Georgia’s Genevieve An took home the outstanding wrestler for the Girls Folkstyle Tournament as she downed fellow nationally-ranked foe Amarisa Manuel 10-4 to win the 155 lb. title.
Elite Semifinals are set for 9 am on Flowrestling. You can check out my thoughts on Day 1 in SEWrestle+ - below are your semifinal matchups
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.
(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 …
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.
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.
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.
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.
The Fall Classic kicks off this morning in Pennsylvania and will continue through the weekend. This is one of the original tournaments that awards a hammer to the champions and is one of the best “pre-season” tournaments around the country. It also will be one of the handful of tournaments we use when constructing the #dirtydozen rankings (Rankings of the top 12 kids at each weight in the SE).
Brackets will be in FloArena
Be sure to click the correct division on the far left side of the page. Be sure to check back in our new SEWrestle+ page to get an in-depth look at all of the action this weekend. In years past - Journeymen has put them into pools (A, B, and C with cross bracketing at the end) … I’m not certain how they will do on the FloArena platform this year. Not sure what is meant by pools and cross-bracketing? Check out our Wrestling 101 page (specifically the 10 or 12-man scramble - which will be fairly similar to how they’ve done it in the past).
Here is a quick look at who is there and who you should watch from the SE:
106 - none from the SE
113 (28 entrants) - Lake Highland Prep’s (#11 at 106) Ethan Rivera headlines to field along with Missouri’s Draegen Orine (#18). Keep an eye on Carter Nogle (MD), Isiac Paulino (MA), and Carson Wagner (PA). Former Florida hammer Christian Fretwell (now at Wyoming Seminary) should be in the mix as well. Alabama’s Thomas Giere (Thompson) is also in the field at 113.
120 (37 entrants) - 8 wrestlers ranked in the top 20 by flo including Leo Deluca who just won Who’s #1. Three SE wrestlers are part of the group … Matthew Rowland of North Carolina (Pinecrest), Hudson Waldrop of Alabama (McAdory), and Colin Kacena of Florida (Lake Highland Prep).
125 (36 entrants) - Former Floridian Vince Bouzakis comes in as the top ranked 125 (#17). Tons of honorable mention candidates, but Bouzakis has to be considered the favorite. Four SE hammers listed … 3 from Lake Highland Prep: Danny Martinez, Andrew Wittenberg, and Zachary Lewis, plus Colton Holmes of South Carolina (Hillcrest).
130 (32 entrants) - PJ Duke and Tyler Vazquez headline the weight. Eligh Rivera of LHP is one of a handful of honorable mentions that should be in the thick of things. Two other LHP’s in the weight as well - Luis Bazan and Brady Conlin. David McClelland is also listed, but back in his home state of Ohio - McClelland has spent the last two-ish years at LHP.
135 (25 entrants) - Jordan Soraino is the only ranked wrestler at the weight with a bunch of honorable mention candidates. Florida’s Andrew DeSola is the only SE wrestler in the mix.
140 (30 entrants) - Minnesota’s Zach Hanson is ranked #12 at 132 and should be the favorite in this bracket. Tennessee’s Brayden Ivy is listed as an honorable mention and should be in the hunt. Two other Tennesseans - Sean Pitts and Caleb Gumlick as well as LHP’s CJ Torres is also in the bracket.
145 (37 entrants) - Best weight of the tournament? #9 Jude Swisher (Pennsylvania), #10 Pierson Manville (Pennsylvania), #12 Kelvin Griffin (Maine), #13 Kal Miller (Missouri), #15 Dylan Evans (Pennsylvania), and #19 Ethan Mojena of Lake Highland Prep (Florida). Add in another LHP hammer in Josh Boykin, James Latona of Alabama (Thompson), Jeremiah Price of North Carolina (Surry Central) and Thomas Snipes of South Carolina (Hillcrest) and this should be a great weight to watch.
152 (33 entrants) - Former North Carolina hammer Joe Sealey is #8 (now at Wyoming Sem), #4 Nicco Ruiz (CA), and #9 William Henckel (Connecticut) headline the weight. Excited to see Georgia freshman Dominic Bambinelli listed as well as Florida’s Brandon Cody and Michael Shannon (both The Master’s Academy) and Alabama’s Clay Johnston (Vestavia). This is another good, deep weight that shows where you stand with some of the best competition around.
160 (25 entrants) - 5 that are ranked including #9 Jonathan Ley of LHP and 4 others listed as honorable mention. Wask, Fea, Lillard (former Georgia hammer), and Mackay should give Ley a run for the hammer here. Tennessee’s Colby Dalon will be in he mix as well.
170 (18 entrants) - #12 Rune Lawrence of Pennsylvania headlines the weight. No SE wrestlers are listed.
182 (16 entrants) - Headlined by #7 Kole Mulhauser of New York and #10 Ryder Rogotzke of Minnesota. Florida’s Joseph Nicolosi (AHDB) is the only SE wrestler listed.
195 (7 entrants) - Florida’s Mikey Tal Shahar (AHDB) and Thomas D’Avanzo (LHP) as well as Caleb Beaty of North Carolina (Wake Forest) should be in the running for the title.
225 (15 entrants) - Virginia’s Parker Ferrell #14 at 220 is probably the favorite. No SE wrestlers listed.
285 - none from the SE
