Hillgrove (GA)

The Hawks finished 24th at the 7A Traditional State Tournament in 2021, but return a ton of talent and should be back in the mix for a top 10 finish in 2022. The Hawks are led by State Runner-up Connor Powell … Powell and Josiah Wehling are the only two seniors returning (that competed in the 2021 post-season) - so this team should be continue to develop over the year (and for years to come). The return of Zion Rutledge is also a big bonus for the Hawks and Rutledge is part of a Junior class that is deep. State Qualifiers Clark Young and Connor Cooper both return and will look to make a run for a spot on the podium.

Hillgrove also has several sophomores that gained valuable experience as freshmen in 2021 including State Qualifiers Brayden Gibson and Elliot Wehling. If can continue the development of the sophomore and junior talent - this team could make some noise at the end of 2022 and into 2022-23.

“After a down year by Hillgrove standards, we aim to compete for a region title, county title, and a shot at the elite 8. Led by returning state finalist Connor Powell (12), and top 8 finisher Connor Cooper (11), we are returning 9 starters from last years team. The wrestlers bought into the off-season program and are eager to demonstrate their improvement on the mat. ”

— Coach Slenczka

Walton (GA)

Walton lose just 3 from last year’s squad - but those three were outstanding. State Champ Jonathan Chesser and State Placer Logan Madsen have graduated, but Walton had a good team all around last year and will look to the next group to step up in 21-22. State Placer Emil Necula returns as do State Qualifiers Caden Canzano, Ryan Cloninger, Quinn Bannon, and Hudson Jones. Canzano, Cloninger, and Bannon won multiple matches at the 2021 State Tournament and will look to add another few and make a run at the podium in 2022.

This team should be back in the mix for a top 10 finish, but will need some new faces to step in and make an impact. Keep an eye on freshman Aiden Cohn as well as the return of Cason Henry. Max Leamy, Aaron Armstrong and Ben Davis will look to punch their ticket to Macon in 2022. Walton has several that will make a run for a spot on the podium … the key is the continued development of the next wave of Raiders.

“Really looking forward to seeing this team compete this year and expect big things from starters returning this year. We are returning 11 starters from last years team with 1 state placer, 6 returning state qualifiers and 3 region champs and traditional region championship and a 9th place finish in the state tournament. We have a good group of freshman coming in and excited to have Cason Henry returning to us from injury. This team has worked really hard this summer and excited to get things started soon. Go Raiders!”

— Coach Turner

Top 4 in Each Weight

Things that Stood Out to Me

• 98

  • Mills is a small 106 - thinking ahead to the high school season (and I’m not even sure he is in high school yet … I didn’t look it up). But, if he is a freshman, will be one to watch at 106 in 2022.

• 106

  • Calderon vs. McDonald Round 2. Both had to work to get to the finals … Calderon beat Kusky 7-1 and then Vines 5-3; McDonald downed Chase Walker by fall before downing Pennsylvania’s Fanella 4-3. Calderon got it done again with a 5-4 decision to take the title. Vines 2-0 over Stone Phillips was a potential Alabama 7A state tournament match. Vines beat Bond of Baylor 4-2 in the Round of 16 (but Bond came back in the consi semis with a 9-0 win over Vines to finish top 4). Lots of freshmen to keep an eye here … Walker over Powe 3-0, Bond over Brickely 4-0, Moody over Alabama State Placer Soto 4-2, Kusky over Brickley 4-2, Bond over Walker 8-0 (that’s Baylor vs. Cleveland), Phillips over Kusky 3-0. Tons of freshmen behind Calderon and McDonald.

• 113

  • Jay Peace took care of business on the top side - wins over Marsh, Davis, and 8-4 over Christmas. Christmas beat fellow Alabamian Giere 3-2 in the quarters (also beat Georgia’s Malette by fall). Daishun Powe (Alabama Runner-up) was superb before losing his semi 1-0 to Ohio’s Tucker. Powe ended up 3rd and should be the #1 ranked Alabama 113. McArthur lost to eventual Champ Tucker in the first round and then won 6 in a row to make the podium. Some really good wins by McArthur.

