High School Insider: Recapping A Raucous Start To Championship Season

Wyoming Seminary stamped itself as the #1 team in the nation, while individual stars shined around the country to start state tournament season.

Mar 4, 2022 by Brendan Scannell

High School Insider: Recapping A Raucous Start To Championship Season

Wyoming Seminary proved it’s the nation’s top team with a championship performance at National Preps. Everything wasn’t perfect for the Knights last weekend, but they proved it didn’t have to be to still claim the team title.

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Two nationally ranked stars Gabe Arnold and Vince Bouzakis didn’t wrestle for Sem and Malvern’s Jack Consiglio spoiled what many expected to be Luke Lilledahl vs. Marc-Anthony McGowan final. McGowan went on to beat Consiglio to become one of six Blair champs – the most of any team. Still, it was Malvern that finished second in the team race with Blair falling in just behind them.

In other news across the country, one 2022’s top recruits, Jesse Mendez completed an unbelievable high school career with his fourth state title in single-class Indiana, just the 10th Hoosier-state wrestler ever to do it. Mendez wasn’t the only one making history with their fourth state title, though. Others include #1 in the nation Clayton Whiting and Cameron Gerber of Wisconsin; #11 Gabe Wisenhunt, #10 James Rowley and Ayden Garver all from Oregon; Cole Thomas in Kansas, and #3 Chase Horn in Georgia, while Faith Cole became Missouri’s first four-time girls state champion.

There were also two big-time state final showdowns that wrestling fans across the country had eyes on and in both cases, the previously lower-ranked wrestler prevailed.

126 pounds Illinois 3A State Final: #5 Sergio Lemley dec. #7 Vincent Robinson 10-5

Lemley was able to reverse the result of two prior meetings with Robinson to snag the Illinois state championship. One thing is for sure, both of these guys are going to be really good at the next level. Robinson is headed to North Carolina State and three-time state champ Lemley remains unsigned. So, the only question left to ask is: Hey, NCAA coaches — what are you waiting for?

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160 pounds Oklahoma 6A State Final: #2 Angelo Ferrari dec. #3 Jordan Williams 2-1 UTB

Sophomore Angelo Ferrari was able to stifle some early attacks and use a rideout in ultimate tiebreakers to knock off pound-for-pounder Jordan Williams for his first state title, denying Williams his fourth. As a result, the youngest Ferrari flies up the rankings all the way to #2.

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There were a few state tournament moments that made their rounds on social media. Some good – some not so good. Let’s start with the latter:

It was a disappointing ending to the 138-pound California state final between Beau Mantanona and Michael Gioffre. The two found themselves in overtime, for the second time this year, with Gioffre leading late before Mantanona scored a reversal and back points as time expired. Mantanona celebrated as if he had won, until the two refs conferred and ultimately decided to reverse the call and award Gioffre the victory. The disappointment wasn’t so much about whether or not the call on the mat was correct but more so about how the process played out. Regardless of who was on the winning side, it was a bummer of an ending to what was an outstanding eight minutes of wrestling. Watch the full match HERE and you make the call.

There were also a couple some amazing stories coming out of state championship weekend in Virginia and New York that reminded so many of us why we love this sport.

First came Adonis Lattimore, of Landstown (Virginia), who despite being born without a right leg and most of his left leg, claimed the 106-pound Virginia Class 6 state title with a gritty 5-1 victory. When the final whistle blew, Lattimore was embraced by his emotional coaches and received a standing ovation from the crowd.

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Then, there was Long Beach, New York’s Dunia Sibomana, whose inspiring story begins in 2016 when he moved to the United States to undergo facial reconstructive surgery after he was attacked and mauled by chimpanzees at Virunga National Park in Central Africa. Incredibly, a little more than five years later, Sibomana was the 102-pound champion at the New York state championships with a performance that garnered the attention of celebrities like Mario Lopez as well as NCAA All-American and former Long Beach standout Dylan Palacio.

Stories like these about young athletes who use wrestling, or any other sport, as a vessel to change their life give us all an opportunity to be grateful and empathize with the challenges that people of different sizes, abilities and backgrounds have overcome to be great.

So, here’s a special shoutout to Lattimore, Sibomana and every other wrestler chasing gold medal dreams this championship season.

No matter the result, the work is always worth it.

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New Jersey State Championships Return to Atlantic City

The lights will be bright in Boardwalk Hall this weekend where New Jersey’s best wrestlers will compete for the coveted state championship.

4 Big Storylines to Watch:

It’s History in the Making when Brian Soldano puts a cap on a run of dominance in New Jersey we haven’t seen since Nick Suriano. #3 Soldano is undefeated in-state in the past three seasons.

Battle of State Champs at 215 pounds, where #6 Martin Cosgrove and #8 PJ Casale are set for a possible showdown in one of the weekend’s most anticipated finals.

The Rematch of the Weekend is at 132 pounds, where defending state champ #16 Anthony Santaniello and #13 Tyler Vazquez could run back their Beast in the East final back in December that Vazquez won 6-5.

The Future Is Here with the Boardwalk Hall debut of #2 Anthony Knox, Caedyn Ricciardi, and Alessio Perentin among other standout freshmen from the Garden State.

Check out our weight by weight preview HERE ahead of the action this weekend in Atlantic City.

You can watch live video all weekend long on nj.com

Some Mammoth Matchups in Michigan

Just last week in the team state championships, Davison won the Division 1 state title for the second year in a row with a 29-21 victory over rival Detroit Catholic Central. Davison, the high school of former college standouts like Brent Metcalf and Jon Reader.

In one of the state dual’s deciding bouts, Davison’s #7 Josh Barr and DCC’s #8 Manny Rojas hit for the second time this season. Both are two-time state champs and despite Rojas winning the first meeting, Barr evened the score last week. Most expect to see the next showdown in this weekend’s state final in Detroit and that one will be for all the marbles.

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But Barr won’t be the only Davison state champ with a difficult path to his second title. Justin Gates will need to take out the nation’s #17 Drew Heethuis if he hopes to defend his gold medal.

In Division 3, Dundee defended its title for the fifth straight year and will look to show off some more of that same dominance this weekend. Dundee crowned eight individual state champs last year. Of that group, state champs # Casey Swiderski (two-time) and #2 Braeden Davis return to defend their titles.

A Busy State Championship Weekend in Mighty Minnesota

Just like Iowa’s high school state tournament format, Minnesota’s team competition is held Day One with the individual championships to follow over the weekend. The top seeds entering in each Division include Jackson County Central (A), Simley AA), and St Michael – Albertville (AAA). We’ll see if any of the other Minnesota squads can take out one of the lead contenders.

For Gopher fans planning to tune in, there’s a nice crop of individual upperweights headed to the University of Minnesota from the Class of 2022 that are sure to be in action this weekend – #11 Hunter Lyden and #11 Max McEnelly in AAA and #5 Gavin Nelson in AA all won state titles last year and plan on defending them this weekend.

Also in AA, undefeated Bennett Berge enters the weekend ranked #3. The senior, committed to South Dakota State where his brother was formerly an assistant coach, will likely have #20 Soren Herzog, standing in the way of his fourth state title. Herzog is a two-time Colorado state placer before moving to Minnesota this year where he’ll try to make some history of his own.

The Minnesota crowd always shows out, so you can count on an entertaining weekend in St. Paul starting Thursday.

As always, stay tuned to our state championship HUB for LIVE coverage and content all weekend long on FloWrestling!