Two of the best high school programs in the country finished 1-2 at Escape the Rock this past weekend with #1 Faith Christian winning and #3 Lake Highland Prep finishing second. However, it might’ve been St. Joseph Regional that stood out the most with its third-place team finish (159.5 points), beating squads like #7 Malvern Prep and #10 St. Edward while not even at full strength. 

Despite having to persevere through a number of injuries, illnesses and transfer-rule suspensions in the first half of the season – which caused them to tumble from pre-season #7 to #36 just last week – St. Joseph Regional is trending up at the right time with a number of its top guys set to return to the lineup. With its impressive showing at Escape the Rock, St. Joseph Regional moved up 13 spots this week in the Flo 40 to #23. 

“Seeing where we finished, I was pretty happy. I thought that if we came with a full team, we could have been fighting for second place,” coach Tom Farinaro said in a phone interview on Wednesday. “I felt really good about how the guys competed. It was a good weekend for us. Going into the back half of your season, you always want to see your guys start to get that momentum.”

The rash of injuries and illness isn’t limited to the following names, but here are the most notable:

Returning state champion Zach Ballante is out for the season after having labrum surgery. Ballante was ranked #17 earlier in the season at 150 pounds.

Three-time state qualifier Jimmy Sloan is also out for the season as well, according to Farinaro.

At 138, #11 Adrian DeJesus has been out since suffering a head injury at Beast of the East, but Farinaro is hopeful he returns in the next couple days once he’s cleared by the doctor.

Kaleb Jackson returned from a shoulder injury this weekend at Escape the Rock and finished fifth at 190 pounds, entering the rankings at #19 this week.

“It’s just one after another after another,” Farinaro said. “It’s just one of those years where things just happen.”

In addition to the guys coming back from injury, the Green Knights will also welcome a pair of transfers to the lineup for a dual tonight – #5 Anthony Harris (a transfer from St. Joe’s Montvale) at 215, and Ryan Mitchell at 144. 

At Escape the Rock, the Green Knights had a pair of champions – #3 JoJo Burke won at 107, and #3 Ryan Burton came out on top at 175. Burke beat then-#3 Justin Farnsworth of Malvern Prep by major 13-4 in the final, while Burton teched his way to the final where he beat #5 Asher Cunningham of State College for the second time this season, this time by 6-1 decision.

“When he’s on the mat, he’s a fierce competitor,” Farinaro said of Burke. “(Burton is) fun to watch. As hard as he wrestles in those matches, that's how he practices. He is steady – he has his routine. He’s the leader of this team. When we go to tournaments, he sets the pace for these kids for the young guys to follow, and that’s pretty cool.”

Two more guys who impressed their coach were #14 Christian Alvarez at heavyweight and Johnathon McGinty at 121. McGinty finished second, beating #8 (at 126) Gauge Botero of FCA 4-3 in the semifinal before falling to #8 Paul Kenny of Christian Brothers Academy 5-4 in the final. Coming in unranked, McGinty is now #8 in the country at 120 pounds. 

“Sometimes when kids lose, they lose and you can see it,” Farinaro said. “He lost, but he came off the mat and he took something from that match and you can see it. He’s got a little confidence knowing that he can wrestle with him. Maybe the next time it’s a one-point win for us.”

As for Alvarez, the big man is a junior who’s been sitting behind elite guys for a couple years – Jimmy Mullen as a freshman and Rocco Dellagatta as a sophomore. Mullen is now at Virginia Tech, while Dellagatta is going to Cornell. At Escape the Rock, Alvarez finished third with his only loss a 4-2 decision to #9 Mark Effendian.

“I knew what we had, but no one else did,” Farinaro said. “We get him down to the Beast of the East tournament and he takes second, right? They say, ‘Where did this guy come from?’ I said, ‘We’ve had him for three years, I know exactly where he came from. He sat behind two of the best guys in the country before he could start.’”

Back to Escape the Rock, team champions Faith Christian (221 points) had two individual champs out of five finalists – #1 Fred Bachmann at 114 and #3 Adam Waters at 189.

Runner-up finisher Lake Highland Prep (199 points) had one champion with #8 Jacob Levy winning at heavyweight. They had three guys finish second and four more take third, giving them eight total placers.

