Tyler Knox had one piece of unfinished enterprise to take over earlier than handing in his St. John’s Prep singlet.
Wrestling in his closing match as a member of the Eagles, the Stanford-bound Knox capped off a dominant run to his second National High School Wrestling championship by defeating Jacob Brenneman of Virginia, 11-0, within the 132-pound closing at Virginia Beach. Knox received 4 of his matches with out conceding a degree, whereas pinning the opposite two opponents.
“I haven’t wrestled a competitive tournament in two to three months, so I wanted to show the country everything I’ve been working on,” Knox mentioned. “I was talking to the Central Catholic wrestler (Nate Blanchette, who won the 170 Junior National title) during breakfast and talking about how this was last match as a St. John’s Prep wrestler, so I wanted to take it all in.”
“Knoxie is just unreal, two years in a row coming down here and winning the tournament,” St. John’s Prep coach Manny Costa mentioned. “It’s just unreal how superior he is in all three positions, he just has so much confidence in his ability.”
Knox was considered one of three St. John’s Prep wrestlers to earn All-American honors. Rawson Iwanicki took third at 152 kilos by defeating Keagan Judd of Stephens City, Virginia, 7-4. Alex Schaeublin positioned seventh at 113 kilos with a 5-1 win over Brockton’s Brandon Winn.
“I am just so proud of my guys. We have 11 competing and eight of them won two or more matches,” Costa mentioned. “Alex took a seventh to become an All-American which was great for the family, he wrestled great all three days. Rawson is Rawson, he had a pretty dominant tournament. He lost a tough match in the semifinals, then rebounded nicely in the consolations to beat the top-seed for third.”
Other seniors to complete within the high eight on the Senior Nationals included Matthew Walsh of Bedford/Acton-Boxboro (fourth at 182). Rafael Knapp of Algonquin (fifth at 170) and a pair of Belmont Hill wrestlers, Alexander Gavronsky (seventh at 160) and Haden Bottiglieri (eighth at 182).
Chelmsford sophomore Thomas Brown is properly on his option to turning into the best heavyweight wrestler in state historical past. Brown capped off a terrific three-day run by overwhelming Lucas Steuerenberg of Ohio, 15-1, within the finals.
“Everyone who is here is a great wrestler and the kid I wrestled in the finals was fourth here last year,” Brown mentioned. “I came down here with the idea of taking it one match at a time and just focus on the first kid and go from there. I just wanted to do the things that I’m capable of doing and keep the pace up.”
Another sophomore, Sidney Tildsley of Shawsheen superior to the finals at 126 kilos earlier than dropping to top-seeded Billy Dekraker of Blairtown, New Jersey, 5-1.
The aforementioned Blanchette defeated Omer Barak of Florida 14-6 to cart residence the 170-pound Junior National title. Blanchette pinned 5 of his seven opponents and received the opposite two matches by majority resolution. One of these pins was over extremely touted Gage Wright of Parkersburg South (West Viriginia) within the semifinals.
“I feel like when I get my flow going, I can beat anyone,” Blanchette mentioned. “The kid I beat in the semifinals was ranked 13th in the country so it was good to beat him.”
Two different Bay State wrestlers fared properly within the Junior Nationals. Brent Nicolosi of Haverhill took a 3rd at 152 with a 3-2 win over Dane Steel of Sheridan, Wyoming. Dominic Gangi of Methuen positioned seventh at 106 kilos.
A pair of freshmen from the Merrimack Valley Conference fared properly within the Freshmen Nationals. Matthew Harrold of Haverhill pinned Luke Sheldon of Grundy, Virginia in 1:14 to take fifth at 220 kilos, whereas Andover’s Yandel Morales was sixth at 106 kilos.
On the ladies facet, former Shawsheen standout Tayla Tildsley, now wrestling at Phillips Andover, positioned second at 145 kilos. Scituate’s Sara McLaughin was third at 114 kilos, Middleboro’s Ayla Goodman was fifth at 145 and Lindsay Laws of Silver Lake was sixth at 165.
Source: www.bostonherald.com