• 120

  • Super deep. 36 wrestlers from across the SE. Drew Gorman came in the top seed and roared to the semis (outscoring his first 3 opponents 45-1 including a 15-0 tech fall of Hudson Waldrop of Alabama). Gorman lost his semifinal match to fellow Georgia hammer Jake Crapps. Crapps beat Yanni Vines of Alabama 6-0 in the quarters and then Crapps downed Gorman 5-2 to advance to the finals. Bottom side of the bracket had Amantee Mills (2 seed), Oren Decker (#3), Matt Rowland (#6), Will Anderson (#7) and Darrell Rochester (#10) … it also had Alabama State Placer Bradley Williams and Chad Strickland. Decker beat Strickland 5-2 before eventually losing to Rowland 2-1 in the quarters. Rochester pinned Anderson in the Round of 16 and then Mills beat Rochester 1-0 in the quarters. Mills beat Rowland 7-2 to advance to the finals. Mills downed Crapps in a great final to claim the 120 title … the deepest and most talented bracket in the tournament. Mills vs. Crapps was a really good match with a nice takedown by Mills to get the win.

  • The backside of 120 featured many more top matchups. Some in-state matchups - particularly for Alabama and Georgia wrestlers - make you pay attention to what “might” happen in the 2021-22 season. Gorman beating Rochester 5-1 is a potential 6A state title matchup. Will Anderson over Hudson Waldrop is a potential 5A/6A title matchup. Great weight class.

• 126

  • Another superb weight. Sellers wrestled lights out … had a couple of wins before pinning Danforth in the quarters and Warnock in the semis. Then beat Thiel 3-0 in the finals (really 1-0 until the very end, but still a great win). Thiel had some really good wins, but the one that stood out was 6-4 over Powe. Powe pinned Danforth in the 1st period in the consi semis and then pinned Warnock for 3rd. Really good weight class. Warnock beat Jarrett in a battle of Tennessean’s in the consi semis.

• 132

  • Chaos. None of the top 4 seeds made the podium, but in looking at this weight - not overly surprising. The top 12 wrestlers are all close. South Carolina freshman Blue Stiffler beat Alabama State Placer Bryce Wanagat 7-6 in the finals … Wanagat took out the #1 seed Brayton Killiri in the first round. Wanagat had some good wins over Christian Gordon, Josh Sanders, and others to make the finals on the top side. Stiffler beat Paradice, Sanks, Crawford to make the finals on the bottom side. The backside was a grind. Gordon pinned #2 seed Vadyak from Florida before downing Alabama Runner-up Sam Sutton … lost to Crawford 9-6 in the consi semis. Paradice beat Killiri and Sanders to make the consi finals. Stiffler shouldn’t have been unseeded … maybe not top 4 based on being a freshman, but certainly top 8. We get to enjoy Stiffler vs. Paradice for years to come.

• 138

  • Outstanding weight class and might be the 2nd best weight of the tournament behind 120 (I say might because there were a number of weights that were super deep). 30 wrestlers from all over the SE. Alabama’s Devin Stone had quite a run to the top step. Stone beat Marley Washington 3-2 in the quarters before getting falls over Bryce Kresho and Art Martinez to claim the title. Not sure who the “true 3 seed” was on the bottom side - both Lukas Crosby and Sean Pitts had 3’s next to their name (Crosby was on the traditional 3 line - so …). Anyway Pitts beat Pitts Crosby 7-0 in the quarters before losing to Martinez 3-2 in the semis. Brian Papcun and Ian Murdock both wrestled back and finished just off the podium … Papcun had a nice 4-2 win over Washington.

• 145

  • Another outstanding weight with 24 wrestlers that were not significantly different in terms of accolades. Top seed Melton Powe, Alabama State Champ, pinned Ryan Seeb before downing Braulio Cavazos 5-2 to reach the top semi. Powe for 4 seed Santiago Rueda who had a 7-3 win over Emfinger and a 2-0 win over Dalen Kimble. Powe got the fall over Rueda to make the finals. Not certain who the 3 seed was in the bracket (no one on the line for the 3 seed) but it matter little as Florida’s Nick Hejke took care of the 3rd quarter of the bracket with a 5-0 win over Cullen Kane, a 2-1 win over Mario Bolivar before downing Mcdermott 11-0. McKnight (the 2 seed) downed Stepherson (the #7 seed) 4-0 to advance to the semis opposite Hejke. Hejke downed McKnight 2-1 before losing 3-2 to Powe in the finals. Stepherson lost to Rueda 3-1 in the consi semis … Cavazos had a series of nice wins over Doolittle (4-1) and Kimble (3-2) before losing to McKnight 3-2 in the other consi semi. Some really close matches at 145 that could have gone different ways (and in a 6 minute match might have had a different outcome).