Top Programs in Dual Matchups

There were a number of big-time duals that went down over the past couple weeks, so let’s take a look at the biggest ones:

On January 8, #2 Bishop McCort took on #4 Wyoming Seminary and put the match away early, winning eight of the first nine weights on the way to a 37-17 win. Starting at 106, #13 Keegan Bassett used an early head-lock throw to get the 12-4 major decision over #16 Wyatt Stauffer. 

McCort’s #10 Sam Herring downed #7 (at 132) Matthew Botello in a tight 1-0 decision at 138 pounds, and #1 Bo Bassett put up a tech fall at 150. In the match of the night at 157, McCort’s #7 Devon Magro and #8 Vince Bouzakis had a wild one that ended in tiebreakers with Magro edging out Bouzakis 14-13, pushing the Crushers’ lead to 28-4.

Making a bump up in weight for Bishop McCort was #1 (at 165) Melvin Miller, who moved up to 175 where he won via 20-9 major decision over Brian Chamberlain.

Wyoming Seminary got a win at 165 with a major decision by Jack Chamberlain before #1 Jude Correa scored a fall at 215, and Anderson Palian earned a decision win at heavyweight.

Wyoming Seminary went on to bounce back in a dual against #9 Blair Academy. After a Wyoming Sem win at 106, Blair won two matches with bonus points before taking a forfeit at 126 with #2 Nate Desmond still out for Sem. At 120, Blair saw the return to the mat of #1 Leo DeLuca, who earned a 19-4 tech fall.

After that it was almost all Wyoming Sem, winning five straight with four tacking on bonus points – #7 Botello won 16-4 by major at 138, #15 Anthony Evanitsky won 18-2 at 150, and #8 Bouzakis earned a 19-2 tech at 157.

At 175 pounds, #2 William Henckel got Blair back on the scoreboard with a pin, but Wyoming Sem won the final three bouts, including a forfeit at 215 to Correa, for the 39-21 final.

Two of the best teams in the country went down to Orlando to take on #3 Lake Highland Prep in a triangular – #9 Blair and #14 St. Edward.

Lake Highland held serve in this one, downing both Blair (38-25) and St. Edward (45-17). Blair downed St. Edward 38-18 as well.

In the final dual between LHP and Blair, Blair jumped out to a 19-0 dual lead by winning the first five weights, including techs at both 106 and 120. 

Lake Highland went on to earn bonus points in every match from 138 to 165, taking the lead 23-19. Blair took it right back at 175 when #2 William Henckel got the pinfall, but LHP won the final three bouts for the comeback 38-25 win.

Top California Squads at Five Counties

The West Coast had its own big event this past weekend with Five Counties going down in Fountain Valley, Calif. Featuring a number of the top teams in the country, #6 Buchanan (291 points) earned a narrow win over #7 St. John Bosco (284.5). #19 Gilroy took third with 258 points.

Fresh off a Doc B title, Buchanan had two champs with both Rocklin Zinkin at 120 and #16 Leo Contino at 157. Buchanan had six total finalists.

St. John Bosco had three champions out of six finalists – Jorge Rios at 106, #10 Nathan Carrillo at 126, and Michael Romero at 144. 

Gilroy paced the field with four individual champions out of five finalists. At 150, #1 Daniel Zepeda got a pin in the final, while #5 Moses Mendoza got the 16-1 tech over #6 Ashton Besmer in the final at 132 pounds. At 138, #13 Elijah Cortez won a title, and #19 Travis Grace won at 165. Finishing second was #11 Isaiah Cortez at 126, falling to #10 Nathan Carillo of Bosco 6-5 in the final.

Edmond North and Stillwater Battle at COAC

Two of the best teams that aren’t located in a coastal state competed at the Central Oklahoma Athletic Conference Tournament – #12 Edmond North and #13 Stillwater.

Edmond North scored 315.5 points to narrowly beat out Stillwater’s 305.5 team points. Both teams had nine finalists with six finals matches against each other.

In head-to-heads, Stillwater won the first two at 113 and 120 before Edmond North won at 126. They then split finals at 132 and 138 with Stillwater’s Stockton Allen getting the pin in just eight seconds at 132. In the final match between these two, #9 Joseph Jeter of Edmond North won a 6-1 decision over #10 Ishmael Guerrero at 157, splitting the teams’ finals matches 3-3.

The difference essentially came down to the fact that Edmond North had one more placer with 12 to Stillwater’s 11.