USA Senior Nationals Preview: Men's Freestyle
Photo by G Fiume/Maryland Terrapins/Getty Images
This is the third and final installment of our Senior Nationals previews. The Greco-Roman and women’s freestyle previews are out already; today is men’s freestyle. This preview will be longer than the others, both because the fields are much larger and deeper and because the seeds have been released, meaning I can look closer and specific matchups.
The Out of the Woodwork award goes to Rick Durso. He was a good college wrestler from Franklin & Marshall, one of the smallest NCAA Division I programs, and in 2016 became the program’s first All-American since the early 1980s. After his college career he began coaching at a high school in Pennsylvania. He made a surprise return to competition last month at the NLWC on Rokfin event; even more surprisingly, he dominated Malik Amine 10-0. He’s also wrestling at 74 kg, up 22 lbs from his college weight of 141. He’s listed as a member of the Penn RTC, home of wrestlers like Joey McKenna and Mark Hall, and hopefully he’s serious about a comeback that lasts beyond this year.
57 kg
Things start out with a fun weight with some senior-level veterans and emergent college wrestlers. The top seed is junior world silver Vitali Arujau, who is entering his sophomore season at Cornell. He withdrew from his Beat the Streets match with Jack Mueller a few weeks ago due to injury, but it sounds like he’s good to go now. Darian Cruz, famous for his upset win over Thomas Gilman in 2017 is the two-seed. Number three is Zane Richards, one of my favorite wrestlers. Frank Perelli and Jack Mueller are the 4 and 5 and should meet in the quarters. Some interesting names in the rest of the bracket are Jakob Comacho, who finished his freshman season at NC State, with a win over Mueller in the ACC finals and is constantly getting to his opponents’ legs, and Jack Medley from Michigan.
I expect the seeds to hold until the quarters, where Mueller defeats a slightly long-in-the-tooth Perelli. In the semis, I’ll take Arujau over Mueller like I did in my initial Beat the Streets picks, and Richards to beat Cruz like he did at 2019 World Team Trials. The consolation round should have great competition, but I like Cruz to rebound for third. Richards has a win over Arujau as well, but Vito seemed to be controlling the ties in that match and he’s only gotten better since. He’s my pick to win this weight.
Picks: Arujau, Richards, Cruz
65 kg
This weight class is stacked with talent, as evidenced by the organizers’ decision to seed the field all the way to number 16. At the top is Joey McKenna, runner-up in last year’s Senior Nationals behind Jordan Oliver. To make it there he knocked off Yianni Diakomihalis, who missed the 2019 world team by the smallest of margin. After McKenna, there’s a huge number of guys who could all plausibly beat one another. It starts with two-seed Jaydin Eierman, an elite talent who is alternately thrilling and infuriating to watch. One of the more notable names is four-seed Andy Simmons, an old timer who made a comeback in 2018 that ended in a competitive match with Eierman for a national team spot. He stepped away from competition again after that year, but is apparently back for more. Andrew Alirez, seeded ninth, had impressive senior-level results while still in high school but didn’t fully blossom during his freshman season last year at Northern Colorado; he’ll have something to prove against the established guys here. The eleven seed is Luke Pletcher, who broke out last season as a senior at Ohio State and beat the likes of Nick Lee and has a win over Eierman.
Looking at the bracket, I expect McKenna to take care of business until the final, while the bottom half of the bracket could get wild. I’ll take Pletcher to run the gauntlet of Dean Heil, Evan Henderson, and Eierman to earn his spot against McKenna. The backside will be a bloodbath, but I like Eierman to come out on top. In the final, a battle of former Ohio State teammates, I think McKenna is too difficult to get out of position for Pletcher to score much and will win comfortably. Keep in mind, this is the weight where predictions are most likely to go wrong.
Picks: McKenna, Pletcher, Eierman
74 kg
This is another very strong weight, although it doesn’t extend as far down the list. Instead, I think there’s a clear top 6 and then a large group chasing them. The first seed is Logan Massa, who was a surprise winner of 2019 Senior Nationals. He’s followed by his college rivals Evan Wick and Anthony Valencia, who both also performed well at last year’s tournament and qualified for the Olympic Trials. The four and five are Ryan Deakin and David Carr, respectively, who both wrestled down at 157 in college last season. Finally, the six seed is U23 world team member Hayden Hidlay. The rest of the field includes some really good wrestlers, like Dan Vallimont, Joey Lavallee, and Rick Durso; I just don’t see any of them challenging for a top three spot.
In the quarters, I like Valencia over Hidlay, especially since Hidlay has turned away from his underhook and pressure game in the last couple years. I’m also taking Ryan Deakin to repeat his win over David Carr from the college season. In the semis, I think Valencia matches up well with Wick; he blows straight through people on his shots, negating Wick’s single leg defense. On the other semi, I think Massa is able to get it done against Deakin, because Deakin doesn’t have the pace or pressure game that really give Massa problems. In the final, I think Massa will continue his dominance over Valencia. On the backside, I’m taking Hidlay to finish as the best of the rest.
