Over the past couple weekends, we’ve seen a lot of top-rated action in the high school ranks with Wyoming Seminary flexing its muscle again with a Powerade title after winning team titles at Ironman and the Hall of Fame Dual Classic.

Meanwhile, California power Poway High School took home a title at the Doc Buchanan, and Iowa’s Southeast Polk High School won a team title at the Cheesehead in Wisconsin. 

Coming up, we’ll preview both Escape the Rock and a couple dual matchups that will pit Pennsylvania powerhouse Wyoming Seminary against some of the best in New Jersey this weekend.

Powerade Wrestling Tournament

As already mentioned, Wyoming Seminary took home the team title with 229 points in Pennsylvania’s Powerade Wrestling Tournament just before the New Year. St. Edward finished second with 187.5 points, while Malvern Prep took third with 173. Bishop McCort placed fourth with 160 points, and St. Joseph Regional took fifth with 158. 

Individually, Wyoming Seminary and State College paced the field with three champs each. For Wyoming Seminary, #3 Jude Correa won at 215 pounds, #3 Nathan Desmond won at 121 and #3 Vince Bouzakis won at 152. State College saw championships from #1 Pierson Manville at 145, #10 Nick Pavlechko at 285, and #15 Asher Cunningham at 160. Manville and Pavlechko are both Arizona State commits.

St. Edward had a champ in #8 Jarrel Miller at 189 pounds but was powered by eight total placers, including runner-up #8 Karson Brown at 121. Malvern Prep also had one champ out of its six placers – #8 Nick O’Neill at 133 pounds. 

As usual, Bishop McCort was led by the duo of Bo Bassett and Jax Forrest. Ranked #1, Bassett won at 139 pounds while racking up three tech falls and a major decision. Forrest is ranked #3 in the country and ran through the field with three techs and two pins. 

St. Joseph Regional had two finalists among its six placers, while Lake Highland Prep finished sixth with seven total placers.

Doc Buchanan Wrestling Tournament

At one of the West Coast’s biggest tournaments of the year, Poway High School earned a team title in California’s Doc Buchanan Wrestling Tournament with its 223 points. After finishing as runner-ups at Powerade the weekend before, St. Edward finished second here as well with 206 points. Buchanan High School finished third with 173 points, Gilroy took fourth with 171.5 and St. John Bosco finished fifth with 151.5. 

Poway had five finalists with two champions in #6 Paul Kelly at 141 pounds and #18 Angelo Posada at 178. St. Edward and Buchanan led the field with nine placers each. St. Edward had the 147-pound winner in Ryan Bennett who beat Buchanan’s #4 Joseph Toscano 2-1 in the final.

Gilroy actually led the field with three champions – #1 (at 215) Cody Merrill at 288 pounds, #6 Isaiah Cortez at 129 and #16 Elijah Cortez at 135. St. John Bosco had three finalists but they all fell in the finals – #7 Joseph Antonio at 168, #7 Nicholas Sahakian at 288 and Jesse Grajeda at 135. Sahakian fell to Merrill 3-1 in the final at 288, while Antonio lost to #9 Collin Guffey 5-4 in the final at 168.

Cheesehead Invitational

Also last weekend, the Cheesehead Invitational was held in Wisconsin and hosted some of the best teams in the Midwest. Out of Pleasant Hill, Iowa, Southeast Polk High School won the team title with 591.5 points, while Joliet Catholic finished second with 504. St. Charles East High School placed third with 485.5 points.

Southeast Polk had just one champion but had 10 wrestlers place in the top 8. Its championship came from Carter Pearson at 120 pounds. Joliet Catholic also had just one champion but had nine top-eight placers, led by #2 Dillon Johnson who beat #4 Koy Hopke 4-1 in the 285-pound final. 

St. Charles East had three champions – #3 Domenic Munaretto at 113, #1 Ben Davino at 132 and #8 Tyler Guerra at 138. Davino beat #9 Logan Swensen 7-2 in the final, while Guerra beat Little Rock commit Miles Anderson 4-1 in their final.

Escape The Rock This Weekend

This weekend, a number of top teams will converge on Council Rock South High School in Pennsylvania to compete at Escape the Rock. Powerhouse programs Lake Highland Prep, Malvern Prep, Bethlehem Catholic, Notre Dame, St. Joseph Regional, State College and Faith Christian will be there, to name a few.

The field gives us a chance at seeing some high-level matchups. At 114 pounds, #5 Ayden Smith of Notre Dame could see #2 Paul Kenny of Christian Brothers in the final, while top-ranked Joe Bachman of Faith Christian will test himself against a handful of ranked guys at 107. 

Probably the premier potential matchup of the tournament will be at 145 pounds, where #1 Pierson Manville and #2 Jack Consiglio of Malvern Prep are the top two seeds and could meet in the final. 

We could see two more top-10 matchups at 152 and 172 this weekend.  At 152, #4 Kollin Rath of Bethlehem Catholic and #8 Collin Gaj of Quakertown are the top two seeds, while #2 Ryan Burton of St. Joseph’s Regional and #5 Adam Waters of Faith Christian are the top seeds at 172 and could meet in the final. 

Wyoming Seminary to Face Jersey’s Best

Sporting 10 nationally ranked wrestlers in its lineup, Wyoming Seminary is the best high school team around, and this weekend the Knights will face arguably the two best teams from New Jersey in Blair Academy and Delbarton. Blair has eight nationally ranked wrestlers, while Delbarton has five.

Looking at these teams’ lineups, there are a number of exciting matchups that could be going down. In Friday’s dual between Wyoming Sem and Blair Academy, the top matchup could be at 120 pounds when Wyoming Sem’s #3 Nathan Desmond, a recent Penn State commit, is slated to take on Blair’s #1 Leo DeLuca, an Iowa commit. This matchup could be the first of many to come between these two. 

The second-most anticipated match between these two schools will be when #2 Joe Sealey,  takes on Blair’s #6 William Henckel at 165 pounds in a battle of Penn State commits. Sealey won a 4-2 decision in September at Who’s #1. 

We could also see top-10 matchups between #6 Shamus Regan of Wyoming Sem and #10 Vincenzo Anello at 106 pounds, and #10 Matthew Botello against Blair’s #7 Matty Lopes at 132 pounds.

Against Delbarton, there could be top matchups between Regan and Delbarton’s #5 Cameron Sontz at 106 pounds, and Desmond against #9 Dan Jones of Delbarton. Sealey could face another top-10 foe in Delbarton’s #8 Alessio Perentin, while Wyoming Seminary’s #8 Dominic Federici could face Delbarton’s #7 Louie Cerchio.