• 152

  • If 138 wasn’t the 2nd toughest weight this past Saturday then 152 is with the likes of Andrew Cory, Weston Eadie, Dominick Bambinelli, Carson Thorne, Harris Mitchell, etc. But none of them claimed the title when all was said and done. Icon’s Garrett Wood won a close one 6-5 over South Carolina’s Mathew Gummere before going on a run that included a 2-1 win over Eadie and an 8-7 win over Cory to claim the title. 152 featured some outstanding matches … and also some surprising results like Otting hammering Mitchell 9-0 in the Round fo 16 (only to have Mitchell get 2 sudden victory wins, a Ultimate Tie Breaker win over Eadie, and a 5-4 win to make the podium). Mitchell’s tournament is a perfect example of how close the 152 lb. bracket was. Bambinelli vs. Cory was a great semi on the top side, Wood 2-1 over Eadie was super on the bottom. This bracket had it all.

• 160

  • Another really good weight … but a good example of why seeding is so important (and I’m not saying it should have been seeded differently but a returning State Champ not seeded in the top 8 is surprising). Secoy vs. Garrett in the first round was surprising. Not that it matters - you gotta go out and win and Secoy did just that with a 1-0 decision. . So Secoy had quite a path - Garrett 1-0, Hecket (a Tennessee State Champ) 4-3 before losing to Sheffield 4-2 in the semis. Manning and Shered were both solid on the bottom side, but Baylor’s Mason Alley was special. He took out the #2 seed Miles Watts by fall then beat Lhaubouet, Fairbanks, and Manning before losing to Sheffield 3-2 in the finals. Watts showed a ton - lost in the first round to Alley and then won 4 in a row before losing to Secoy 5-3 in the consi semis. Same for Garrett - who lost to Secoy in the first round and also won 4 in a row before losing to Manning 5-1 in the consi semis.

• 170

  • Cambridge’s Daniel Driggs took out top seed Gabriel Juarez 2-1 UTB in the first round and t hat opened up the top quarter for Buford’s Conor McCloskey (the 8 seed) to work his way to the semis (unfortunately for McCloskey he forfeited both his semi and consi semi matches - no clue what happened). Joe Bambinelli was on fire from the 4 seed - he had a major decision before to 1st period falls (and the forfeit) to make the finals. He downed Zachary-Daniel McKnight of Cass in the finals 6-5 in a fun match to watch. McKnight came from the 3 seed to get 3 wins (one a forfeit over Wyatt of Alabama - wanted to see that match, but Wyatt was injured) before downing New Jersey’s Nick Bernik 6-5 in the semis. Juarez, the top seed, showed a lot of grit as he rebounded from a tough loss to Driggs to win 6 in a row and take 3rd with a 3-2 win over Aiden Knight.

• 182

  • Hunter Adams was superb (and no offense to the rest of the 182’s), but he was significantly better than everyone else. He had 4 falls (1:41, 1:30, 0:15, and 1:16)on his way to the title. Richmond Hill’s Charles King took out the 3 seed in Jagger Gray 5-1 before pinning Kalob Johnstone and winning by a 9-3 decision over Kennedy Wyatt to advance to the finals. Gray came all the way back to finish 3rd and Conlon, the 4 seed finished 4th.

• 195

  • Returning Georgia State Champs Landen Moss and Luke Cochran met in the 195 lb. final. Moss “got one back” as he downed Florida’s Chris Geil 4-2 in the quarters (Greil - I believe beat him at Carr’s Duals a week ago). Moss beat Houghton as well, but couldn’t handle Cochran and dropped his finals match 7-1. Cochran was superb with a nice opening round win over Patrick Brophy 7-3 before beating Rhodes 12-3, pinning Tyler Johnston, and downing Moss.

• 220

  • Interesting weight class. Georgia’s Logan Webster, the top seed, won his match easily, but then had to battle to a 4-3 win over Tubbs of Alabama (Tubbs didn’t end up placing). Webster then pinned Thomas Crawford in the finals after being up 5-0. Crawford was solid on the bottom side … pinning Gavin Proffitt before downing Trace Gallman 9-5 … both Gallman and Proffitt end up in the top 4.

• 285

  • Not surprisingly both 220 and 285 were fairly small brackets … the big guys that made it either played football the night before and then came down to spend the day on the mat or they don’t play football. Most of the top 220’s and 285’s don’t wrestle during football season. Unseeded Jarek Stewart-Karolewics had a fall, a 5-4 decision over top seed Calvin Roberts before downing #2 seed Nesbitt Desmond 4-2 in the finals. Hats off to the big guys that came and competed … I know some of them pulled double duty and that shows how much they want to be on the mat.

