeit, and Joseph Manfredi 5-1. By winning his pool he was in the semis at 113 with all of the other 113 lb. pool winners. Rivera beat Saoul Prado 4-0 and then Carter Nogle 3-1 to take home the hammer.

Mikey TalShahar (FL) - 1st @ 195A Main Event

TalShahar won Pool 1 in the 195A Main Event … beating Johnny Miller 3-2, Thomas D’Avanzo by forfeit, and then Kaden Cartee by fall. TalShahar then downed Pool 2 winner Michael Bartush 4-3 to claim the hammer.

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Other SE Wrestlers by Weight:

113B - Thomas Giere (AL) - 0-4 finished 5th in 113B

120A - Amantee Mills (GA) - 1-2 in Pool 2 and then lost to Coleman Nogle 5-0 before beating Gavin Bradley to finish 11th

120C - Colin Kacena (FL) - 4-0 finished 1st in 120C

125A - Danny Martinez (FL) - 1-2 in Pool 2 and then won 7-0 over Giovanni Alejandro and 4-2 over Isaac Thornton to finish 9th

125B - Colton Holmes (SC) - 0-2 in Pool 1 and then finished 0-2 in the bracket to finish 12th

130A - David McClelland (FL) - 2-1 in Pool 1 and then McClelland forfeited his final two matches to take 8th

130A - Brady Conlin (FL) - 2-1 in Pool 4 and then won 5-2 over Nathan Taylor before losing 1-0 to Kollin Rath to take 6th

135A - Eligh Rivera (FL) - 3-0 in Pool 3 with a nice 4-3 win over Luke Simcox, River lost to Sam Cartella in the semis and to Koy Buesgans to finish 4th

135A - Andrew Desola (FL) - 0-3 in Pool 4; Desola lost his final two matches to finish 16th

135B - Luis Bazan (FL) - 1-1 in Pool 3 and then 2-0 to finish 5th

140A - Brayden Ivy (TN) - 2-1 with a loss to Gavin Drexler in Pool 2, lost to Zach Hanson 2-1 before downing Matt Henrich to finish 7th

140B - Sean Pitts (TN) - 2-1 in Pool 4, won final two matches to finish 5th

140B - Claudio Torres (FL) - 1-2 in Pool 4, won final two matches to finish 9th

145A - James Latona (AL) - 2-1 in Pool 1 with a 1-0 loss to Jude Swisher, finished 1-1 for 7th

145A - Ethan Mojena (FL) - 1-2 in Pool 3, finished 1-1 for 11th

145B - Joshua Boykin (FL) - 2-1 in Pool 1, 1-1 to finish 7th

145B - Thomas Snipes (SC) - 3-0 in Pool 4 including 6-1 win over Price (NC), finished 1-1 with a loss to Colin Dupill 3-1 to take 2nd

145B - Jeremiah Price (NC) - 2-1 in Pool 4, 2-0 to finish 5th

152A - Dominic Bambinelli (GA) - 1-2 in Pool 1 with losses to Joe Sealey and Jayden Colon, finished 1-1 for 11th

152A - Michael Shannon (FL) - 0-3 in Pool 3, finished 1-1 for 15th

152B - Maxwell Kiel (NC) - 2-0 in Pool 1, finished 0-2 to take 4th

152B - Brandon Cody (FL) - 0-2 in Pool 1, finished 2-0 to take 9th

160A - Colby Dalon (TN) - 1-2 in Pool 2, finished 1-1 to take 10th

182A - Joseph Nicolosi (FL) - 0-2 in Pool 1, finished 1-1 to take 10th

195A - Caleb Beaty (NC) - 1-2 in Pool 2 and then lost to Johnny Miller 6-4 to finish 4th.

195A - Thomas D’Avanzo (FL) - won his first match and then forfeited the rest of his matches.

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LHP’s Mary Manis Claims a Hammer at 100 lbs.

Manis went 3-1 , but edged the rest of the 100 lb field to claim the hammer.

Manis beat Amelia Murphy 17-6, Kayla Batres 9-3, Juliana Alejandro 13-2 before dropping her last match by fall to Julia Horger.

Alejandro and Manis were the only two to finish with 1 loss and because Mary won that head-to-head match she takes home the hammer.

Kyla Oliver finished 4th with a 1-3 record at 112 lbs.