Picks: Massa, Valencia, Hidlay
86 kg
This biggest story at this weight is Gabe Dean, a two-time NCAA champ and current coach at Cornell, coming out of retirement. I was surprised to see him given the number two seed, given that his best freestyle result was 7th place at the US Open back in 2017, but based on reputation he’s definitely one of the top guys at this weight. The number one is Nate Jackson, who has one of the best double legs on the planet. Seeds three (Trent Hidlay) through twelve (Taylor Venz) aren’t separated by much, and I expect more than one early round upset. Two of the more interesting guys are Max Dean (Gabe’s younger brother) and David McFadden. Dean is a solid wrestler who pulled a massive upset in the 2019 NCAA semis over Myles Martin, only to fall short against Drew Foster (who is the five seed here). McFadden will be back down at 79 kg after the Olympics and is giving up size here, but he’s a high-volume shooter and his freestyle matches are always fun.
The challenge in picking this weight class comes from assessing Gabe Dean. As we’ve seen on the exhibition cards over the past few months, athletes coming out of retirement tend to have a hard time getting to their attacks and imposing the type of match they want. Dean’s collegiate success has somewhat overshadowed the fact that he didn’t do all that well in freestyle, and actually helped Pat Downey take off by losing to him. On the other hand, I don’t think he was fully healthy at that point in time, and in college he was a clear step ahead of the guys in this field. I think he matches up well with Trent Hidlay, since he’ll have a strength and physicality advantage and Hidlay tries to push people around with underhooks. On the other side, Jackson will most likely have Brett Pfarr in the semis; he’s won two very close matches over Pfarr in the past, and I like his chances to do it again here. In the final, Jackson could blow him out of the water, but he isn’t the type of scrambler that gives Dean trouble. It appears that I have talked myself into reluctantly picking Gabe Dean. On the backside, Trent Hidlay is a tough matchup for guys like Pfarr and McFadden.
Picks: G. Dean, Jackson, Hidlay
97 kg
The biggest news on registration deadline day was that Kyle Snyder, five-time world and Olympic medalist and three-time champion, had thrown his hat into the ring. He’s the prohibitive favorite, but the fight for the other spots on the medal stand should be fierce. The second seed is Hayden Zillmer, who was a world team trials finalist in Greco a few years ago before switching to freestyle. Next is Kollin Moore, Snyder’s former Ohio State teammate, who is one of the best leg attackers at the upper weights in the country. Kyven Gadson, Ben Honis, and Ty Walz are all proven on the senior level as well. One of the more interesting names is Nick Reenan, who made Final X back in 2018 as a college sophomore but has struggled with injuries ever since. Lucas Davison and Nino Bonaccorsi are still in college and probably don’t have the handfighting ability they would need to be to knock off the top guys, but they both shoot a lot and put on fun matches.
I think the seeds hold until the semis, where Kollin Moore and Hayden Zillmer will continue their rivalry. Zillmer has won every encounter so far, but Moore has continued to close the gap, and I think this time he finally breaks through. I also expect Snyder to win yet again over Gadson–no Polish throw this time. Snyder will beat Moore and add to his trophy case, but the real drama will be in the consolations. Ty Walz beat Gadson last time out and I think he’ll out-perform his seed, but Zillmer matches up well with him and should be able to take third.
Picks: Snyder, Moore, Zillmer
125 kg
This weight doesn’t many established senior-level wrestlers, apart from top seed Dom Bradley. Instead, it’s full of college wrestlers and recent graduates trying to establish themselves on the freestyle circuit. Junior world champion Mason Parris leads the pack, and he’s still making serious strides. His Cliff Keen Wrestling Club teammate Youssif Hemida is the three seed and will be looking to get over his loss to Greg Kerkvliet last month. Tate Orndorff, who recently transferred from Utah Valley to Ohio State, and Trent Hillger are big names in college looking to emerge on the senior level. Derek White is all the way down at number nine, but he was an NCAA runner-up in 2019 and beat a few guys seeded above him.
The three-six and four-five quarters could go either way. Hemida and Hillger split matches in college, as did Tanner Hall and Tate Ornorff. In both cases, I’m going with the younger guy to win the next round, which is Hillger and Orndorff. It doesn’t matter too much, though, since I expect Bradley and Parris to cruise into the final. There, I’ll take Bradley, though it’s a very good test to see how Parris stacks up on the senior level. Derek White has a bad seed because he did poorly at 2019 Senior Nationals down at 97 kg; I don’t know if he’s back up at heavyweight full time or just for this tournament, but I actually like his chances to get third.
Picks: Bradley, Parris, White