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Unseeded (not in the top 4) to the Top of the Podium

• Brogan Tucker (St Paris Graham) - 113

• Ethan Sellers (Colquitt County) - 126

• Blue Stiffler (Roundtree Wrestling Academy) - 132

• Garrett Wood (Icon) - 152

• Jarek Stewart-Karolewics (828 WC) - 285

Unseeded (not in the top 4) to the podium

• Lee Camp (Cass) - 2nd at 98

• Jacob Bond (Baylor) - 4th at 106

• Maddox McArthur (Teknique) - 4th at 113

• Jake Crapps (Cass) - 2nd at 120

• Matthew Rowland (Combat Athletics) - 4th at 120

• Bryce Wanagat (Warrior Wrestling Club) - 2nd at 132

• Jackson Crawford (Richmond Hill) - 3rd at 132

• Logan Paradice (Colquitt County) - 4th at 132

• Nick Hejke (Dolphin Nation) - 2nd at 145

• Dominic Bambinelli (Roundtree Wrestling Academy) - 3rd at 152

• Mason Alley (Baylor) - 2nd at 160

• Tyler Secoy (Columbus/Icon) - 3rd at 160

• Aiden Knight (BWC) - 4th at 170

• Charles King (Richmond Hill) - 2nd at 182

• Patrick Brophy (Ring Worms) - 3rd at 195

• Janyd Houghton (Weddington) - 4th at 195

• Trace Gallman (Devils Den) - 3rd at 220

• Aaron Garcia (Roundtree Wrestling Academy) - 3rd at 285

• Bradley Wilbourn (Alabama Takedown Academy) - 4th at 285

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Off the Radar … Pay Attention to the Names

These wrestlers might not be “off the radar” to many people, but they are certainly less known than others in their weight (at least when we started on Saturday). Each wrestled very well - some made the podium - others did not, but each should be one to watch heading into the 2021-22 season.

• Lee Camp is someone to keep an eye on at 106 for Cass this coming season.

• Yanik Simon - Huntsville has a good one with Simon and his brother. Beat Reed Walker 12-0 in the first round.

• Maddox McArthur - look out Georgia. McArthur lost to Tucker in the first round and then won 6 in a row - including 6-0 over Christmas before losing 4-3 to Powe for 3rd at 113.

• Tony Serrano was 5-2 with losses to Rowland and Anderson. Took a forfeit over Vines - but in a deep weight that was a good day for someone “off the radar”.

• Judson Jarrett was 4-2 with wins over Mullins and Velt; losses to Warnock and Powe (close to the podium, but not quite).

• Jackson Crawford - 5-1 with only loss coming to eventual Champ Stiffler in the semis. Crawford beat Sutton, Vigh, Gordon, and Paradice.

• Brian Papcun and Ian Murdock - both finished just off the podium. Murdock beat Papcun 11-0 in the first round. Papcun won 5 in a row to make the consi semis including a good 4-2 win over Marley Washington and a fall over Emil Necula. Murdock lost to Necula 5-1 and then won 4 in a row to make the consi semis before losing to Kresho.

• Braulio Cavazos finished 4-2 with losses to Powe and McKnight and win over Taylor, Doolittle, and Kimble.

• Tough to pick one at 152 … neither Riley Fort or Harris Mitchell are really “off the radar”. Neither is Throne, Wood, Cory, Bambinelli or Eadie. So we are going to go with McClain Otting. Otting was a Tennessee 3A State Qualifier but didn’t score a win at the state tournament. He had wins over Mitchell (an Alabama 7A State Placer) plus a 15-5 win over Robbie DeHaven of Woodward Academy.

• Mason Alley - easy. Alley came in definitely “off the radar” to most (not to his teammate Nick Corday who said you better watch out for Mason before we began wrestling on Saturday) … but wins over Watts, Lhaubouet, Fairbanks, and Manning and a tough 3-2 loss to Sheffield shows you he definitely belongs in the conversation.

• Charles King finished 2nd at 182 - downing 3 seed Jagger Gray as well as Alabama State Placer Kennedy Wyatt. King wasn’t in the lineup for Richmond Hill a year ago … I’d expect we will see more of him in Georgia 6A in 21-22.

• Patrick Brophy - I thought Brophy would be seeded, but he wasn’t and pulled the #2 seed, and eventual Champ Cochran in the first round. Brophy won 4 in a row to take 3rd.

• Trace Gallman was unseeded and finished 3rd - only loss coming to Crawford 9-5 in the semis. Had to win a close one - 6-4 over Nunez to make the podium before pinning Proffitt.

• Jarek Stewart-Karolewics finished 3-0 with two close decisions.